Lengua y ritos del Palo Monte Mayombe: dioses cubanos y sus fuentes africanas. JESÚS FUENTES GUERRA & ARMIN SCHWEGLER, Madrid: Iberoamericana / Frankfurt am Main: Vervuert, 2005.

Abstract

This study of the lengua or ritual language of Palo Monte Mayombe, an Afro-Cuban religious practice of western central African origin, reveals its Kikongo etymology. This finding is important as the "African" elements of the lengua palera were previously assumed to be a confluence or mixture of various Bantu languages. The authors of this book argue that, despite strategies of simplification, restructuring and phonetic accommodation prompted by Cuban Spanish, the lengua palera apparently contains no non-Kikongo African elements.