{"product_id":"voice-of-the-leopard-african-secret-societies-and-cuba-paperback","title":"Voice of the Leopard: African Secret Societies and Cuba - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eIvor L. Miller\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eBassey E. Bassey\u003c\/b\u003e (Foreword by)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eVoice of the Leopard: African Secret Societies and Cuba\u003c\/em\u003e, Ivor L. Miller shows how African migrants and their political fraternities played a formative role in the history of Cuba. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, no large kingdoms controlled Nigeria and Cameroon's multilingual Cross River basin. Instead, each settlement had its own lodge of the initiation society called Ekpe, or \"leopard,\" which was the highest indigenous authority. Ekpe lodges ruled local communities while also managing regional and long-distance trade. Cross River Africans, enslaved and forcibly brought to colonial Cuba, reorganized their Ekpe clubs covertly in Havana and Matanzas into a mutual-aid society called Abakua, which became foundational to Cuba's urban life and music.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMiller's extensive fieldwork in Cuba and West Africa documents ritual languages and practices that survived the Middle Passage and evolved into a unifying charter for transplanted slaves and their successors. To gain deeper understanding of the material, Miller underwent Ekpe initiation rites in Nigeria after ten years' collaboration with Abakua initiates in Cuba and the United States. He argues that Cuban music, art, and even politics rely on complexities of these African-inspired codes of conduct and leadership. \u003cem\u003eVoice of the Leopard\u003c\/em\u003e is an unprecedented tracing of an African title-society to its Caribbean incarnation, which has deeply influenced Cuba's creative energy and popular consciousness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book is sponsored by a grant from the InterAmericas(r)\/Society of Arts and Letters of the Americas, a program of the Reed Foundation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow African secret societies changed the music, art, and history of Cuba\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIvor L. Miller\u003c\/b\u003e is senior lecturer in the Department of History and International Studies at the University of Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. He also holds a research fellowship from the African Studies Center at Boston University and is author of \u003ci\u003eAerosol Kingdom: Subway Painters of New York City \u003c\/i\u003eand coeditor (with P. González Gómes-Cásseres) of \u003ci\u003eThe Sacred Language of the Abakuá\u003c\/i\u003e, both published by University Press of Mississippi.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 432\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1 x 9.1 x 6.1 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e March 01, 2012\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44291493363814,"sku":"9781617033193","price":81.88,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0599\/7255\/0758\/files\/c0h2eDhDK2k3VGN5MS9ONXBMTktnZz09.webp?v=1766866466","url":"https:\/\/infinitylightwa.com\/products\/voice-of-the-leopard-african-secret-societies-and-cuba-paperback","provider":"Infinity Light","version":"1.0","type":"link"}