Thursday, November 11, 2010

“Presence and significance of Èkpé and Abakuá societies in Cuba and America”

Below is a description, both in english and spanish, of the Colloquium, it's purpose, and the topics that will be addressed.

The organizing committee of the IV International Colloquium about Research in Afro-American Religions, through this circular invites all anthropologists, specialists, related researchers, scholars and religious persons, to participate in this event to be held in Havana, in the headquarters of the Cuban Institute of Anthropology, from May 25th to 28th next year.

Once again, it seeks to consolidate a space for exchanging knowledge and experiences on research and studies that have as its focus the diversity of religious forms, religions and cultural modes of recorded African history in America as a result of the colonial process. This time it will focus the discussion to the presence and meanings of traditional religious societies of southern Nigeria, Calabar region, that evolved in the semi-secret and religious groups called Abakuá in Cuba. The cultural influence of these societies in the American context as a result of successive migrations to different latitudes, will receive attention in the event as a way to establish the concepts that allow from these "societies" the development of human being-nature biopsychosocial equilibrium.

It is an opportunity to constitute several spaces for reflection and debate among scholars and researchers of the intangible and material cultural heritage contained in religions and in the cultural practice of the religious person with these beliefs.

It will also allow to initiate dialogical approaches on the religious cultural practice that it’s developing today in different latitudes under the Caribbean and Latin American influence, to encourage integration frameworks at the level of the regional area we live in, convinced that the development of cognitive abilities in this area may become a strategic point for the delineation of an integrating policy and of own nature from the Latin American cultural geography. That also is the reason why in the IV Symposium will be formed the Regional Group of Afro-American Religious Studies (GRERA) attached to the Cuban Institute of Anthropology


Thematic Categories:

1. Notions of the religious societies Egbe of Calabar and Abakuá in Cuba. Their ties with other Afro-American Religions. Major trends and approaches.
2. Experiences in the recognition of Afro-American cultural practices. Major problems and trends in the vision of Africa.
3. Scientific research applied to the study of African-American immaterial and tangible cultural heritage. The Afro-American culture and its reflection on the praxis of Science and Culture.
4. Education and training for the preservation and rescue of the Afro-American Cultural Heritage.
5. Environment in the Afro-American cultural practice. Practical problems. Education for cultural praxis.
6. Afro-American Cultural History. Main research topics. Image of the African descent and social problems that it entails.
7. African-American culture and sociocultural resistance. Contemporary ethnographic studies.
8. The African Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean.
9. Transnationalization and dissemination of Afro-American religions. Study cases in situational anthropology.

As part of the activities scheduled for the IV International Colloquium on Afro-American Religions Research there will be held:

1. Constituent meeting of the Regional Group of Afro-American Religious Studies (GRERA) attached to the Cuban Institute of Anthropology
2. Ethnographic audiovisual presentation on secret Abakuá societies in Cuba made by the Group of Afro-American Religions of the Cuban Institute of Anthropology.
3. Presentation of the photographic exhibition "Images of Abakuá" by Dr. Miguel Ángel García Velazco.

Sponsors:
- Cuban Institute of Anthropology.
- Social Science Council; Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment
- Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development.


Co-sponsors:
- Office of the Historian of Havana.
- UNESCO Regional Office for Culture in Latin America.
- Regional network of institutions and researchers of Afro-American religions.
- “Fernando Ortiz” Foundation.
- Africa House of the Office of the Historian of Havana.
- UNESCO Cuban National Commission.
- Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba.
- Swiss Cooperation for Development (COSUDE).
- Higher Studies School of Hotel Trade and Tourism.
- Embassy of the Republic of Nigeria.

El comité organizador del IV Coloquio Internacional sobre Investigaciones de las Religiones Afroamericanas, a través de esta circular invita a todos los antropólogos, especialistas, investigadores afines, estudiosos y religiosos, a participar en este evento que se realizará en La Ciudad de la Habana, en la sede del Instituto Cubano de Antropología, del 25 al 28 de mayo del próximo año.

Una vez más, se persigue consolidar un espacio para el intercambio de conocimientos y experiencias acerca de investigaciones y estudios que tienen como foco la diversidad de formas religiosas, religiones y modos culturales de antecedentes africanos registrados en América como consecuencia del proceso colonial. En esta oportunidad enfocaremos el debate hacia la presencia y significados de las sociedades tradicionales religiosas del sur de Nigeria, región del Calabar, que devinieron en las agrupaciones semisecretas y también religiosas denominadas Abakuá en Cuba. La influencia cultural de estas sociedades en el contexto americano como consecuencia de las sucesivas migraciones hacia diferentes latitudes, será objeto de atención en el evento a manera de establecer las nociones que permiten desde estas “sociedades” el desarrollo de un equilibrio biosicosocial ser humano-naturaleza.

Es una oportunidad para constituir diversos espacios para la reflexión y el debate entre estudiosos e investigadores del patrimonio cultural intangible y material contenido en las religiones y la praxis cultural del religioso de estas creencias.

Asimismo permitirá iniciar acercamientos dialógicos sobre la praxis cultural religiosa que se desarrolla actualmente en diferentes latitudes bajo el influjo caribeño y latinoamericano; propiciar marcos de integración a nivel del área regional en que vivimos, convencidos de que el desarrollo de capacidades cognoscitivas en esta área podrá constituirse en un punto estratégico para el trazado de una política integradora y de naturaleza propia desde la geografía cultural Latinoamericana. Esa además, es la razón por la cual en el marco del IV Coloquio se constituirá el Grupo Regional de Estudios sobre Religiones Afroamericanas (GRERA) adscrito al Instituto Cubano de Antropología

Contenidos Temáticos:

1. Nociones de las Sociedades religiosas Egbe del Calabar y Abakuá en Cuba. Sus vínculos con otras Religiones Afroamericanas. Principales tendencias y enfoques.
2. Experiencias en el reconocimiento de prácticas culturales afroamericanas. Principales problemas y tendencias en la visión sobre África.
3. La investigación científica aplicada al estudio del patrimonio cultural inmaterial y tangible afroamericano. La cultura afroamericana y su reflejo en la praxis de la Ciencia y la Cultura.
4. Educación y capacitación para la preservación y rescate del Patrimonio Cultural Afroamericano.
5. Medio Ambiente en la praxis cultural afroamericana. Problemas prácticos. Educación para la praxis cultural.
6. Historia de la Cultura Afroamericana. Principales temas de investigación. Imagen del afrodescendiente y problemas sociales que encierra.
7. La cultura afroamericana como resistencia sociocultural. Los estudios etnográficos contemporáneos.
8. La diáspora africana en América Latina y el Caribe.
9. Transnacionalización y difusión de las religiones afroamericanas. Casos de estudio en la antropología situacional.

Como parte de las actividades programadas en el IV Coloquio Internacional sobre Investigaciones de las Religiones Afroamericanas se realizarán:

1. Reunión de constitución del Grupo Regional de Estudios sobre Religiones Afroamericanas. (GRERA) adscrito al Instituto Cubano de Antropología.
2. Presentación de audiovisuales etnográficos sobre las sociedades secretas Abakuá en Cuba realizados por el Grupo de Religiones Afroamericanas del Instituto Cubano de Antropología.
3. Presentación de la muestra fotográfica “Imágenes del Abakuá” a cargo del Dr. Miguel Ángel García Velazco.
Auspician:
- Instituto Cubano de Antropología.
- Consejo de Ciencias Sociales del Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Medioambiente
- Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo.

Coauspician:
- Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad de la Habana.
- Oficina Regional de Cultura para América Latina de la UNESCO.
- Red Regional de Instituciones e investigadores de las religiones afroamericanas.
- Fundación “Fernando Ortiz”.
- Casa de África de la Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad de La Habana.
- Comisión Nacional Cubana de la UNESCO.
- Asociación Cultural Yoruba de Cuba.
- Cooperación Suiza para el Desarrollo (COSUDE).
- Escuela de Altos Estudios de Hotelería y Turismo.
- Embajada de la República de Nigeria.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Editors Pick on Descarga.com

EEcobio Enyenison
CD (Habana|Harlem 205976), Released 2009;
Editor's Pick:
Very Highly Recommended folkloric Abakuá release featuring Roman Diaz, Pedro Martinez, Angel Guerrero and guests. A rare album of its type, and continues where Cuba's Grupo Andabo's 1997 Enyenison Enkama 2 left off. Recorded in very high quality at the home of Roman Diaz and Pedro Martinez, NY, 2009. Those who are familiar with Ékpè and Abakuá hold this session in very high regard. The real deal. With Onel Mulet, Oriente Lopez, Ruben Rodriguez and many other noted musicians. Guests Steve Turre and Paquito D'Rivera. - BP

"...This recording by Proyecto Enyenisón Enkama is a brilliant effort to continue that conversation, using the same form in which both Ékpè and Abakuá have recorded their own histories: ritual phrases with symbolic rhythms. Members of Proyecto Enyenison Enkama have been leaders in the conversation with their African counterparts at each stage in the process, which certainly began before the first encounter in 2001. In 1997, the Havana rumba group Yoruba Andabo’s recording of ‘Enyenison Enkama 2’ (arranged and chanted by ‘Roman’ Díaz’) became the basis for the Brooklyn encounter; it included an historic chant evoking Efí Ebutón, the first Cuban lodge, that Nigerians interpreted as identifying ‘Obutong’, an important Calabar community. In 2000, Angel Guerrero led the creation of ‘Ibiono’ in Havana, the first full length CD devoted entirely to Abakuá ritual chanting that evoked historic lineages in Cuba and the foundation of Ékpè in Africa. Following this trajectory, in ‘Ecobio Enyenison’, Cuban Abakuá chant their history and proclaim their faith in their inherited traditions.

The phrases of each composition describe sacred geographies (maps) of West African source communities, as well as histories (epic deeds) of the African founders. By evoking these inherited chants, members of ‘Proyecto Enyenison Ekama’ praise their teachers, as well as all those Abakuá leaders of the past who maintained their faith in the teachings of those Carabalí migrants who established Abakuá. By chanting within the context of contemporary arrangements played by vanguard jazz musicians, they celebrate a cultural victory of continuity and evolution across time and space, as well as offer a vision of the expansion of their traditions into the future."

Dr. Ivor Miller
African Studies Center
Boston University
(DR, 2010-11-02)
Song titles include:
Eribo Eriboñe
Neri
Itia Fondova
Tumba Efo
Danza Ñañiga
Ekon Erima
Mariba Konkai
Beromo Ñampe
Isunekue
Iro Gañu
Musicians include:
Ramon Diaz Percussion
Pedro Martinez Percussion
Angel Guerrero Percussion
Onel Mulet Flauta, sax
Oriente Lopez Piano
Ariacne Trujillo Piano
Philbert Armenteros Lead vocal
Ruben Rodriguez Bass
Panagiotis Andreou Bass
Dennis Hernandez Trumpet
Eddie Venegas Violin, trombone
Willie Alvarez Trombone
Edmar Castañeda Harp
Alvaro Benavides Bass
Axel Tosca Piano
Category: Folkloric => Rumba And/Or Santeria/Lucumi
Shipping Value: 1
ORDER TL-24115.10 CD $16.98