Jícaras (half calabash cups from the Cuban guira cimarrona) are used to make libations and invocations when work is performed with the principal Palo Monte spirits, called mpungu. Palo Monte is a general term for a variety of Afro-Cuban religious lineages derived from the Kongo-Angola region of Central West Africa. Palo is based upon communication with ancestral spirits, as opposed to the orishas of the Lukumí religion, most of whom are living, growing, embodiments of natural forces.

In Cuba, multifarious local Kongo minkisi (singular, nkisi) were “pantheonized” as a hierarchical group of ngangas, also known as nkisis, prendas, and calderos. The nganga is an aggregation of very specific elements from the human and natural worlds, such as relics, earths, sticks, and plants, the sum of which “founds” or “grounds” the mpungu and its particular character. The mpungu’s cosmological force is tapped and realized in the world through “work” done by spirits of the dead, nfumbes, who “represent” the mpungu, or elements of it. Though the mpungus live in pots, their deep secrets are kept in small woven baskets with handles, called canastas.

Lucero Mundo (World Star; Lucero is a messenger and mediator).

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