The 17th edition of the Timbalaye International Festival opened today at the historic Plaza de los Trabajadores in this Cuban city.

Following a street parade through the city’s Historic Center, recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, the event is dedicated to honoring Congolese culture and its African diaspora in the Caribbean as a pillar of Cuban identity.

The festival, which celebrates cultural resilience in the face of transculturation processes, featured the panel “Traces of Congo Culture in Camagüey.”

Professor Isel Balibrea noted that “Camagüey was a major economic hub reliant on enslaved labor, where Congolese, Carabalí and Mandinga people predominated.”

She explained how these groups “created cabildos and mutual aid societies to adapt to the new environment,” leaving their mark on “music, dance and even visual arts with figures such as Oscar Lasaye, as well as on culinary traditions, from quimbombó to honey.”

Researcher Roberto Peña, who studies religious traditions, presented findings from a 2017–2019 study on “the particularities of the Palo Monte tradition in Camagüey,” stressing that “safeguarding these traditions is essential, as they are part of the foundation of Cuban identity.”

A professor at the Higher Institute of the Arts also emphasized that “the University of Camagüey is engaged in preserving this legacy through its Cultural Heritage Management program,” which examines Congolese settlements in the Historic Center.

In the afternoon, participants will visit the Casa Templo (Ilé Osha) of Pablo Hernández, president of the Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba in Camagüey, for an immersive experience showcasing living religious practices of the Congolese tradition.

The closing ceremony will include the presentation of the Timbalaye Recognition Award, an exhibition of traditional Congolese dishes, and a concert by Rumbatá, led by Wilmer Ferras, in Plaza del Gallo, concluding the celebration in grand fashion.

Yoelxy Pillinier, president of the Slave Route Committee, stressed that the festival strengthens “the bond with rumba as a source of pride in the legacy of the ancestors,” reaffirming the guiding Congolese proverb of the event: “The footprints of people who walked together are never erased.”

This edition reaffirms Timbalaye as a vital space for the study and preservation of African roots within Cuban culture, while projecting that identity onto the international stage.