Lydia Cabrera's "The Sacred Language of the Abakua" and its West African Sources

FAIN: RQ-230398-15

Smith College (Northampton, MA 01060-2916)
Patricia Gonzalez (Project Director: December 2014 to March 2022)

Preparation for an English translation of Cuban writer Lydia Cabrera’s (1899-1991) “La Lengua Sagrada de lost Nanigos” (The Sacred Language of the Abakua). (36 months)

We propose a scholarly English translation of La lengua sagrada de los Ñáñigos - Lydia Cabrera's study of the ritual language of the Cuban Abakua society. Researched in Havana and Matanzas from the late 1930s to 1960 and published in Spanish in Miami in 1988, the book is Cabrera's urgent call for her compatriots to know their African heritage. Although this monograph is the most substantive and critically supported document of the speech and customs of any diasporan group originating from the West African Cross River area, it remains inaccessible to English-speaking scholars including the very Nigerian and Cameroonian linguists most qualified to identify the sources and meanings of Abakua terms and practices. The Abakua example is also important to Americanists more generally, as it demonstrates the expansion of an African-derived identity into the wider population of European, Asian and Amer-Indian descendants, evolving from a racial/ethnic category into a cultural community.

Associated Products

Cross River Cultural Heritage: reports from home and from the African Diaspora (Web Resource)
Title: Cross River Cultural Heritage: reports from home and from the African Diaspora
Author: Ivor L. Miller
Abstract: An illustrated blog about the Calabar region of Nigeria, and the African Diaspora.
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://www.crossriverheritageafricandiaspora.com/
Primary URL Description: An illustrated blog about the Calabar region of Nigeria, and the African Diaspora.

The Sacred Language of the Abakuá (Article)
Title: The Sacred Language of the Abakuá
Author: Patricia Gonzalez
Author: Ivor Miller
Abstract: Twenty-page sample English translation of Lydia Cabrera’s La lengua sagrada de los Náñigos (1988), on pp. 124-141.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: http://www.afrohispanicreview.com/
Primary URL Description: Home page of the journal
Access Model: Open Access after two years
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Afro-Hispanic Review. V. 35, n. 2 (Fall 2017)
Publisher: Vanderbilt University

The Relationship Between Early Forms of Literacy in Old Calabar and Inherited Manuscripts of the Cuban Abakuá Society (Article)
Title: The Relationship Between Early Forms of Literacy in Old Calabar and Inherited Manuscripts of the Cuban Abakuá Society
Author: Ivor Miller
Abstract: On the relationship between Afro-Cuban and Old Calabar languages, pp. 162-196
Year: 2017
Primary URL: http://www.afrohispanicreview.com/
Primary URL Description: Journal home page
Access Model: Open access after two years
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: V. 35, n. 2 (Fall 2017)
Publisher: Vanderbilt University

The Ékpè ‘leopard’ society of Africa and Its Cuban Diaspora: A Conversation between Cultural Leaders (Article)
Title: The Ékpè ‘leopard’ society of Africa and Its Cuban Diaspora: A Conversation between Cultural Leaders
Author: Ivor Miller
Author: Mbe Tazi
Author: Angel Guerrero
Abstract: On cultural ties between secret societies in Africa and the African diaspora in Cuba, on pp. 142-161
Year: 2017
Primary URL: http://www.afrohispanicreview.com/
Primary URL Description: Journal homepage
Access Model: Open access after two years
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Afro-Hispanic Review. V. 35, n. 2 (Fall 2017)
Publisher: Vanderbilt University

Sikanekue: mujer fundacional en Abakuá (Article)
Title: Sikanekue: mujer fundacional en Abakuá
Author: Patricia Gonzalez
Abstract: About a female founder of the Abakuá society.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: http://www.afrohispanicreview.com/
Primary URL Description: Journal homepage
Access Model: Open access after two years
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Afro-Hispanic Review. V. 35, n. 2 (Fall 2017)
Publisher: Vanderbilt University

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