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Article: Palo Monte Mayombe and its influence on Cuban contemporary art.
- Article from:
- African Arts
- Article date:
- June 22, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 The Regents of the University of California. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The "rayados," those sworn into the Congo Reglas, as are the Lucumi [Yoruba] descendants and initiates in the cult of the Orishas, consider themselves united by a sacred bond of mystical kinship and, like them, speak and pray in their language.... A Mayombero friend of mine, his eyes filling with tears as he remembered the Congo mothers he had known in his childhood from the mill where he was born, sang for me the crib song that they were in the habit of singing to put their children to sleep:
Tata solele lembaka solembaka
Lune nene suati kuame
Munu sunga Nsambi lune lune.
Sleep, my little baby, so you can go to
heaven and give god -- Nsambi -- ...