Kiribá Popular – Dance
Kiribá is an old peasant dance and music from Baracoa (Guantánamo), which together with nengón is a forerunner of changüí and son.
Origin
According to EcuRed, kiribá and nengón were already known in the second half of the 19th century: the mambises, the independence fighters, danced them when the war allowed a celebration. The Baracoa region and the far east of Guantánamo combine indigenous, African and European influences. Kiribá belongs to the traditional peasant festivities of Baracoa.
Music and dance
- Simplicity: unlike changüí and son, kiribá and nengón are simpler in execution.
- Lead singer and chorus: the lyrics have a rural flavour and alternate between lead singer and chorus, as in the refrain "¡Kiribá, kiribá! / Yo me voy pa' la montaña".
- Tingo talango: originally the tingo talango served as the bass: a flexible branch that, like a bow, tensions a string tied to a stone buried in the ground, an instrument of Congolese origin.
- Loose couples: all the dances are performed in loose couples (parejas sueltas).
Still alive
According to EcuRed, kiribá is now practised only in a few places in Guantánamo, Granma and Las Tunas. In El Güirito, a village some 20 kilometres from Baracoa, it has been passed down for more than a century. There the group Kiribá y Nengón, founded in 1982, keeps the tradition alive, with the annual Fiesta del Kiribá; the group has received, among others, the Premio Memoria Viva and the Premio Nacional de Cultura Comunitaria. See also Nengón and Changüí.