African music and religion

This week on the Facebook page of the DRUM, we had a comment on what they would like to know. What is the santera religion, palera and its music?
I was reading from books to magazines to bring you some of what I have learned.
And I stayed like that anger ...

And it is that the Santera religion originates in Africa when the Yoruba were sent as slaves to the Caribbean between 1770 and 1840, they took their religion with them.
When they were already in the New World (America), they wanted to be forced to accept Catholicism, but they refused to leave their customs behind. So they created a new cult with elements of both religions, a phenomenon known as syncretism. So your gods and goddess. However the beliefs, rituals and customs that they brought from Africa did not change at all.
Some religions such as voodoo, the macumba and the obeah they combine various elements of the liturgy, the sacraments and the sacred utensils of Catholicism with African spiritualist practices. Since from the beginning the Catholic Church banned religions from Africa in Latin America, santeria was practiced in secret for a long time, until finally the Church began to tolerate such religious syncretism among slaves.

NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT MUSIC IN THE SANTERÍA:

Music plays an important role in santeria as an integral part of worship. It is used during bembés, ceremonies in which deities are invoked to the sound of drums. The insistent sound of the drums is so loud that it can be heard at a great distance.

In West Africa, some percussion instruments such as the drum, the xylophone or the marimba have been used for religious purposes for centuries. That was their main utility when slaves took them to America. In Brazil, sacred drums are made with the skin of animals that have been sacrificed according to the rite, and new instruments are usually baptized, preferably with the "blessed" water of a Catholic church. Other drums represent a particular deity, as in the Afro-Caribbean culture of Haiti. The rhythm varies depending on the god you want to call. For example, in the following video, the ritual is based on sending blessings to the United States and hoping that between both countries (Cuba and the United States) they will experience close proximity ...

Nowadays, it is not uncommon to find compact discs of sacred music for santeria, clearly identified as such. The basic instrument is the drum, and some pieces have titles that are actually names of deities or santera customs. Over time, the rhythms of santeria have also infiltrated some Latin music productions, and their terminology has appeared in some songs.

What do you think about it?
The truth is that I had always thought that the Santera religion was a very bad thing, but it is much better to read, investigate and know what surrounds it. Of course it is well known that in this religion they tend to "sacrifice" animals for rituals, that is something I do not consider good, but it must have a reason and we will talk about it in another blog.

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