BAD BLACK MEN AND COMICAL CHINESE 93

 Enrique Sosa in his study Los Radiigos (1982) traces the history of the cult
back to free slaves who worked as labourers in the ports of Havana and
Matanzas during the government of Miguel Tac6n (1834-36). Tac6n, while
being a particularly despised Spanish Governor, paradoxically tolerated all
kinds of African music and culture and allowed the AbakuA cult, among others,
to flourish. The film, which is shot in Havana, Guanabacoa, Regla and
Matanzas, is accurate in its locations because it is in these particular regions
where the sect survives today. According to Sosa it is

 [...] la finica sociedad secret de su tipo en nuestro continent con tan
 valiosos aportes a nuestro acerbo cultural y folkl6rico. (1982:11)

 Nevertheless the cult acquired the sinister reputation for being allegedly
responsible for numerous evils including murder. Sosa reports that in the
late nineteenth century, the cult was widely believed to be a refuge for
criminal elements that resulted in a great deal of popular mythology about
it. Hysteria was whipped up by the media of the day. Sosa remarks on
how the cult was established among urban working class blacks that also
used membership as a means to obtain work since the cult leaders were
often foremen. Based in the poorest areas of the city, some groups also
became the bases for gangs of thieves. In addition, the cult has two
branches, the Efik and Ekoi who from time to time quarrelled and fought one
another. This accounted for its sinister reputation that was then exacerbated
by the press:

 Algunos barrios de La Habana se hicieron famosos por la particular fisonomia
 que les dio la presencia en su vecindario de numerosos nfifigos, con la
 caracteristica en muchos de sus integrantes de una actitud exhibicionista,
 jaquetona y regida por normas especiales que abrieron los fambds [temples]
 a delincuentes o predelincuentes. En tiempos de enfrentamiento entire
 sociedades de las ramas efik y ekoi, la mala fama de dichos barrios, por su
 peligrosidad social, con la del fifiigismo, se increment, a lo cual contribuy6
 hiperbolizando hechos y denigrando sus ritos y sistema de creencias, la prensa
 mis desvergonzada y sensacionalista del pals. (1995: 35) 3

 Lydia Cabrera points out that the first such stories about the fiffigos
were put about 'a mediados del siglo pasado' by Don Antonio de las Barras
y Prado whom she quotes as writing in Memorias sobre la Habana:


3 An illuminating sensual (and possibly pejorative) connotation is offered by the
word fambd. Ortiz in his Glosario de afronegrismos (1991: 193 first published in
1924) tells us that fambd is both the name of the fiafiigos' place of worship and a
vulgar term meaning a person's behind, whereas Santiesteban (1985: 205) lists the
definition merely as a masculine noun meaning 'trasero' (behind).