Case file · Folklore / legend
Abakuá society founded in Regla
The Abakuá, a men's initiation society derived from the Ekpe leopard societies of the Cross River region of Nigeria and Cameroon, founded its first lodge in Regla, across Havana harbour, in 1836.
1836 CE · 23.13, -82.33 · status: official
The account
Its masked dancers, the íremes, represent the spirits of the dead. Colonial authorities treated the society as criminal, and it was persecuted into the 20th century, but it survives in Havana and Matanzas.