"CON LICENCIA DE ZARABANDA": VIOLENCIA Y RITUAL EN EL PALO MONTE EN BOGOTÁ.

In Cuba, amongst many Afro-Cuban religions, there is the Palo de Monte religion, also known as Regla Conga. This religious-and-therapeutic, Bantu-influenced practice is now a widespread practice in Bogotá, Colombia, where it recreates certain elements taken from other religious experiences such as the Regla de Ocha and spiritualism. The scenario presented in this essay is based upon ethnographic research and narrative analysis, and it intends to explain how when people experience extreme situations which undermine their ontological certainty, they start to redress the existential order by starting a specific ceremonial path which involves Palo de Monte.The focus is upon a Palo de Monte ceremony which took part in Bogotá, Colombia. The occasion was the visit of a Mexican-Colombian medical doctor who traveled from México City to seek a healing cure to a trabajo (sorcery) which was placed upon her by a former lover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]