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This arts-based research project focused on four specific communities: the Ewe communities of Dzodze, Ghana; Adjodogou, Togo; and the Arar谩 legacy rich communities of Perico and Agramonte, Cuba, Matanzas Province.

Former enslaved Africans and their descendants who eventually settled in the Perico area, were enslaved primarily at a sugar mill called Espa帽a now largely abandoned and located about 5 km outside Perico. Those who settled in the Agramonte area were enslaved at a near-by sugar mill called Uni贸n Fern谩ndez which is now in ruins.

For Ewe and Fon people brought to Cuba as enslaved Africans, their religious musical and dance expressions were their identities as a people dislocated from Africa under the weight of slavery. In Cuba, they continued their religious practices to the best of their ability.

Thus, Arar谩 ritual practices have many shared attributes with Ewe ritual practices, primarily with those known as the Anlo-Ewe found largely in Southeastern Ghana and Southwestern Togo.

However, Arar谩 is its own reinvention of the Ewe and Fon religious expressions as the people who practiced them endured slavery and later worked together to rebuild a sense of life in Cuba.

Dancing at the Aw谩n Ceremony, image by Brian Jeffery

Arar谩 as a religious expression in Cuba did not adopt a homogenous form across the Matanzas province any more than there are homogenous religious forms across the Ewe and Fon areas of West Africa. The Ewe and Fon peoples had (and still have) multiple variations of music and dance-making (Avorgbedor 2005) along with diverse deities from their respective West African communities. However, there are common and shared attributes across the breadth of the diverse Ewe and Fon music, dance, and ritual traditions.

These shared attributes and diversities met each other in multiple Cuban locations across the Matanzas province. As peoples were isolated in individual forced labor communities, Arar谩 evolved differently at each site.

But across the breadth of Arar谩 traditions, there are also clear shared attributes. These shared attributes include deities, often with slightly different names, and their physical representations imbued by these deities, known as fodunes or fundamentos (Daniel 2005; Fern谩ndez Mart铆nez 2005). Shared attributes of these Cuban Arar谩 deities and fundamentos can be discerned between the Ewe and Fon vodu deities and their imbued forms, along with aesthetic similarities in dances, rhythms, and ritual practices.

A key component to this research, in addition to the years of work in Ghana and Togo, was the extensive body of oral history interviews conducted in Perico and Agramonte primarily between 2006-2018. Interviews conducted with elders in both locations revealed rich oral histories. But through each interview runs a shared theme of transformation and retention, pride in African roots, remembered stories about relatives who were enslaved, and insistence on objects arriving "directly from" Africa.

Perico

Streets of Perico, image by Susan Matthews

In general, Perico, located in the Matanzas province, Cuba, was first a municipality that was founded as railroad lines were extended into the area from C谩rdenas in the mid 1800s. In 1863, the sugar mill Espa帽a was officially registered upon production of its first sugar harvest in the Perico municipality and by 1868 all the acquired plots of land of Juli谩n de Zulueta y Amondo, owner of Espa帽a, belonged to the municipality of Perico. According to residents in Perico and documents located in the Perico鈥檚 municipal museum, the first Arar谩 settlement was registered in 1863, although the enslaved most likely arrived around 1861. The majority of the enslaved peoples who labored at Espa帽a were brought from West Africa mainly from the former Kingdom of Dahomey (present day Benin and parts of Togo, West Africa).

Streets of Perico, image by Susan Matthews

Perico, as a town today, is where freed Africans from Espa帽a were eventually re-settled. Evocative elder oral history stories illuminate its growth and the rise of its Arar谩 ritual practice. Many of these stories can be found on Susan Matthews' page. These manuscripts are all based on the interviews conducted in Perico by the research team of Jill Flanders Crosby, Melba N煤帽ez Isalbe, and Roberto Pedroso Garc铆a between 2005 and 2010. Of these stories, Ma Florentina's story is perhaps the most legendary and well known.

As well, Perico is well-known for the stories of Armando Zulueta who had a strong and important San L谩zaro, and the annual aw谩n still held every December 18.

Sociedad Africana under renovation in 2006, image by Susan Matthews

Agramonte

In Agramonte, a half an hour drive from Perico where stories of Perico Arar谩 elders are known and shared in Agramonte and vice versa, African roots are as resonant as in Perico. The ruins of Uni贸n Fern谩ndez, located outside of Agramonte, once housed a sugar operation. Many enslaved people who labored there eventually settled in nearby Agramonte. In December 2007, the research team all spent an afternoon in Agramonte, sitting on the porch of 93-year-old Hilario "Melao" Fern谩ndez Sosa as he narrated stories of Manuela Gose, popularly known as Ma Gose. According to oral history, she and another elder called Coso-Coso were both tricked into getting on board a slave ship and were brought to Cuba to work at Uni贸n Fern谩ndez. After her freedom, Ma Gose continued to live at the small batey (community) of Uni贸n de Fern谩ndez before moving to Agramonte.

Next, we went to the house in Agramonte that Ma Gose lived in and talked with Ma Gose's great-granddaughter Onelia Fern谩ndez Campos and her husband Israel Bar贸 Oru帽a. When Ma Gose came to Agramonte, they told us, she brought her fundamentos and established an African Society at her house sometime in the late 1800s. Unlike Perico, all the fundamentos that arrived in Agramonte as the formerly enslaved re-located from Uni贸n de Fern谩ndez, were not housed in Ma Gose's house. Rather the fundamentos stayed with the individuals who carried them to Agramonte. But interestingly, Israel and Onelia are adamant that Ma Gose's ritual necklaces, still located in her house, came with Ma Gose when she was transported as a slave. Israel says:

Dzodze

Inside Dashi Kemeh Nkegbe's Togbui Anyigbato shrine, images by Brian Jeffery

Adjodogou

Early in the establishment of Adjodogou鈥檚 market, it became a target of attacks by thieves. According to Solar, Foli was a strong and powerful man who fought off the pillagers. From him, the town earned its name - adjo meaning attack and dogou meaning nobody can come. There are several important shrines in in Adjodogou, one for Sakpata, one for Da, and one for Yewe.

The stories of all these communities can be found in the book Situated Narratives and Sacred Dance: Performing the Entangled Histories of Cuba and West Africa by Jill Flanders Crosby and JT Torres published 2021 by University Press of Florida. Also reference the following publications by Flanders Crosby and Torres:

Torres JT, and Jill Flanders Crosby. 2018. 鈥淭imeless Knowledge, Embodied Memory: The Performance of Stories in Ethnographic Research.鈥� Etnofoor 30(1): 41-56.

Crosby, Jill Flanders. 2010. "The Social Memory of Arar谩 in Cuba: Oral Histories from Perico and Agramonte." Southern Quarterly 47(4): 91-109:4.

Crosby, Jill Flanders. 2010. "Secrets Under the Skin: They Brought the Essence of Africa." In Making Caribbean Dance: Continuity and Creativity in Island Cultures Editor, Susana Sloat. University of Florida Press