Forbidden African Legacies in the Dominican Republic

Another legacy of the Trujillo dictatorship is the Concordat with the Catholic Church, recognizing Catholicism as the Dominican state’s official religion. The government subsidizes Protestant and Catholic churches, which even have offices in the National Palace. By law, the Bible must be taught in schools, and every September 27, the government celebrates “Bible Day.” Christian churches play a crucial role in the persistence of discriminatory tropes against Afro-Dominican heritage, as well as the legislation that crystallizes them. For example, the 2023 municipal communiqué announcing a ban on Gagá in Santa Cruz de El Seibo was signed not only by the governor and the mayor but also by representatives of Evangelical churches.

Neotrujillismo and Cultural Repression

The conflict between the ideological and institutional apparatus of the Dominican regime and cultural expressions of African origin is part of a broader system of racist repression. This has been described as an apartheid regime by various authors after the denationalization of hundreds of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent in 2013. Even intellectuals affiliated with the current government, such as the ambassador of the Dominican Republic in Mexico, Juan Bolívar Díaz, have denounced Dominican apartheid in the past.

Extensive academic literature recognizes Gagá, Vodou, and other cultural expressions of African origin as part of the Dominican cultural heritage, dating back to the first Spanish colony that brought an enslaved population of African origin in the 15th century. Sociologist Carlos Andújar observed that in the 1990s, more than 40 percent of homes in popular neighborhoods and rural sectors of the Dominican Republic had some altar or symbolic element related to Vodou. June Rosenberg, Dagoberto Tejeda, and Geo Ripley, among many other scholars, have written about the Dominican variant of this religion. Lusitania Martinez locates the beginning of the repression against Vodou and the music and dance of African origin to 1862 in the context of the short-lived re-annexation of the Dominican Republic by Spain. In 1992, the cult of the Cemetery Baron, the most popular manifestation of Dominican Vodou at the time, was banned. That same year, the Columbus Lighthouse, a large cross-shaped concrete building in Santo Domingo, was inaugurated by Balaguer to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Spanish conquest, exemplifying that “Spanishization” is an unfinished process.

During the current campaign of mass deportations, cultural persecution has intensified. In April 2022, local authorities of the ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), banned the celebration of the Gagá in the urban area of San Pedro de Macorís, confining it to the bateyes, marginalized communities linked to the sugar industry. San Pedro de Macorís, on the southeastern coast, has a long history of Haitian and English-speaking Caribbean immigration, where Gagá and Guloyas are strong traditions. At the time, the Ministry of Culture criticized the banning of Gagá. However, as Dominican artist Alicia Méndez points out, the ministry has said nothing about attempts by local authorities to ban the Gagá in Santa Cruz del Seibo and Boca Chica in the last two years, as well as other Afro-Dominican traditions such as the Cachúas de Cabral and Máscaras de Bánica.

María Cándido, a member of the Gagá de Los Jovillos community group in Yamasá, about 30 miles north of the capital, says that in 2022 her group was denied a municipal permit to perform processions in other communities. In 2023, the authorities again denied them the permit, claiming that “Gagá is not Dominican culture and the president does not like Gagá.” Similar prohibitions were registered in the communities of El Seibo, San Pedro, and San Luis. In March 2024, Gagá de Los Jovillos finally received a permit. “They were in an electoral campaign,” explains Cándido of the friendlier treatment received by municipal authorities last year.

Two months later, Abinader was reelected. During the campaign, he compared himself to Balaguer and insisted that there is “no Dominican solution to the Haitian problem.” Abinader’s regime defines Haitian immigration as an economic burden and a threat to sovereignty and national security. Massive deportations—around 500,000 between 2023 and 2024—have escalated after Abinader announced a goal of 10,000 deportations per week last October.

“African Influence is Everywhere”

In his 1983 book La Isla al revés, Balaguer affirmed that “African influence in our cultural manifestations has been almost imperceptible.” But the reality is quite different. Afro-Dominican heritage is evident in all popular Dominican musical genres, including merengue, bachata, and dembow, and in gastronomy and language—African influence is everywhere. Additionally, Gagá is a powerful tradition that has influenced many urban, jazz, and fusion musicians in the country. Many of these musicians gathered on April 1, 2023, to support the Gagá group from the batey La Ceja in a concert called Festigagá in Santo Domingo’s zona colonial. Notably, the concert took place despite death threats from the neo-Nazi organization Antigua Orden Dominicana, whose links to the National Police are well documented.

In the face of racist hegemony and official doctrine, a subterranean resistance in a country with an Afro-descendant majority has always existed. “Gagá is restricted on television, and at the level of the elites, but in the end all of us who are from below, Dominicans or Haitians, all get involved with the music. Nobody says that because it is African music they will not dance to it,” says María Cándido. 

Even if not on television, the drums will continue to sing.

Simón Rodríguez is an independent journalist and researcher based in the Dominican Republic.

Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=67be84df3d864fbeae1de4fff48e68c2&url=https%3A%2F%2Fnacla.org%2Fforbidden-african-legacies-dominican-republic&c=902196331068904806&mkt=en-us

Author :

Publish date : 2025-02-25 06:27:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.