There is entirely too many lies circulating the internet about the tradition informally called Palo Mayombe. The traditions proper name is Nkisi Malongo, which translates to sacred medicine in distant lands. This traditional religion that many falsely claim to be of Cuban origin is native to Central Africa, specifically what we know to be the Kongo dia Ntotila or precolonial Kongo. The K in Kongo is significant, when this traditional religion was brought to Cuba via slave trade there was no Congo. It was one large Kongo kingdom. Congo is what became of the kingdom after the Kongo kingdom was ravaged and had its sons and daughters stolen. People that practice traditional religions that came from the region would have learned these traditional religions from peoples that would have had no concept of the modern day Congo. This is why there is a distinction between Kongo and Congo.

Speaking of distinctions, the traditional religion we know today as one singular tradition religion was once a mass collective of traditions practiced in the region by different tribes. These are Bantu tribes which can be traced back to this region as early as roughly 4,000-5,000 years ago when the Bantu migration was believed to have taken place. This Bantu migration and its relation to Palo Mayombe is the migration of people from Southern West Africa into what would be modern day Congo and surrounding areas. There is also another group of people that we would consider ancestral to our religious beliefs, the Bushmen or as people have ignorantly called them “Pygmies”. The Bushmen are a staple of Palo Mayombe but in an underhanded manner. The main groups of Bushmen or “Pygmies” have inhabited the region as far back as 150,000 years and possibly longer. They also practiced traditions that relayed back to become what is modern day Palo Mayombe.

The Mbuti (BaMbuti), Mbenga (BaMbenga) and Twa (BaTwa) are the three main groups of “Pygmies” that inhabited this region. These groups had subgroups, showing that these people were not just small tribes of people but a whole ethnic group. The Mbuti had smaller ethnic groups named Sua and Efe. The Mbenga also had its own smaller ethnic groups of Aka, Gyele and Bongo. The Twa were widely scattered and can only be understood if you breakdown the subgroups by regions. There were Great Lakes Twa, Lake Tumba Twa, Kasai Twa and Luvua Twa. These people did have shamanic practices that are known to the modern world. For example, BaMbuti had shamanism that was deeply rooted in the concept of the forest being more than just a home, but a loving father/mother that protected them. When someone would die, the funeral rites would include playing music to wake the forest because it has surely fallen asleep and allowed one of its children to be taken.

Enter Bantu migration. West Africa has their own traditional religions, this is not the focus of the article so I will not elaborate too deeply on this subject. The point of the statement is to make clear that Oricha traditions did originate from this region and so many people accredit Palo Mayombe to Oricha-based traditions, which is factually incorrect. These migrations were not simple trade routes, they were permanent departures. When Bantu people arrived in the Kongo region, there were already Bushmen or “Pygmy” people in the region. It is unclear how the Bushmen traditions became a staple for some of these Bantu people but there is modern day enslavement of these Bushmen by Bantu people and many theories have been made. What we do know is that the traditional practice of these Bantu people in this region moved towards Ancestral/Spirit based shamanism in such a way that there is no known Oricha-based traditions in or from the region. In other words, the Kongo had no need or belief of the Oricha at all, even though some people might have migrated from regions where Oricha traditions may have been practiced.

How exactly do we know that these “Pygmy” people have anything to do with Palo Mayombe? Well there is plenty of distinctions that actually link our religious beliefs to their ancestry. The main one being our belief in Chichiriku, which were hostile “Pygmy” people that when bothered would turn to Cannibalism in order to scare away any would be intruders. This was an observed and documented behavior of many of the Bushmen tribes. There are also too many similarities in what we know as funeral rites within Palo Mayombe and what the BaMbuti practice as funeral rites (Molimo). The final clue and smoking gun is our inter connectivity with another traditional religion that is also Kongo based, but is even more guarded than Palo Mayombe, Abakua. This traditional religion holds a very rough and strict moral code. Practitioners are limited by bloodline and so this tradition has historically never allowed anyone outside of Cubans. So how is this the smoking gun? The Twa people were commonly called BaTwa or AbaTwa. When you pronounce Abakua and AbaTwa correctly, you would understand.

Now that we have established that the tradition is its own entity with its own history and origins, extending back as far as 150,000 years ago, we can begin to draw the bigger picture. In modern days, our very ancestral people (Bushmen or “Pygmy” people) are widely enslaved, hunted and eaten as animals and are treated as lesser than by many of our other ancestral major Bantu groups that share regions with them. There is a lot of pain in the origins of Palo Mayombe, which some would have called Yimbula. In this original form, this shamanism was more about healing and helping the tribe and less about using spiritual traditions as weapons. Due to the long history of everyone in the world stepping on their necks, multiple rounds of slavery and being hunted like animals, when the enslaved people were brought to Cuba, they had enough. Their once peaceful traditional religions were evolved into a more militant geared weapon. The world will fear and respect them, by any means. There will be no regard for anything or anyone trespassing against their sovereign rights and their happiness.

Persecution was still a problem to be dealt with. We can make other tribes respect us, but how do we ensure the longevity and legacy of our traditional religion? This new world and their greed and lust for slavery has no end in sight. How does one combat something with no end? This is when several figureheads of different traditional religions entered into agreements to install all traditions on the enslaved, so that if even one slave survives, all of our traditional religions survive. This plan largely worked, the traditional religions not only survived slavery in the Americas, but they thrived. For the Kongo traditional religions, this victory came with a price that made it bittersweet. The other tribes would revert to trying to enslave and demonize our Kongo ancestry again. This is why you see people using such language as “Oricha traditions need to balance Kongo traditions”, “checks and balances”, “they’re the dark side of Santeria”, “In order to initiate into Lucumi you need Palo initiation first as a stepping stone”, and the notorious “Ifa says, you need to initiate into Palo”.

Oricha traditions have no say, have no authority, have no power, have no history, have no use and have no sovereign soil in the Kongo. They don’t get to check nothing, they don’t need to balance nothing and Ifa should never speak on a traditional religion that has nothing to do with it. Palo Mayombe or Nkisi Malongo is its own traditional religion, with its own checks and balances, with its own sovereign authorities and its own divination systems. Will you participate in this aggression and attempts to enslave us, or will you stand behind us?