In this article, I analyse patterns of classifications and naming of African "nations" in colonial Cuba. Based on parish records, I suggest possible interpretations of African patterns of classification, identities and social arrangements during the formation of Cuban plantations over the course of the eighteenth century. I discuss some of the methodological implications that can be explored regarding marriages of enslaved people in Cuba based on ecclesiastical sources, chiefly in the case of Guanabacoa. I have furthered the social/demographic analysis of "nations" in Cuba, underscoring how Africans could have been the agents of networks and alliances through organizational strategies and the formation of identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR].
"This essay addresses the horrific struggles of enslaved Africans during the "Middle Passage" and argues that the "Black Atlantic" can be considered as a form of existential crucifixion for those whose lives were decimated during the traversing of this oceanic divide between their old world and the new. The author argues that this existential crucifixion represents a kind of collective experiential-historical "Low Saturday" for Diasporan African peoples, in that the failure of full freedom to emerge for "us" suggests that Easter Sunday is an aspirational dream rather than a contextual reality." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]