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Abstract
The Abakuá mutual-aid society of Cuba, recreated from the Ékpè 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 Ékpè models. Its ritual language is expressed through hundreds of chants that identify source regions and historical events; many can be interpreted by speakers of Èfìk, the pre-colonial lingua franca of the Cross River region (Miller 2005). With the help of both Ékpè and Abakuá leaders, I have examined relationships between the musical practices of West African Ékpè, 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.
Acknowledgments
Research for this essay was supported by a Rockefeller Resident Fellowship through the Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College Chicago 2005–2006; an extended Fulbright Grant to Nigeria (2009–2011); the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Professor James Epoke. Thanks also to Sunday Adaka, Nath Mayo Adediran, John Amira, Asuquo O. Anwana, ‘Etubom’ Bassey Ekpo Bassey, ‘Engineer’ Bassey Efiong Bassey, Ken Bilby, George Brandon, Jill Cutler, Cristóbal Díaz-Ayala, ‘Román’ Díaz, Mario ‘Chavalonga’ Dreke-Alfonso, Shannon Dudley, Chief Eso Archibong Eso, Professor Okon Essien, Dr Ako Essien-Eyo, Senator Bassey Ewa-Hanshaw, Raul A. Fernández, Samuel A. Floyd, Jr, Maxine Gordon, Angel Guerrero, Alexandre Jomaron, Gerhard Kubik, Robin Moore, Michael Gomez, Joseph Inikori, Victor Manfredi, Lynn Miller, Obong Bassey A. Nyong, Ntufam I. Ntui Erim Onongha, (Lt Col. Ret.) Ernesto ‘El Sambo’ Soto-Rodríguez, Robert Farris Thompson, Professor Eskor Toyo, and various Abakuá members who wish to remain anonymous.
Notes
1. Ékpè is the Èfìk term, Ngbè (or Mgbè) is Éjághám, and Obè is the term in Isangele (Usaghade/Usak-Edet); see Nicklin (Citation1991).
2. Rumba is a complex of poly-rhythmic percussive music with call and response singing, traditionally performed in black working-class Cuban communities. It was historically performed in private homes or the collective patios of tenements called ‘solares’. A key figure in the history of the rumba complex is Abakuá member Ignacio Piñeiro (1888–1969) founder of the ‘son’ group Septeto Nacional in 1927.
Pozo's recordings in New York City in 1947 are considered the first commercial recordings of solar-style rumba, that is, percussion with no horns. One of these, ‘Abasí’ is an Abakuá chant (see Martré and Méndez Citation1997, p. 60; Pujol Citation2001, pp. 59, 111; Sublette, personal communication, 27 August 2001). The term ‘rumba’ has been indiscriminately applied to all forms of Cuban popular music, including son, guaracha, and troubador songs. One writer claimed that the first rumba recordings were made in 1906 for Edison on two-minute cylinders, such as ‘La reina de la rumba’ (Ed-14154) and ‘Mamá Teresa’ (Reyes-Fortún Citation2000, p. 34). These, however, are not rumbas, but according to musicologist Cristobal Díaz Ayala (2002), ‘were called since the end of the nineteenth century ‘‘rumbitas’’ [little rumbas], which were really sones [in the son genre] played rapidly, accompanied with mono-rhythms, not poly-rhythms’ (see Carpentier 1989, p. 228).
3. Furthermore, in Èfìk, ‘iyak’ is fish (Goldie Citation1964 [1862], p. 142), and according to Abakuá mythology, a representation of Mother Nature that enabled the creation of the Ékpè society. For this reason, ‘iyá’ can be interpreted as ‘mother’ in Abakuá.
4. Mongo Santamaría (1917–2003) was born in Jesus Maria (Giro Citation2007 vol. 4, p. 132; Leymarie Citation2002, p. 195). He was not Abakuá, but many members of his extended family were. His uncle Roberto Izquierdo held the title Nkóboro of the Efó Kondó lodge of Havana. Izquierdo's son (Mongo's cousin), ‘Pello el Afrokan’, was a member of the same lodge, who created the Mozambique rhythm that raged in Cuba of the 1960s (Soto-Rodríguez, personal communication, 2006).
The track ‘Abacua Ecu Sagare’ was released in 1953, then re-released later in the decade. Silvestre Méndez arranged and performed the lead voice in ‘Abacua Ecu Sagare’ (see Fernández 2006, p. 92; Gerard Citation2001, pp. 41–42, 46; Martré and Méndez 1997, pp. 60–62).
Silvestre Méndez (b. 1921, Jesus María, d. 1997, Mexico), a rumba player and composer from the Havana barrio of Jesús María, was Chano Pozo's brother-in-law. An ‘ndisime’ (neophyte) of the lodge of his father, Ekerewá Momí, Méndez left for Mexico in 1945 and never returned. Méndez recorded the track ‘Ñáñigo’ for the LP Bembé Araguá; it seems to have been recorded in New York, 1957, for Victor: V-MKS-1361 (Díaz-Ayala 2002; Martré and Méndez 1997, p. 60).
5. Popular singer Justo Betancourt is an Obonékue of the Matanzas lodge Efí Guéremo (Guerrero, personal communication, 2007).
6. My recordings in the communities of Oban (Akamkpa L.G.A.), Abijang and Nsofan (Etung L.G.A.), and Calabar (in the Èfé Ékpè Éyò Émà – Ékórétònkó, as well as the Osam Mgbè Big Qua Town) were made under the direction of the local Ékpè title-holders inside their Ékpè halls.
7. In Cuba, ‘ita’ is one, whereas in Èfìk it means ‘three’. This difference has a mythological explanation according to Cuban sources: during the creation of the original Bongó in Usagaré, three brothers (representatives of three local groups) were consecrated to receive it, therefore becoming ‘one’ in their intentions and thoughts. In addition, an Ékpè chant used in Calabar uses the parallel phrase ‘èkòmò ìtá’:
Èkòmò ìtá, èkòmò ìnàng (three drums, four drums)
Èkòmò ósio mi ke ufòk ókosùk ké ánwá ékòmò
(One of the drums removes me from the house to outside). (Chief Eyo, personal communication, 2005).
Ita is also a personal name in Calabar, where a son is named after a father. By the third generation, a grandson would have three identical names, and use ‘Ita’ to mean ‘the third’. Thus in Calabar, Ékpè Ita (Ékpè the third), was the name of a musician whose recordings of Ékpè-styled compositions were examined during research for this essay (see ‘Ase’ – Traditional).