Knowra Afro-Cuban culture Afro-Cuban culture Afro-Cuban culture comprises traditions shaped by African ancestry and Cuban history, including religious practices, music, dance, food, and community life.
Cuban history : The history of Cuba, from Indigenous societies and Spanish colonization through independence and the modern republic. Colonization, slavery, and migration shaped the conditions in which Afro-Cuban traditions developed.
Santería : A Cuban religious tradition combining Yoruba-derived worship of orishas with Catholic imagery and other influences. It is among the best-known religious traditions shaped by Afro-Cuban history.
Cabildo de nación : A mutual-aid and cultural association formed by Africans and their descendants in colonial Cuba, often organized by shared origin. Cabildos helped communities maintain and adapt African traditions under colonial rule.
Fernando Ortiz : A Cuban anthropologist and ethnographer whose studies of Afro-Cuban religions and music influenced Cuban cultural scholarship. His writing helped establish Afro-Cuban traditions as subjects of sustained study.
Afrocubanismo : A Cuban cultural movement, especially prominent in the 1920s and 1930s, that drew on African heritage in art and literature. It made African-derived culture a visible subject of modern Cuban artistic expression.
Atlantic slave trade : The forced transportation of millions of Africans across the Atlantic, chiefly from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. It brought African peoples and cultural traditions to Cuba under conditions of enslavement.
Abakuá : A male fraternal society of Cuban origin with roots in the Ekpe associations of the Cross River region of West Africa. Its initiation, mutual aid, and ritual music form a distinctive Afro-Cuban institution.
Cuban abolition of slavery : The legal abolition of slavery in Cuba in 1886, following gradual emancipation measures. Emancipation transformed the social conditions under which Afro-Cuban communities sustained their traditions.
Lydia Cabrera : A Cuban writer and ethnographer known for documenting Afro-Cuban religious traditions and oral narratives. Her books preserve accounts of religious knowledge and storytelling in Cuba.
Afro-Cuban jazz : A jazz style combining Cuban rhythms and percussion with jazz harmony and improvisation. The style carries Afro-Cuban rhythmic practices into transnational jazz.
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