page_title: Cuban carnival
section_title: From the 16th to the 18th century
hierarchical_section_title: Cuban carnival / From the 16th to the 18th century
caption_attribution_description: Español: Día de Reyes
context_page_description: The first African drums were heard in Cuba, since the 16th century, only during the celebration of certain feasts, such as the Día de Reyes and Carnestolendas or Carnival, because their use was restricted to some mutual aid societies, called "Cabildos de nación", where the slaves and their descendants were allowed to gather and practice their cultural and religious traditions.
  The music and dance of the Cuban Carnival was always very popular in Cuba, and has exerted an important influence in other genres of the Cuban music, such as the "Conga de Salón" and the "Mozambique" rhythm. the Cuban Conga has transcended the national fronteers to become one of the most famous and cherished genres of the Cuban music outside the country, like the well known Congas de Salón from the late 1930s and early 1940s Bim Bam Bum, from Rafael Hernández and Uno, dos y tres, from Rafael Ortiz, which at a later time was known in English as: One, two, three, Kick! Most recently, in 1985, the famous Conga from the Cuban-American group Miami Sound Machine, triggered a true frenzy in the US and all around the world.
context_section_description: The miscegenation between blacks and whites in Cuba began with the arrival to the Island of the first slave African women around 1550 but their cultures remained relatively independent one from the other for hundreds of years, because the slaves didn't have access to their Masters cultural traditions, and the Spanish people perceived the African culture as barbaric and primitive. The following description of a black slave's feast, included in a story from the "costumbrista" writer Francisco Baralt, evidence the negative image that the Spanish had toward the cultural manifestations of the Africans. 
  According to Baralt: "those (African) dances have such a weird aspect, because of the place, the time and the individuals that perform them, that even those who observe them every day receive an impression difficult to express: we don’t know if it is curiosity or disgust, if it repels or attract its primitive and savage character, that seem to put between this feasts and those of the white men the same distance that exists between the deluge and our times."
  The music from the African people that arrived to Cuba from Spain, or directly from Africa, was only allowed since the beginning of Colonial times, within certain mutual aid societies and religious fraternities which foundation dates from the 16th century. According to David H. Brown, those societies, called Cabildos, "provided aid in case of disease or death, celebrated masses for the souls of the death, collected funds for the liberation from slavery of its members, regularly organized dances and recreational activities during Sundays and Holidays, and sponsored masses, processions and Carnival dances (now called "comparsas") around the annual cycle of Catholic festivals"
  The Cabildos organized big street processions during Sundays, the celebration of Saints and some important Holidays, where their leaders and companions dressed with clothes appropriate for the royalty and high rank military, while those who participated in the processions and dances wear "feathered head pieces and African masks with horns and vegetal ornaments." The Three Kings Day, celebrated on January 6, during the Epiphany, was the most important of those festivities.
  Another important feast where the Cabildos participated was celebrated during the three days before "Ash Wednesday", which at a later time became the Carnestolendas or Carnival. In 1697, the Italian Gemeli Careri mentioned those celebrations: "… on Sunday, February 9th, the black and mulatoes, with picturesque apparels, formed  a gathering to have fun at the Carnival." According to Virtudes Feliú: "… This is the most ancient information about the traditional Havanese "comparsas", and it makes clear that, indeed, the blacks and mulatoes enjoyed themselves at the Carnestolendas that Hispanics and their descendants celebrated, wearing unusual clothes related to those feasts in a gathering that Careri called a "congregation", most probable because the term "comparsa" was not yet in use."
  We can assume that the musical instruments utilized in the old Cabildos were the African membranophones that were not utilized in the ritual celebrations, such as the bembé and yuka drums. In reference to the difference between the ritual African drums, that should only be played in religious ceremonies, and the secular drums, that may actually be played in public, Argelier León remarks: 
  "Differently from the ritual drums batá and iyesá, which were tuned with a tensor system in N…, the bembé drums could be tuned by applying heat, because they didn’t possess the ritual character of the consecrated drums."
  León also says that "…The bembé drums are varied, from those of a big size – more than a meter tall and of a cylindrical shape – to small drums made from containers. In certains areas of Cuba, the bembé drums are made from palm tree trunks, with just one nailed drumhead, and little more than half a meter tall…"
  The yuka ensemble was composed by three drums made from raw wooden trunks (called in size order: caja, mula and cachimbo) with hide drum-heads nail
caption: Three Kings Day. Print by Federico Miahle, 1855.
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