Paper short abstract:

This presentation highlights the modalities of Abakuá’s transnationalism and how initiate’s bodies perform a religious belonging in public spaces, despite the prohibition placed on practicing rituals outside of Cuba.

Paper long abstract:

Nowadays, in the Afro-Cuban religious field, the Abakuá-a masculine secret society- is the only cult that cannot be considered transnational and is exclusively present in the realm of western Cuba. In fact, this territorial anchorage has two principals reasons : (1) the ritual and its particularities : all participants of this cult are initiated with a sacred drum which, according to the cult's rules, is meant to stay in this particular area in order to keep its efficiency in the rite, (2) the system of recruitment of its disciples : before the initiation, an investigation of the candidate's antecedents is engaged in the districts of Havana.

Consequently, there are no abakuá religious ceremonies held outside of Cuba despite the high number of Cuban migrants in the United States, especially in Miami.

However, the Cuban Diaspora in the USA is currently creating new forms of religiosity and is seeking for recognition of its doing. On both sides of the Atlantic, this quest for legitimacy is related to religious practices and discourses as well as sociability and the construction of masculinity in public spaces. Therefore, this paper questions how religious belonging is transnationally staged/practiced in both the local Cuban and American contexts ? The religious practices do not limit themselves to the rite but also have impact on the participant's bodies and in extension on their everydaylife. Thus, the sacred and the profane are simultaneously embodied by the abakuá participants in Cuba and the USA where Abakuás also perform a distinctive identity.