The Demajagua Museum It is a simple construction, touched by the history of Cuba and the oldest cults and traditions that arrived from Africa with the slaves that were brought to the Island from that continent in colonial times. Its walls are symbols of a crucial moment in the history of Cuban independence.
The old sugar plantation of La Demajagua, is recognized as a Cuban symbol, because there an event took place that changed the course of the island that was destined to be one more Spanish colony.
But on October 10, 1868, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes rang the famous hacienda bell and freed his slaves, many of whom followed him on the long road to the wars of independence.
The museum is located on the Manzanillo highway towards Media Luna for 10 kilometers; then it twists and you travel 3 more kilometers in the direction of the coast.
There we can not only witness a crucial event in the history of Cuba, but also the traditions that the slaves of the hacienda brought from their beloved Africa.
Ancestral traditions in La Demajagua
This Museum is located in the sugar mill that bears his name in the La Demajagua National Park in the province of Granma, in the south-eastern region of the Island of Cuba.
The La Demajagua Museum in itself it is a legend surrounded by mysticism. It is said that, after the liberation of the slaves of the place, a large tree was born inside a giant gear, perhaps as a symbol of freedom and Afro-Cuban religion.
In addition, the museum keeps reminders of that time, of the ancestors, of the African slaves, objects full of history. A cultural space that collects important treasures with great heritage value.
For this reason, the building constitutes a testimony of those years, and elements have been found there that tell us about the time of slavery.
The collection of testimonial objects that houses the museum preserve the memory of those times also in the shackles and chains to chain the slaves, ceramics that kept the religious attributes that were found when the construction works of the museum began, the weapons they used when they joined Céspedes and the first mambí army and the symbol of the war of independence, the bell of La Demajagua.
Lawns and free men
The stories go that when Carlos Manuel de Céspedes bought the La Demajagua sugar mill, he decided to make some important changes in the way he treated slaves.
He began to pay them a salary for their work on the hacienda and finally freed them from slavery, causing many to identify with that already palpable Cuban identity and to begin the process of forming their own nationality.
