CubaPLUS Magazine

The cult or religion known as Voodoo is estimated to have arrived in Cuba from Haiti, carried by slaves of African origin, brought from that nation by their masters, owners of coffee plantations built mainly on the easternmost slope -Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo- of the imposing Sierra Maestra.   Those unhappy captives, in turn, had brought her in their cosmogony from distant Africa, on the impious journey of slavery. It is believed that the cult, which began to syncretize with the Catholic creed to some extent and began to flourish in Haiti around 1724.    Its entrance to the Cuban coasts is estimated at the end of that century, after the independence of the neighboring Antillean island. This belief is perhaps the most surrounded by mystery and suspicion within our nation, perhaps due to its later arrival and carried by foreigners, with customs different from those of the Creoles, and with assumptions based on the central figure of a snake, which reverence to various entities or spirits linked to everyday life.   Distrust with what they now call "otherness" has always existed everywhere. It is clear that the attitudes of certain people to whom we refer are only part of the imaginary of certain sectors and do not represent a foundation for the official policy that is followed in the country of respect for the freedom of belief and religious practice of the Cuban population. And the specialists would be the ones qualified to give an opinion on which would be the most popular or widespread of all the nutrient religions of the national within that subject.   Along with creeds such as the Regla Conga or Regla de Palo Monte, voodoo is recognized, all of African origin, as are spiritualism, Catholicism and other variants of Christianity. They say that at the beginning of the 20th century, Voodoo had already crossed into Louisiana carried by characters similar to those who brought it to Cuba: the stampeding emigration of coffee potentates and their slaves, mostly with cultures from Dahomey and Togo in Africa.   Experts affirm that it is a very ancient religion today revered by some 80 million people in the world and it is in full swing. With a large number of deities and a side considered dark by certain secret practices and so-called demonic possessions, it is also associated with black magic, hence the distance that certain people mark between themselves and the adoption of that cult.   Call it caution, respect, rejection, or prejudice, all of this is also caused by its mysteries, although those who have surrendered to the fascination of the unknown and seek ways to acquire more information to make sound judgments. In short, in every creed there is mystery and enigmas to be deciphered.