Ochoa is a most perceptive, sensitive researcher and participant in the world of Palo Briyumba Kongo in Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba. Marvellously written with great heart, Society of the Dead respectfully walks its way through the essential concepts and practices by painting the daily lives and vision of his elders. Kalunga, the great sea of The Dead, is a massive force, which permeates the world in myriad “versions,” including emergent known dead spirits, “works” and festivals, and minute bodily sensations, motivations, and “little corners.” He brings to life the feelings, beliefs, words, songs, dances, contradictions, and politics of a vastly misunderstood and marginalized religion within the deprivations of contemporary Cuba: Kalunga, Ntoto, Pemba, Munanso, Tata, Yaya, Madre, Padre, Ngueyo, Prenda-Nganga-Nkiso, Nfumbe, Nfuiri, Ndoki, Mambo, Chamba, Bilongo, Menga, Arrear, Guerra, Cristiana, and Judía, among others. Society of the Dead is the best work on Palo in English to date. ¡Salamaleko/Maleko-Salam!

Table of Contents

THE DEAD
Isidra
Kalunga, The Ambient Dead
Little Corners
Responsive Dead

PALO SOCIETY
Emilio O’Farril
Teodoro
Palo Society
Decay
A Feast Awry
Virtudes

PRENDAS-NGANGAS-ENQUISOS
Lucero Mundo
The Cauldron
Reckoning with the Dead
Nfumbe
Insinuation and Artifice

PALO CRAFT
Struggle is Praise
Cristianas
Judias
Tormenta Ndoki
Storms of Lent