Abandoned Fetishes, Spectral Terrors, and the Historical Imagination in Cuba

On the grounds of an old sugarmill in western Cuba, local residents say
that slaves buried a so-called nganga judía (“jewish nganga”), a fetish
containing human remains used for nefarious ritual purposes. Over the
years, a number of work-related accidents and deaths in the area have been
blamed on the nganga, which is said to avenge its abandonment by taking
human life and consuming human blood. A group of local ritual specialists
now gather together every year to “feed” the nganga, an attempt to appease
the spirit of the dead imprisoned within the fetish. This paper critically
examines images of spectral violence attributed to neglected and/or
abandoned ritual fetishes in contemporary Cuba. In particular, the paper
compares these images with similar ethnographic tales of blood-sucking
vampires and zombies, and the extent to which they may also be read as
allegories for the predatory-like nature of capitalism and slavery.