Cacao’s role in life, death and in fending off the boogeyman

(Ripe cacao ready for harvest)

Cacao, the main ingredient in chocolate, has played an important role in the religious and economic history of Latin America for thousands of years. Cacao seeds, were once so valued that they were traded as currency in Mexico. While they might not be quite as valuable today, they are still an important part of the economy and culture in many places, including Panama.

The Caribbean side of the Comarca and the Bocas del Toro region depend heavily on the export of cacao as a major income source, while on the Pacific side of the Comarca, coffee is the main cash crop. On both sides of the Comarca, however, cacao also serves an important role in the spiritual lives of the Ngöbe people. Cacao seeds are toasted, ground and consumed as a hot or warm drink -- not as the sweet chocolate we know and love in the States. Unlike the saccharine coffee that is custom here, they take their cacao with no sugar and definitely not with milk (they probably would if they had milk though). Although the majority of people here in the Comarca now believe in some form of Christianity, cacao is still an important part of life and death rituals. For example, when a child is born, the entire family stays up for four nights drinking hot cacao in order to ward off evil spirits that might injure or kill the baby. In death, as soon as a person is buried, the entire community comes to join the family in a cacao drinking ritual for four nights. Again, this is to ward of the evil spirits that might not let the soul pass into the afterlife. One month after the death of the family member, everyone reunites one last time to stay up all night and drink cacao together. This brings a sense of closure to the loss and signifies that it is time to move on.


(Another ripe cacao pod ready for harvest)

These evil spirits that afflict the young and dead are known as the choka (pronounced “cho-gwa”) and are a huge perceived threat in the Comarca. A choka has it has been described to me in many forms. The first and most common are the choka that affect newborns and the recently deceased, but they can also come unexpectedly to wreak havoc on the healthy and fit. The choka can take the form of the devil, a demon, a witch, a ghost, a possessed animal or- in my interpretation- the classic boogeyman! The only prevention method one can take is to drink 4 cups of bitter cacao before walking alone through the woods or being anywhere alone. The seven snakes that I have killed in my house have been blamed on the choka. Their suggestion to this bizarre snake invasion? Burn tobacco and drink cacao, four cups every night for a week.

If you ever see a dog that is wandering around without an owner or a chicken that appears out of nowhere and seems to have no home, it’s probably a choka and one should take extra precautions to not be terrorized. The worst kind of choka that I’ve heard about comes in the form of a person, the size of a small child but with a long tail. This is the most dangerous kind, as they will violate men or women, turning their victims in to chokas also. The prevention and cure, again, is drinking four cups of bitter cacao. I still haven’t gotten to the bottom of why the number four seems to keep popping up in their cacao rituals. No one around here can tell me why either- “it’s just what we do,” they tell me. In any event, I have developed my own ritual of drinking delicious cacao (although I prefer it with milk and honey)- which has a ton of health benefits and has the added perk of protecting me from the boogeyman! I am so fortunate to have lived in the land of coffee, chocolate, and honey for the past two years!


(Cacao pods and coffee being harvested at the same time)