What is "cohoba"

Cohoba is an old Taíno Indian transliteration for a ceremony in which the ground seeds of the cojóbana tree were inhaled in a twin-nasal, Y-shaped pipe (also called Cohoba), producing a psychedelic effect. The cojóbana tree is believed by some to be Yopo, Anadenathera peregrina, although it may have been a generalized term for psychotropics, including the quite toxic Datura and related genera ( Solanaceae). The corresponding ceremony using cohoba-laced tobacco is transliterated as cojibá. This corresponds culturally to the practice of drug-induced "astral traveling" so common to the Americas and elsewhere.

The practice of snuffing Cohoba was popular with the Taino and Arawakan peoples, with whom Christopher Columbus made contact.

Fernando Ortiz, the founder of Cuban Cultural Studies, offers a detailed analysis of the use of cohoba in his important anthropological work, .