Lucumí-Inspired Revolts in Rural Colonial Cuba: The Case of the Banes Uprising, 1833

The upsurge in worldwide interest in Yorùbá studies in the Americas has often resulted in over-generalizations of the complexity of Yorùbá history from West Africa, especially to what extent events of the collapse of the Ọyọ Empire (1817-1836) affected resistance to slavery in the Americas. Cases of slave resistance involving Lucumí not only illustrate colonial responses to Ọyọ’s collapse, but also the symbolic integration of Ọyọ politics, society and culture into Cuban slave society. The Banes uprising of 1833 began on a coffee plantation about 50 miles west of Havana. It involved over 350 African-born Lucumí slaves who were defeated after occupying the town of Banes. In this case, colonial authorities documented the African names and recorded the testimonies of the surviving Lucumí leaders via translators. Other witnesses also testified to rituals, which included animal sacrifice, being practiced during the uprising. I hope to demonstrate how the documentation related to the Banes uprising illustrates the symbolic re-establishment of Ọyọ’s political, social, cultural and spiritual organizations in the context of the 19th century sugar boom.