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Periodical article Periodical article
Title:Bongó Itá: leopard society music and language in West Africa, Western Cuba, and New York City
Author:Miller, Ivor L.ISNI
Year:2012
Periodical:African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal (ISSN 1752-8631)
Volume:5
Issue:1
Pages:85-103
Language:English
Geographic terms:West Africa
Nigeria
Cuba
United States
Subjects:music
language
arts
External link:https://doi.org/10.1080/17528631.2012.629437
Abstract:The Abakuá mutual-aid society of Cuba, recreated from the Ékpč leopard society of West Africa's Cross River basin, is a richly detailed example of African cultural transmission to the Americas. Its material culture, such as masquerades and drum construction, as well as rhythmic structures, are largely based on Ékpč models. Its ritual language is expressed through hundreds of chants that identify source regions and historical events; many can be interpreted by speakers of Čfěk, the pre-colonial lingua franca of the Cross River region (Miller 2005). With the help of both Ékpč and Abakuá leaders, I have examined relationships between the musical practices of West African Ékpč, Cuban Abakuá, as well as Cuban migrants to the United States whose commercial recordings have evoked West African places and events historically relevant to Abakuá, meanwhile contributing to the evolution of North American jazz.
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