Disc 6 Side A (28’21”)

Moforibale. Palo Gangá Ñongobá. Cantos de Palo. Congo Musunde and Gangá. Florinda Pastor, Agustín Diago, and ensemble.

Under the erroneous title “Moforibale,” Florinda Pastor, descendant of Gangás, offers this series of songs, while her brother Agustín Diago calls them Mambos, a Bantú word commonly used for so-called “canto de palo” or “canto de Mayombe” by ensembles of sorcerers or Mayomberos.

Moforibale, which is repeated so often in the prayers and songs to the Lucumí orishas, means to prostrate oneself in reverence. As one can see in every Lucumí ceremony, it is a custom followed to the letter, stretching out on the ground and touching one’s forehead to the earth.

These songs do not invoke the Lucumí orishas, even the orishas have their equivalents in the other sects, and some — Ogún, Changó, Oyá — also “attend” (in “mayombe cruzado”) the “juegos” (rituals) of the “paleros” or sorcerers of Bantú descent, which who carry on their Congo magical customs, their ngangas and inkisi. These songs, however, invoke or “call” the spirits of the dead — specifically, those who reside in the tree (palos).

The Pastor family consists of one-hundred members who continue practicing their rituals separately, mourning their relatives when they die, “a usanza gangá” — moving in circles around the cadaver, singing and dancing for them, accompanied by hand-clapping and one drum, and bidding their spirit farewell before daybreak. Therefore, these songs can be referred to as traditional for a wake.

Changó Mongó meló.

Sandemania bá o

lo lakuaya kuá

Kondombo lambá le hondo

Ñama Tákondo, ñámalo.

Yeyeyeo yayayaó.

Dale ba ti ti re.

Lañama dapindo wé maó.

Obé Obé Obé.

Yé a Tambulé.

Bamo iñale como tán lo Corayo.

Yoré ami mani o keo yoré.

Disc 6 Side B (13’12”)

Magó kueki baya arere

Changó de Oloyó gomeló

Yimbila vamo a yimbila

Cobayende ... Cobayende wá wá.

(Cobayende is identified with Babaluayé, god of disease, and San Lázaro.)

Ndiambo miralo indiambo que hora son.

Saku saku saku son vititi

Saku Ñame Colá

Ogún leo vamo pa la loma.