Birongo

Birongo, also spelled Bilongo, is a spiritual tradition found among Afro-Venezuelans in rural areas of Coastal Venezuela, especially that of Southern coastal Lake Maracaibo and in the subregion of Barlovento but with similar forms existing in Cuba and the Dominican Republic[1] to describe magico-religious traditions and folk healing of African origins as they are done among Afro-Venezuelans.

Alongside this, they use the psychological medicine of prayer and soothsaying to heal the patient as they call upon various saints who were syncretized with African deities.

[6] Alongside saints, ancestors have an important role in the practice of many Afro-Venezuelans, something which mirrors many other Kongo-based religious traditions such as Hoodoo and Palo Mayombe.

[7] Devotees often use liquor as a libation and offering to the spirits and saints in their rituals, along with tobacco smoke, and the occasional animal sacrifice along with drumming and singing to encourage the act of trance-possession which is common and often occurs during the most intense parts of drumming rituals and has its origins in African forms of worship and is characterized by screaming, dancing, and tingling sensations and can range from a simple trance state or trance-possession by the spirits of dead ancestors which can be caused by the consumption of tobacco and aguardiente.

The nkisi of the saint/deity itself is usually fed with animal blood, liquor, tobacco smoke, gunpowder, herbs (and herbal waters), and powdered bones to charge it with the energy of the saint.