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206 Pembroke Ritual Abuse Case
me” (Canizares 1993, 91). Among Afro-Cubans,
Palo is equated with magic, while Santeria is
regarded as a religion of devotion to the higher
powers. As another point of contrast, Santeria has
been mostly politically neutral, and not a vehicle
for social protest. Palo, on the other hand, has a
long history of resistance. Generally speaking,
paleros devote significantly less time to the
worship of saints and deities than the do santeros
(Santeria practitioners). Most of a palero/palera’s
religious time is spent caring for his/her prenda,
the spirit of his/her corpse.
Palo is frequently regarded as witchcraft, and it
is easy to see why. The palero’s iron cauldron is a
frightening instrument, associated in the Western
mind with black magic. The following description
of the making of a ganga, from Migene Gonzalez-
Wippler’s Santeria: The Religion, is cited in
Canizares (1993, 92–93):
The [palero] waits until the moon is
propitious, and then he goes to a cemetery
with an assistant. Once there, he sprinkles
rum in the form of a cross over a pre-chosen
grave. The grave is opened, and the head,
toes, fingers, ribs, and tibias of the corpse are
removed....The [palero] insists on having a
head in which the brain is still present. ...
After the macabre remains are removed from
their graves, they are wrapped in a black
cloth and the [palero] and his helper return
to the [palero’s house]. ...[After] the spirit
of the [corpse] takes possession of [the
palero,] the assistant asks the spirit if it is
willing to work for the [palero]. ...Once the
spirit accepts the pact, the grisly ceremony is
ended. The [palero then] writes the name of
the dead person on a piece of paper and
places it at the bottom of a big iron
cauldron, together with a few coins. ...The
body’s remains are added to the cauldron,
together with some earth from the grave.
The [palero] then makes an incision on his
arm with a knife that must have a white
handle, and lets a few drops of blood fall into
the cauldron, so that the [ganga] may drink
and be refreshed. ...After the...blood has
been sprinkled on the remains, the [palero]
adds to the cauldron the wax from a burnt
candle, ashes, a cigar butt ...some
lime[,] ...a piece ofbamboo...filled with
sand, sea water, and quicksilver . . . [as well
as] the body of a small black dog. ...Next to
the dog, a variety of herbs and tree barks are
placed inside the cauldron. The last
ingredients to be added are red pepper, chili,
garlic, ginger, onions, cinnamon, and rue,
together with ants, worms, lizards, termites,
bats, frogs, Spanish flies, a tarantula, a
centipede, a wasp, and a scorpion.
This necromantic sect has a fascinating history
that is too involved to develop here. It exhibits a
fusion of practices deriving from a wide variety of
different traditions. First and foremost a magical
system, Palos cosmogony and theology takes
second place to the techniques for supernaturally
manipulating the environment in order to obtain
specific results.
See also Vodoun
For Further Reading:
Canizares, Raul. “Palo: An Afro-Cuban Cult Often
Confused with Santeria.” Syzygy: Journal of
Alternative Religion and Culture 2, no. 1–2
(Winter/Spring 1993): 89–96.
———. “Epiphany and Cuban Santeria.” Journal of
Dharma 15, no. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 1990): 309–313.
Gonzalez-Wippler, Migene. Santeria, the Religion.
New York: Harmony Books, 1989.
Pembroke Ritual Abuse Case
In June 1994, six men from Pembroke, West Wales,
were convicted of child sexual abuse in a Satanic
ritual abuse case. It was the largest case of its kind
in British history.
The Pembroke case began modestly after an
eight-year-old boy went to live at a foster home in
the wake of his parents’ breakup in 1990. A year
after the child began long-term therapy with a
social worker, he accused his parents of sexual
abuse. The boy further described group orgies
with other children and adults at area farms and
quarries. The father was then locked up.
Suspecting that he had also abused his girlfriend’s
children, authorities removed three of the children
from her care. However, after no confirming