One of the most devastated African regions as a result of slavery during the European colonization was the area embracing the Bantu people. Different tribes, dialects, habits and traditions mark this culture that today comprises some 20 million Africans scattered around Zaire, Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Angola, among other nations.

In general terms, Bantu-origin religious practices that make up an array of Caribbean creeds do not correspond to any of the particular ethnic groups that form this regional cultural mosaic. Quite on the contrary, it has been whipped into shape with the features of different peoples in such a way that it's almost impossible to determine the ethnographic origin of the liturgy and the gods.

Regla Conga or Regla de Palo is the widest conception there is on Bantu-origin cults that eventually gave rise to Briyumba, Kimbisa and Mayombe that, despite using the hill stick as its main magical element, show some remarkable differences as far as the rites are concerned.

Conga liturgy is highly complicated. Its central axis is the nganga, a concentration of magical drives capable of attaining all the establishments within the ritual code. It's made up of different elements acquired from the physical, social and historic world.

In the same breath, the preparation of the nganga takes a variety of hill sticks blessed with healing and poisonous qualities, as well as a group of animals handpicked in keeping with their own features. Elements of the inorganic world such as soil from a nearby cemetery, volcanic rocks and rolled pebbles are equally added in the process.

The content of the ngangas -earthenware or iron pots and containers- could vary depending on who uses them and the entities they have been prepared under. However, either way they are supposed to abide by an inevitable principle: whatever you put inside the pot must be in line with its condition as a magical concentration of forces.

Nevertheless, there's one element that you can't rule out: the human remains of the nfumbi (the dead) which add vitality and strength to the whole content deposited inside the pot. Thus, the most important element inside the nganga is the matari (stone), that accounts for a direct reference to Nzambi, empowering and harmonizing the whole mixture, and the nfumbi, that animates all natural elements contained therein.

An alliance doomed to mark the fate of the practitioner's blood and religious families is established between the owner of the nganga and the nfumbi. There's no doubt about the nfumbi's role in the process. In a certain extent, it stands for a religious tool capable of putting up with the tribulations of life and death.

The ngangas are inherited time and time again through strict and secret guidelines. They weave linkages as in the case of a family. When one nganga is made, elements of the godfather are included. That new nganga is not handed over at the initiation time, but rather when the neophyte has managed to achieve a certain level of knowledge and has shown ethical behavior in sync with the system codes.

Divination is one of Regla Conga's basic principles. Boding and pitching a hand to improve quality of life is key for this cult. In achieving that goal, practitioners use the mpakek or mpake menso, a horn filled with magical powers and whose base hole is covered by a generally smoked mirror. The palero priest smokes the mirror and reads through the figures and shapes that form on the surface. They also use necklaces with amulets sprinkled with sugar cane rum and cigar smoke for divination.

Like all religious manifestations, there are echelons in Regla Conga. The Tata Nganga or Father Nganga is the owner of the Mother Nganga that spins off similar ngangas. The Tata Nganga is empowered to commence rituals, initiate people in the practice of this religion and build other ngangas. He's got the power of divination and conducts the rites based on individual inheritance from his ancestors.

The Mother Nganga, the woman who possesses a Mother Nganga, is entitled to help the Tata Nganga during liturgies. Then come the godmothers who help the Tatas during the rituals, especially during chalking or initiations. And last but not least, come the godfathers, entitled with similar powers as the godmothers.

Among the top liturgical celebrations in Regla Conga, some that should be mentioned are the chalking or palero baptism, the granting of new ngangas, cleansing, offerings and healing rituals.

In the case of initiation ceremonies, they are called chalking because priests make cross-shaped shallow cuts or slits in the skin of initiated people, especially on both sides of the chest and on the shoulder bones. There are different ways of making the cuts, usually accompanied by chants and plenty of mimicking. This particular ritual allows initiated people to be admitted in the palera house-temple and it represents a pact between the dead and the Nzambi with his religious family.

Conga dances -peanut, cassava, hoeing pokers and sticks- can be performed in any house-temple during the initiation ceremonies or the festivities to pay tribute to a certain deity. For their part, Conga chants are brief and repetitious. Melodies are not that complex, yet they reveal great beating rhythm. Practitioners also tell long lines by rote with an aim to invoke the supernatural forces or just to hail the Tata Ngangas or Tata Nkisis.

An outstanding place in Regla Conga is saved for sacred graphic symbols -called signatures are used to identify the spirits and ancestors. Practitioners ask for their permission to perform certain cultural ceremonies.

When signatures are drawn, worshippers believe all supernatural powers are represented in them and that they can respond in line with the effectiveness of a work well done. Each and every one of them acquires a specific personal function for an initiated person who uses them to identify himself or herself with his or her fundament -nganga- and with the rest of the worshippers. On the other hand, it expresses a relationship between a guarding spirit and the person who has agreed to the pact.

The commonest elements in signatures are the primary ones and can be found in nature and in social reality. Each signature comprises an array of experiences that outlived centuries of exploitation. At the same time, the supernatural powers embrace an assortment of signatures.

As in every other religion on earth, paleros have a Supreme God, a highest force that created the universe and that they call Nzambi, Zambi, Nzambia or Mayimbe. This supreme being breathes life into the mpungos or magical forces, bodiless beings that never ever take a human shape. In the Conga cult, the supreme god generates a driving need to reach out to Him to such an extent that, as some experts put it, that Regla Conga can be construed as a monotheist cult.

Practitioners of Regla Conga worship the souls of the ancestors, the dead and the spirits of nature that dwell in the habitations of trees, rivers and seas. Establishing a hierarchy among these supernatural entities or mpungus is a hard task to do given the large amount of designations they could have.

Every one of them has a specific function within the ritual outlay: Tiembla Tierra, Lucero Mundo, Zarabanda, Siete Rayos, Madre de agua, Brazo Fuerte, Tata Pansua Kisimba, Lufo Kuyo, Centella, are the commonest monikers that landed on the Caribbean aboard the collective memory of Bantu-origin slaves and that now enjoy the veneration of scores of people in the region.

Regla Conga or Palo Monte is a religious manifestation deeply ingrained in the people. Its ritual and theological systems knit profound conceptions together despite the fact that it came into being as a result of the convergence of practices from different Bantu ethnic groups. Thus, its direct influence on other African-born popular religions is incredible and has thousands of followers in the magical universe of the Caribbean.

The Bantu civilization was hit hard by slavery. Today, it stands for a cultural mosaic pieced together from the features of many different peoples.

The rituals of Regla Conga or Palo Monte counts on thousands of followers who worship such gods as Siete Rayos, Madre de Agua, Brazo Fuerte, Zarabanda or Centella.