The term conga refers to the music groups within Cuban comparsas and the music they play. Comparsas are large ensembles of musicians, singers and dancers with a specific costume and choreography which perform in the street carnivals of Santiago de Cuba, Camaguey, and Havana.Millet, José and Brea Rafael 1989. Del carnival santiaguero: congas y paseos. In Oscar Ruiz Miyares (ed) Guía cultural de Santiago de Cuba.
The instrumentation differs between congas santiagueras and congas habaneras. Congas santiagueras include the corneta china (Chinese cornet), which is an adaptation of the Cantonese suona introduced in Oriente in 1915, and its percussion section comprises bocúes (similar to African ashiko drums), the quinto (highest pitched conga drum), galletas and the pilón, as well as brakes which are struck with metal sticks. Congas habaneras lack the corneta china but include trumpets, trombones and saxophones, and they have a different set of percussion instruments: redoblantes (side drums), bombos (bass drums), quinto, tumbadora (the lowest pitched conga drum), and metallic idiophones such as cowbells, spoons, frying pans and rims.
Congas and comparsas have a long history which dates back to the 19th century, with musical traditions being passed down from one generation to the next. The older comparsas are derived from cabildos de nación or other social groups, whereas the later ones, called paseos, are derived from barrios (neighbourhoods). The music of the congas has become a genre itself, being introduced into Cuban popular music in the early 20th century by artists such as Eliseo Grenet and Armando Oréfiche and his Havana Cuban Boys. They have been present for decades in the repertoire of many conjuntos, Cuban big bands and descarga ensembles, also having an influence on modern genres such as salsa and songo. The conga drum, also known in Cuba as tumbadora, took its name from the congas de comparsa.
History
Origins The history of the conga (also known as comparsa conga or conga de comparsa) is obscure and its origins remain largely unknown. In the early 19th century, although the word "conga" is not found in written sources, there are references to "tumbas", and, according to Brea and Millet (1993:204), "tumba" refers to the percussion ensemble of the conga. "Tumba" is mentioned in connection with mamarrachos (summer festivals in Santiago de Cuba) as early as 1847 (Pérez I 1988:54). A word that may be synonymous with "tumba" is the word "tango", mentioned as early as 1856 (Pérez I 1988:79). Unfortunately, most 19th-century writers were extremely negative towards Afro-Cuban culture and little information about the tumbas or tangos was recorded.
Relation to Kongo ethnic group
"Congo" was the word used to designate African slaves brought to Cuba from the Congo region of Africa (currently the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola). According to the rules of Spanish grammar, "congo" became a masculine noun/adjective and its feminine counterpart was formed by changing final "o" to "a." This Spanish noun/adjective pair has been used in Cuba to designate anything pertaining to the above-mentioned African slaves and their culture. Therefore, some have assumed that "conga" was originally an adjective (as in the expression comparsa conga), and that the comparsa was dropped and conga changed to a noun (del Carmen et al. 2005). However, the word conga may also derive from either "maconga" (song) or "nkunga" (song, sound) in "the language of the Congo" (Ortiz 1924:118).
Ortiz (II 1952-5:34) also states that the drum called bokú (one of the instruments of the conga) is "...typical of the congos." Goodman mentions the “comparsa conga” in conjunction with a carnaval figure known as “el Rey del Congo” (the "King of the Congo”), which seems to confirm a kongo ethnic connection to the conga (Pérez I 1988:104).Walter Goodman 1873. The Pearl of the Antilles or an artist in Cuba. Spanish transl. Havana 1965. A section entitled Máscaras en Santiago de Cuba (“Masquerades in Santiago de Cuba”), is reproduced in Pérez I 1988:97-106. Also, the word bokú means “drum” in Kikongo (Orovio 1981:58).
Antipathy after independence
In the early years after the establishment of the Republic of Cuba in 1902, there were numerous decrees by successive mayors of Santiago de Cuba banning "African drums and tangos". (Pérez I 1988:177, etc.) Apparently, these decrees were not faithfully enforced:
“In spite of the prohibitive proclamation, the tumbas echoed loudly everywhere, including in the most central and heavily-traveled areas. And together with the raucous and uncouth sound of the African tumba, the well-known arrolladeraPérez (I 1988:256-7, note 4) says:”Arrolladera. It refers to the large masses of the public who follow the comparsas (congas) and who march in a rhythmic shuffle, following the comparsas who play drums, tumbas, frying pans, cowbells, cornetas chinas, etc., orchestrated in a very distinct style by musicians that sometimes improvise, going in front of or in the center of the comparsas. This multitudinous form of dancing is called arrolladera, because of the way of dancing forward, always shuffling the feet, while performing movements of the waist, arms, head and the body as a whole and from this, one says that a person who performs the latter is arrollando. By semantic extension, anything that goes forward without being stopped by any obstacle whether material or of any other kind.” displayed its contortions.” (Pérez I 1988:254)
According to Pérez,
“Although the prohibition of African manifestations was reiterated, the comparsas were permitted. In reality, it was just a question of maintaining on paper that which could not really be enforced due to the express desire of the bourgeoisie, to whom these manifestations were a diversion, ‘something colorful’ and amusing.” (Pérez I 1988:179, note 13)
Debate
Opponents to the conga in print outnumbered defenders. The conga was a thing of the illiterate Afro-Cuban working people, while the writers of editorials and angry letters to the editor were upper-class Hispano-Cubans. One prominent attacker of the conga, and perhaps the most florid in his prose, was the long-time mayor of Santiago, Desiderio Alberto Arnaz II (father of American TV star Desi Arnaz), who expressed the feelings of some upper-class Cubans in a newspaper article of 1925:
“I will have you know that the initial days of our traditional masquerades – which have just passed – have left painful impressions in my mind. Allow me to explain. In every way, the carnival has been a joyful celebration of the soul of the people, an exhibition of good artistic taste, a competition of original ideas, a contest in which thought and action have always vied in giving objective form to the perfect conception of Beauty and towards the noble intent of the dignification of society; Paris, Rome, Venice, Madrid and Havana itself offer in their carnestolendas lessons on how complaisant liberty ought to be used in those periods of fantasy in order to educate the wishes and aspirations of the citizen. But here, in our city, in one of those scientifically inexplicable regressions towards a dark past, certain elements of our commonwealth seem committed – under the pretext of carnaval – to the repugnant task of checking human progress and causing harm to Civilization with their excesses.
I refer to the ‘conga,’ that strident group of drums, frying pans and shrieks, to whose sounds epileptic, ragged, semi-nude crowds run about the streets of our metropolis, and who, between lubricous contortions and abrupt movements, show a lack of respect to society, offend morality, discredit our customs, lower us in the eyes of people from other countries and, what is worse, by their example, contaminate schoolchildren, who I have seen carried away by the heat of the lesson, panting and sweaty, engaging in frenetic competitions in corporal flexibility in those shameful tourneys of licentiousness.” (Pérez I 1988:337)
On the other hand, an opinion poll of 1936 on the conga elicited the following comments: “…Let the hours, the minutes and the seconds pass as they will, as long as they do so as quickly as possible so that I can slap that bocú... From today, it is only 18 days until the carnaval starts. How it torments me to think that there are still so many days to go; I wish it were tomorrow;... I want you to know... that the sound of the conga nourishes me, the sound of the frying pans gives me life and the sound of the bocú drives me crazy. Several days prior to the beginning of rehearsals, I went to see a doctor; I felt overwhelmed, sad, pensive. He prescribed and gave me some injections, and I felt absolutely no different, but as soon as I heard the sound of the first bocú, I was completely cured, I felt strong and ready for anything. And I advise those who are unhappy and listless to get an invigorating injection of bocú, conga and frying pans and you’ll be OK in 24 hours.” (Pérez II 1988:22-3)
Conga of Los Hoyos Conga Santiaguera (Conga Oriental) takes place in Santiago de Cuba which is located in the Eastern part of the island, known as El Oriente. Santiago de Cuba is a province and city in Eastern Cuba, was the original capital of Cuba marking it a place full of culture and deep history. Within the Province we can find a neighborhood called Los Hoyos.Milstein, L. (2013). "Toward an Understanding of 'Conga santiaguera': Elements of 'La conga de Los Hoyos'." Latin American Music Review, 34(2), 223–253.
Los Hoyos is a district in downtown Santiago de Cuba and home to the conga of Los Hoyos. Los Hoyos neighboorhood is one of the oldest Afro-Cuban neighborhoods in Santiago de Cuba holding the title as one of the most famous conga and kicking off the unofficial start of the carnaval with the invasión. Geographically Los Hoyos is located next to Moncada Barracks, the landmark where the attack on July 26th 1953 led by Fidel Castro marked the start of the Cuban Revolution. Historians have stated that the attack was intentionally timed to coincide with Santiago de Cuba’s Carnaval to have the busy streets help provide cover for the young revolutionaries. The Conga Santiaguera brings together the diverse cultural roots of Santiago de Cuba, including strong Afro‑Cuban and Chinese influences that helped shape its musical, cultural, and instrumental identity of characteristic of groups like Conga de Los Hoyos.
The history of the Conga has been many interpretations according to Conga is a collection on neighborhood participants who come together through rhythmic music to parade in the city streets. This activity involves instruments specific to the region as well as a rhythm so unique that one can hear the conga coming from many streets down. According to up until the 1920s, there were two carnaval celebrations in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba. Usually one was before Lent (called the Carnaval de los Balancos) and another was held in the summer (called el Carnaval de los Negros). Translation for these are carnaval for Whites and carnaval for Black. (Luis 2001, 51).
But the history of the Conga Santiaguera transcends 1900s, it goes as far back as the seventeenth century, where there was a “designated time”, right after the sugar harvest where slaves and their cabildos were allowed to express their own culture including music dance and costumes in the streets. “Celebratory days dedicated to important Catholic saints--Santa Cristina (July 24); the city's patron saint, Santiago Apostle (July 25); and Santa Ana (July 26)--coincided”. “Today Santiago's carnaval still unfolds over these days and coincides with the end of the sugar harvest, but it also commemorates Fidel Castro's attack on the Moncada barracks on July 26, 1953.” which added a more historical complex identify to what the Conga is today.
Invasion and Desfiles