Local News
Bata
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African descended Cubans.
Seattle’s community of Orisha practitioners is very
diverse, containing Cubans, African-Americans, Whites
and Puerto Ricans. Riedlinger and O’Neal say they’ve got-
ten widespread interest for their project. In fact, Riedlinger
says their first donor was a voodoo priestess in New
Orleans.
The Seattle group has a particular importance to the tradi-
tion because they possess consecrated drums. According to
Riedlinger, every consecrated bata drum has to be born
from another. This occurs during a ritual where the sound is
transferred from one set of drums to the next.
“These drums have their own ancestry,” he says. “They
traveled from Cuba to New York then to places like Miami
and then to Seattle. Why this group in Seattle is very impor-
tant in the larger diasporic community is because they have
these consecrated drums. They can do the really complex
rituals for healing in the community.”
The documentary will trace the history of the Afro-Cuban
drumming tradition to its roots in Cuba. At a certain point
during the 1800s, most of the slaves that were brought to
Cuba were coming from Nigeria, Benin and other Gold
Coast countries. Spanish colonizers forbade drumming,
since it was a means of communication. They organized
slaves into cabildos, which were African ethnic associa-
tions.
These cabildos resembled community centers and
enslaved Africans would use them for festivals and feasts.
The Spanish thought it would be easier to control and con-
vert the Africans to Catholicism if they were grouped
together based on ethnicity or geographic origin. Each
cabildo was assigned a different patron or patroness based
on a figure from the Catholic pantheon. For example, one
cabildo would be assigned Santa Barbara.
The Africans were able to communicate by masking their
African worship in Catholic imagery. For instance, the
crossroads is represented by the image of the cross. In the
Orisha tradition, the communication between the divine and
human beings is represented by the crossroads, which cor-
responds with the cross and the aforementioned Santa
Barbara.
“These were the only times where the slaves could collect
in large groups without the plantation owners thinking they
were fermenting revolts,” says Riedlinger. “This is the kind
of space, in secrecy, where this tradition was fostered.”
He says that around 1830, two enslaved Africans recreat-
ed the first documented set of bata drums in Cuba. They
went through a complex ritual to sanctify the drums, which
is now used in ceremonies, specifically healing ceremonies.
Neither Riedlinger nor O’Neal are practitioners. They say
Sidony O'Neal and Alex Riedlinger
the process of documenting Omo Alagba has been effective
in better helping them connect with their African heritage.
After growing up in the U.S., which is part of the Anglo-
phone diaspora, O’Neal says that being around people that
practice the Orisha tradition has helped open up conversa-
tions about her connection with Africa. She says the
concept of lineage is particularly interesting.
"There's a practice of moyuba, of always looking and call-
ing out the names of ancestors, and giving thanks for your
lineage and always having that present with you," says
O'Neal "there's a healing aspect of the tradition that goes
hand in hand with the bata drums... The drums are alive and
speak their own language to connect several different
worlds."
For more information, visit the Omo Alagba website
Police
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Aaron Campbell.
Rep. Greg Matthews of Gresham, who
introduced the bill, says the legislation is
needed to give vital union protections to
more public employees. And he says he is
stunned by the City of Portland’s opposition
to the bill.
“They’re not offering any amendments,
they’re not working with the bill spon-
sors to the fix what they think is wrong
with the bill,” he said. “We’ve had noth-
ing but opposition. They just want this
thing over and done and not passed.”
Mayor Hales says his efforts to work
with legislators have fallen on deaf ears.
“Our staff has met regularly with legis-
lators in Salem over this to express the
city’s concerns,” he says. “The city is
willing to work with the Legislature to
address these issues.
“My primary goal is to reform the culture
at the Portland Police Bureau. I have
expressed this to the senator. My staff has
expressed this to him and to other senators.
This is our primary concern here. The city’s
attorneys believe HB 2418 will be a barrier
to police reform. The senators seem to think
2418 will fix a problem, but they have trou-
ble articulating what that problem is. So I
including police and fire chiefs to be in the
union is beyond absurd.”
Currently the mayor is making a case
before the state Employee Relations Board,
saying the Police Commanders’ Association
should be decertified because it is inappro-
priate for managers to be in a union. More
than 51 police managers belong to the com-
manders union.
Hales says the bill will leave his case
dead in the water.
“HB 2418 drastically narrows the def-
inition of supervisor to allow unions to
petition to include the upper level man-
—Mayor Hales agement in the police and fire
departments in their membership,”
Hales says. “It essentially dissolves the
distinction between officers and man-
ple who are really lead workers, out of agers. At a time when the city is working
bargaining units in the 1990s with SB 750,” hard to reform the Police Bureau and the
Shields told The Skanner in an email. bureau’s relations with the community, the
“Allowing people who are essentially lead timing couldn’t be worse.”
Rep. Matthews says police and fire chiefs
workers back into the union is good for their
as well as deputy chiefs and other managers
families and reasonable public policy.
‘The sky is falling’ hyperbole doesn’t would be exempt from joining unions. He
hold up under even the most elementary considers many senior staff members have a
level of scrutiny. And the city’s credibility is hand in job transfers, reviews, suspensions,
plummeting around here because of it. The assignments and other activities that impact
claim that this bill will require everyone employee pay.
He also said he thinks the city’s opposi-
tion is rooted in the financial costs of paying
overtime to union employees and other con-
tractual obligations. Non-union employees
are expected to work any hours their bosses
demand and with fewer protections.
Asked how governments can fire police
officers who have lost public trust or proved
themselves unfit to serve, Matthews said
decisions should be made based on how
well officers followed correct procedures.
Officers shouldn’t be fired as a political
response to a public outcry.
He offered the example of two Oregon
State Police Officers, one a union member,
the other a Lieutenant, not eligible for the
union. Imagine they were in a life-threaten-
ing situation and followed every procedure
by the book, he said.
If deadly force was used and there was a
public outcry, one officer would have union
protections; the other might be fired simply
because a public swayed by emotion
demanded it.
The Oregonian’s editorial board, howev-
er, points out that Portland City employees
who don’t belong to a union do have the
right to appeal to city’s Civil Service Board.
mation gathered by Multnomah County’s
public safety coordinating council, shows
that 8,607 people—about one-third of the
neighborhood’s residents- live below the
official poverty line. And since one-third of
Rockwood’s residents also are under 18, the
neighborhood has a high concentration of
over, but it has a lot of work to do. And the
only other program is the Salvation Army,
which serves 40 children and has a long
waiting list.”
High crime rates have been a problem in
the neighborhood, but Nicewood says the
public perception of Rockwood as crime-
ridden doesn’t tell the true story.
“Rockwood has the highest density of any
neighborhood in Gresham with over 15,000
people,” she says. “When you look at the
statistics, it doesn’t have any more crime
per capita than any other area. So we want
to change that image.”
Other events planned for the summer
include:
Aug. 3: Nadaka Festival includes cleaning
up Nadaka Park from 9 a.m.-noon followed
by a community festival from 1 p.m.-3p.m.
Free hot dogs and fun for kids. Park is at
176th and Northeast Glisan.
Aug. 6: Rockwood Neighborhood Associ-
ation’s National Night Out from 5:30-8p.m.
at Vance Park, 1400 SE 182nd Ave.
have to ask: What’s the greater good?”
Sen. Chip Shields, chair of the Senate
committee currently considering the bill,
says it simply restores rights to public
employees who were shut out of unions in
the 1990s.
“Republicans rammed through a dramatic
change, taking lower-level supervisors, peo-
“...the timing couldn’t be
worse.”
Rock
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as well as music and dance, arts and crafts,
soccer, basketball and other fun activities.
Nonprofits, health and social service
agencies also will be at the celebration, to
let people know what’s available for them,
and to sign up children and teens for all
kinds of summer activities.
“Parents: come on out and encourage your
children to come out to be involved with
positive activities this summer,” says
Catherine Nicewood, president of Rock-
wood Neighborhood Association.
“We have a lot going on all summer.”
No kidding! The Rockwood Intercultural
Summer Experience, known as RISE, will
offer youth programs and activities
designed to keep children and teens safe,
healthy and happy.
A host of different agencies and nonprof-
its have come together to produce RISE,
including Pathfinders, the “I Have a Dream
Foundation,” Rosemary Anderson High
School, Reynolds School District, the City
of Gresham, and many more. The Aztec
Dancers, for example, say they will be in
the plaza from 7p.m. to 9p.m. every
Wednesday evening.
Making sure children and parents have
enough to eat is part of the plan. But the
details of where food will be provided are
still under discussion.
Making sure children and parents have enough
to eat is part of the plan.
“Rockwood has the second-highest
poverty rate in the state – behind Warm
Springs reservation,”
Nicewood says. The neighborhood is also
one of the most diverse in the city with size-
able numbers of Black, Latino and
immigrant residents.
Data from Pathfinders, which drew infor-
hungry children.
Nicewood says RISE was created to make
sure children and teens aren’t left to hang
out on the streets, hungry, penniless and
with nothing to do this summer.
“We did have the PAL Youth Center here,
but that’s gone,” Nicewood says. “ The
Boys and Girls Club is trying to take that
May 29, 2013 The Portland Skanner Page 3