Wemilere in Guanabacoa

Founded more than four centuries ago, the Villa de la Asuncion de Guanabacoa, a town on the outskirts of Havana, is revisited each spring by "Wemilere", the Festival of African Roots. In this eighth year of the 21st Century, the voluptuous sound of the bata drums mixes in the wind with the fast and rhythmic beat of conga drums and cowbells in this cradle of Afro Cuban religions in Cuba. It is the same beat, both sacred and profane, that has established an indissoluble link between men and spirits. The bata drum is the symbolic essence of this link on the island, and is the sound that reminds us of the anguish of captivity and segregationist cruelty of European colonization.

"Moforibale, Oloffi!" With this reverential salute to the supreme creator, the Wemilere, the Orishas' party, becomes an artistic representation of ancestral traditions that came from Africa with black slaves. Today, and for the past almost twenty years of celebrations, the Guanabacoan celebrants, of course in very different condition than their ancestors, recall the African languages, chants and dances for a singular ritual encounter that also gathers historians, intellectuals and folklorists.

The Wemilere embodies the fusion of Spain and Africa in an authentic display of Cuban nationality. In the homes of Guanabacoa, we see the syncretism of Catholic saints - remnants of the former Spanish rule - worshiped as one with Yoruba deities.