Agrandir

Agrandir

A fortuneteller once told Nare Magna, the Mandinga King, that he would sire a prodigious son. But when the prince was born, he was a crippled boy who could barely utter a word. The king's despair was so immense that he rushed to talk to a seer who said these words to him: “The ceiba tree grows out of a tiny seed, yet it claws its roots deep into the soil. Growth is sluggish and toilsome, but at the end of the day, a mighty tree comes up.

“Just like the tiny ceiba seed, the Fernando Ortiz African Cultural Center was founded in Santiago de Cuba on July 25, 1988 out of an idea and plenty of hardworking efforts. Its primary goal was an introduction to the study of African culture.” That's how Dr. Martha C. Jackson, the center's founder and director, talks about the history of the institution.

Since then, the center's daily going has revolved around the research of the African-origin bequest both in Cuba and the Caribbean. Such topics as anthropology, history, linguistics, oratory, art and literature have been extensively developed by a number of researchers and collaborators. The result of their works has opened us a new window to this major ingredient of the Cuban nation that Fernando Ortiz himself dubbed “our ajiaco (Cuban stew).”

Dr. Jackson explains one of center's first goals was the creation of a multidisciplinary team that could broach the same topic from different perspectives. Therefore, the research outcomes are guaranteed to have longer scope and accuracy. Today, a number of those studies are already filed and the largest chunk of them has been published in specialized magazines and monographs. Slavery, oratory, ethnicity, segregation, racial discrimination and religion have been the main issues.

In the same breath, the same team of experts contributes to under-graduation teaching and tutors numerous theses in colleges and universities in eastern Cuba. In many cases, they've also advised research studies conducted by foreign students keen to digging into the roots of Cuba and the Americas across the board.

The House of Africa –the name this center in Santiago de Cuba is also known for- has organized from the very beginning the Ortiz-Lachatañere Workshop on African Influence in the Caribbean, as well as the Cultural African and African-American Conference, two international events held every other year.

The workshop is intended to provide assessment of the work conducted by the first researchers of African culture in Cuba: Fernando Ortiz and Romulo Lachatañere. Attendants get the opportunity of chatting among themselves about general topics ranging from current anthropological studies and the contributions made by these great sages to the African legacy in American culture, among other issues. In April 2003, the event will be entirely devoted to the Bantu culture, one of the richest to ever cross the Atlantic Ocean that has left deep footprints in the history of our peoples. From this year on, the event will be devoted to a particular ethnic group from the black continent with a view to reach out to its basics and appraise the contributions made to the Caribbean and Latin American cultures.

For its part, the Cultural African and African-American Conference is the largest such meeting clustering experts in social sciences from around the world. The event takes place through papers, lectures and roundtables. Sessions are split in specialized commissions and three workshops: “Music and Dance Ancestral Rhythm,” “Movie and Video Images,” and “Color and Form.” Turnout has climbed steadily with each event. There are artistic performances going hand in hand with the scientific agenda. They include book presentations, meetings with ethnic groups and specialized visits to institutions linked to the center's daily work.

These events put together fruitful sessions in which experts from Cuba and other parts of the world exchange views and approaches on their respective research patterns.

The exhibit showcasing over 100 handicrafts and artifacts from as many as 24 African countries has always been one of the place's centerpieces for visitors from everywhere else who walk past their turnstiles day in and day out. Woodcarvings, metal works, carvings in ivory, masks, frames, musical instruments and people's craftsmanship are in display for everyone to see. Also in July this year, a beautiful mural designed by Santiago-born artists David Griñan and Jose Luis Berenger was unveiled in the center's patio. The work of art recreates the sophisticated and unquestionable cultural twists and turns occurred in America.

Today, following the foundation of the Romulo Lachatañere School of African-Caribbean Studies –under the center's sponsorship- researchers count now on more wiggle room to develop new working lines like teaching, the possibility of pouring all their research results into post-graduation and master courses, the chance of having the center's publishing press print out the related works, and the social and cultural exchange of ideas aimed at inking academic agreements.

The abovementioned school equally sponsors the Oratory Biennial and plans the Theoretical Symposium together with Cuba's Writers and Artists League in Santiago de Cuba. The gathering copes with oral manifestations and traditions ranging from oral narration and storytelling to poetic and theoretical exchanges. The event's outlay provides elbowroom for a wide variety of issues and huge turnouts of both scholars and the general public.

“With this diversity of projects, the school is opening the gates of the institution to new roles within Santiago's cultural, scientific and academic context. This entices our experts and specialists to be more demanding in their daily jobs,” says Dr. Jackson, the school's principal and chief promoter.

Back to the center, this institution also plays host to folkloric groups that perform the most genuine African legacy of music and dance. The presence of the Yoruba and Bantu cultures on the one hand, and the Caribbean on the other, is laid bare in each and every presentation in which the combination of rhythms, colors, drum beats, mimicking and moves is the name of the game.

The “Fernando Ortiz” African Cultural Center has doubtlessly done a painstaking and nonstop work through all these years, even in the worst of times. This has allowed the aforesaid institution and its experts to garner recognition in and out of the country in the realm of African studies. Just like the ceiba does, caught in the haze of legend and history, in the beat of the drums and under the watchful eye of the Orishas, the center has grown to be a “mighty tree.”