The first African drums were heard in Cuba, since the 16th century, only during the celebration of certain feasts, such as the Día de Reyes (Three Kings Day) and Carnestolendas or Carnival, because their use was restricted to some mutual aid societies, called "Cabildos de nación", where enslaved Africans and their descendants were allowed to gather and practice their cultural and religious traditions such as Santeria and Palo Mayombe.
The music and dance of the Cuban Carnival was always very popular in Cuba, and has exerted an important influence in other genres of the Cuban music, such as the "Conga de Salón" and the "Mozambique" rhythm.Rodríguez Ruidíaz, Armando :Los sonidos de la música cubana. Evolución de los formatos instrumentales en Cuba, p. 56. https://www.academia.edu/18302881/Los_sonidos_de_la_m%C3%BAsica_cubana._Evoluci%C3%B3n_de_los_formatos_instrumentales_en_Cuba the Cuban Conga has transcended the national frontiers to become one of the most famous and cherished genres of the Cuban music outside the country, like the well known Congas de Salón from the late 1930s and early 1940s Bim Bam Bum, from Rafael Hernández and Uno, dos y tres, from Rafael Ortiz, which at a later time was known in English as: One, two, three, Kick! Most recently, in 1985, the famous "Conga" from the Cuban-American group Miami Sound Machine, triggered a true frenzy in the US and all around the world. Its success is only comparable to the popularity of the 1930s Conga de Salón or the Conga lines of Desi Arnaz during the 1950s.
From the 16th to the 18th century
The cultural and physical mixing of Africans and Europeans in Cuba began with the arrival to the Island of the first enslaved African women around 1550Fernández Escobio, Fernando: Raíces de la nacionalidad cubana, Miami, Florida, 1992, p. 227. but their cultures remained relatively independent one from the other for hundreds of years, because the enslaved did not have access to their enslavers' cultural traditions, and the Spanish people perceived the African culture as barbaric and primitive. The following description of enslaved peoples feast, included in a story from the "costumbrista" writer Francisco Baralt, evidence the negative image that the Spanish had toward the cultural manifestations of the Africans. According to Baralt: "those (African) dances have such a weird aspect, because of the place, the time and the individuals that perform them, that even those who observe them every day receive an impression difficult to express: we don’t know if it is curiosity or disgust, if it repels or attract its primitive and savage character, that seem to put between this feasts and those of the white men the same distance that exists between the deluge and our times."Baralt, Francisco: Escenas campestres. Baile de los negros. Costumbristas cubanos del siglo XIX, Selección, prólogo, cronología y bibliografía Salvador Bueno, Consultado: Agosto 25, 2010, http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/costumbristas-cubanos-del-siglo-xix--2/html/fef805c0-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_7.htm
The music from the African people that arrived to Cuba from Spain, or directly from Africa, was only allowed since the beginning of colonial times, within certain mutual aid societies and religious fraternities which foundation dates from the 16th century. According to David H. Brown, those societies, called Cabildos, "provided aid in case of disease or death, celebrated masses for the souls of the death, collected funds for the liberation from slavery of its members, regularly organized dances and recreational activities during Sundays and Holidays, and sponsored masses, processions and Carnival dances (now called "comparsas") around the annual cycle of Catholic festivals"Brown, David H.: Santería enthroned, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2003, p. 34.
The Cabildos organized big street processions during Sundays, the celebration of Saints and some important Holidays, where their leaders and companions dressed with clothes appropriate for the royalty and high rank military, while those who participated in the processions and dances wear "feathered head pieces and African masks with horns and vegetal ornaments." The Three Kings Day, celebrated on January 6, during the Epiphany, was the most important of those festivities.Brown, David H.: Santería enthroned, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2003, p. 34.
Another important feast where the Cabildos participated was celebrated during the three days before "Ash Wednesday", which at a later time became the Carnestolendas or Carnival.Feliú, Virtudes: La Fiesta. Fiestas populares tradicionales de Cuba. Instituto Andino de Artes Populares, p. 83. In 1697, the Italian Gemeli Careri mentioned those celebrations: "… on Sunday, February 9th, the black and mulatoes, with picturesque apparels, formed a gathering to have fun at the Carnival." According to Virtudes Feliú: "… This is the most ancient information about the traditional Havanese "comparsas", and it makes clear that, indeed, the blacks and mulatoes enjoyed themselves at the Carnestolendas that Hispanics and their descendants celebrated, wearing unusual clothes related to those feasts in a gathering that Careri called a "congregation", most probable because the term "comparsa" was not yet in use."Feliú, Virtudes: La Fiesta. Fiestas populares tradicionales de Cuba. Instituto Andino de Artes Populares, p. 86.
We can assume that the musical instruments utilized in the old Cabildos were the African membranophones that were not utilized in the ritual celebrations, such as the bembé and yuka drums. In reference to the difference between the ritual African drums, that should only be played in religious ceremonies, and the secular drums, that may actually be played in public, Argelier León remarks: "Differently from the ritual drums batá and iyesá, which were tuned with a tensor system in N…, the bembé drums could be tuned by applying heat, because they didn’t possess the ritual character of the consecrated drums."
León also says that "…The bembé drums are varied, from those of a big size – more than a meter tall and of a cylindrical shape – to small drums made from containers. In certains areas of Cuba, the bembé drums are made from palm tree trunks, with just one nailed drumhead, and little more than half a meter tall…"León, Argeliers: Del canto y del tiempo. Editorial Pueblo y Educación. La Habana, Cuba, 1981, p. 46.
The yuka ensemble was composed by three drums made from raw wooden trunks (called in size order: caja, mula and cachimbo) with hide drum-heads nailed to the body. They also utilized a hollow bambu piece beaten with two bamboo sticks called "guagua’’ or "catá"; and also beating over the drum side.León, ArgeliDel canto y del tiempo. Editorial Pueblo y Educación. La Habana, Cuba, 1981, p. 67.
In reference to the drums utilized by the Africans in their feasts, the "costumbrista" author Francisco Baralt wrote around 1846: "The only instrument they use in these feasts is a type of drum made from one wooden piece of about two to four feet long. With an irregular ..and a more or less conical or cylindrical shape. It was hollowed up to half of its size, and usually covered over its larger side with a raw goat hide."Baralt, Francisco: Escenas Campestres, Baile de los negros. http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/costumbristas-cubanos-del-siglo-xix--2/html/fef805c0-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_7.htm. Consultado 12-23-15.
These descriptions also coincide with the visual representations of the Carnivals, during the 19th century, by artists such as Víctor Patricio de Landaluze and Federico Miahle; where frequently appear some cylindrical drums with a nailed hide on the top, performed between the legs of the standing drummer, in a very similar way as the yuka drums are played even today. In numerous prints of Landaluze and Miahle about the Carnival festivities, we can observe some musical instruments, like drums and horns, that were utilized at that time. In a famous Miahle print from 1855, called Three Kings Days, we can see a drummer to the left side, playing a cylindric drum between his legs, and another man at the back, with a hat, blowing a curved horn.
The 19th century
According with David H. Brown: "After 1792, when the Cabildos were relegated to the "extramuros" zone of the city, the Carnival processions came out of their locations and went through the entrances toward the fortified "intramuros" area. They marched through the residential and commercial streets of Mercaderes, Obispo and O’Reilly until they reached the central Plaza de Armas, the site of the Captain General of the Island Palace. Inside the Palace patio, as in other stops along the way, the procession's members represented dances, asked for and received gifts (aguinaldos), and after that, they returned to their homes."Brown, David H.: Santería enthroned, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2003, p. 35.
In the following story from 1866, the author mentions the characteristic sounds as well as the instruments that were performed by those participants in the procession of a Three Kings Day "comparsa" in Havana:
"Innumerable groups of black Africans "comparsas" went along through every street of the Capital city. The hurly-burly is immense and its aspect horrifying... The great noise created by all the drums, horns and whistles deafen the passers-by everywhere; in a corner a Yoruba king surrounded by his court of blacks, here a Gangá, another one there from a Carabalí nation... all of them, kings for a day, singing in a monotonous and unpleasant drone in their African languages."Moore, Robin D.: Nationalizing blackness. University of Pittsburgh Press. Pittsburgh. Pa., 1997, p. 65.
The 20th century
At the beginning of the Independence war, in 1895, the colonial authorities banned all the Carnival activities indefinitely, and this prohibition stayed in effect until the conclusion of the hostilities, at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Mayor of Havana, Carlos de La Torre, reinstate the Carnival festivities officially in 1902. The massive participation of a population of African origin in the Independence war resulted in a greater integration of the Afro-Cubans in social activities, and facilitated a more important participation of this segment of the population in the Carnival during the first years of the Republic. For the first time blacks were allowed to play their music and dances along with the "comparsas" of white people, such as El Alacrán, the Model T cars covered by flower arrangements and the "carrozas" (floats).Moore, Robin D.: Nationalizing blackness. University of Pittsburgh Press. Pittsburgh. Pa., 1997, p. 68.
Since 1902, the municipal authorities began again to strictly regulate the organization of the Carnival processions, showing a preference for the ornamented cars, the floats, the military bands, and the presentation of the King and the Queen, in detriment of the manifestation of Afro-Cuban origin, such as the "comparsa" and the Conga, and around 1916, the suppression of the "comparsa" groups in Havana was almost total.Moore, Robin D.: Nationalizing blackness. University of Pittsburgh Press. Pittsburgh. Pa., 1997, p. 69. Because during the period from the 1900s and 1910s, the Carnival activities have attracted thousands of foreign visitors to the Capital each spring, finally in 1937, the authorities of the city decided to reauthorize the "comparsas" in the Carnival "paseos" (strolls).Moore, Robin D.: Nationalizing blackness. University of Pittsburgh Press. Pittsburgh. Pa., 1997, p. 83.