♦The first recorded mention of Umbanda comes in the 1920s from Niterói, in Rio de Janeiro, the state where in 1941 the First Congress of Umbanda Spiritualism was organized. The first references, however, also mentioned "Macumba", with the idea of differentiating between them, thus showing the pre-existence of similar practices. Many initiatives, independent of hierarchical control, made possible a rapport between elements of Catholicism, Kardecist Spiritualism and Afro-Brazilian traditions. A new religious genealogy emerged from this confusion, but showed that it was divided between the names "Umbanda" and "Quimbanda" or, more popularly, "Macumba".
♦Although they share the same set of beliefs, the two names reflect a difference in emphasis. Umbanda supposedly works "for good", while Quimbanda is distinguished by its intention to work "for evil". This is a simplistic interpretation, however, because the ambivalence between good and evil seems, in reality, to be characteristic of the fundamental myths of this strand of religion, which conceives of the cosmos as divided between different factions, which relate to each other through mystical attacks and defences. As in the struggles of love and other competitive situations, what is good for one party may be bad for the other, and vice versa.
♦The mythology of Umbanda has a clear sense of hierarchy. Religious beings are divided into seven "Lines", commanded by an orixá or Catholic saint. The lines are subdivided into "Phalanxes" and "Legions", which are made up of disembodied spirits in various stages of evolution. The main altar, which is known as "Conga", is usually decorated with large numbers of images and objects, illustrating the complexity of the Umbanda pantheon. The altars may have images of Christ, the Guide, Our Lady, saints such as St Lazarus, St George, SS Cosmas and Damian, orixás, 'pretos velhos', 'caboclos', candles, necklaces, flowers and sometimes non-religious icons, such as the Brazilian flag. Umbanda started between the wars, at a time of strong nationalism, and sees itself as a patriotic religion.
♦The cult centres around the "Gira", involving sacred music and dance. The drums mark out the rhythm, and the mediums chant the "ponto" under the leadership of the Mother or the Father of the Saint, dance in a circle and receive their spiritual guides, acting as their "horses" or "machines". Besides expressing their vital energy in dance, as in Candomblé, the Umbanda guides are there to counsel those devotees who approach them. They guide them and purify them by "passes" with their hands, which protects them against mystical attack to which they are subject.
♦The Mother and some of the more senior daughters of the saint receive devotees for consultations, which they do whilst "embodied" by their guides. Umbanda Centres are thus centres for evaluating and resolving a multitude of conflicts which assail people in their daily lives. They specialize in identifying the causes of unhappiness, and are well versed in local social psychology. They help to explain the problem and invest it with a higher meaning. The competitive round of daily life, where inequalities breed envy and resentment, results in the development of evil spells, or simply negative vibrations which do harm. The people of Umbanda (one might say, in large measure, the people of Brazil) take the "evil eye" seriously.
♦Umbanda is a notable cultural development, bringing to the interpretation and resolution of conflicts a cast of "marginal" characters, as opposed to the dominant symbolic hierarchies: fearless 'caboclos', who personify the untamed depths of the forest; 'pretos velhos', old black slaves with a life time of labour behind them, who have the realist wisdom gained from a life of suffering; 'exus' and 'pombas giras', identified with people of the street, who do not hide behind conventional social masks and who move easily through the tortuous ways of human conflict; and children, who have not yet reached the age of reason. These are the guides who give protection and advice. They are far from official authority, be it secular or religious, and possess powers outside the realms of traditional bureaucratic structures. Such powers are usually discarded by official ideologies, but find a home in Umbanda, where they can give a positive meaning to experience and destiny.
CANDOMBLÉ
►CANDOMBLÉ
Candomblé is a religion based on African beliefs which is particularly popular in Brazil. It is also practised in other countries, and has as many as two million followers.
The religion is a mixture of traditional Yoruba, Fon and Bantu beliefs which originated from different regions in Africa. It has also incorporated some aspects of the Catholic faith over time.
A religion which combines elements of many religions is called a syncretic religion.
Enslaved Africans brought their beliefs with them when they were shipped to Brazil during the slave trade.
The name Candomblé means 'dance in honour of the gods'.
Practitioners of Candomblé believe in one all powerful God called Oludumaré who is served by lesser deities. These deities are called orixas. (They can also be called voduns and inkices.)
Candomblé practitioners believe that every person has their own individual orixa which controls his or her destiny and acts as a protector.
Music and dance are important parts of Candomblé ceremonies. Specially choreographed dances are performed by worshippers to enable them to become possessed by the orixas.
There is no concept of good or bad in Candomblé. Each person is only required to fulfil his or her destiny to the fullest, regardless of what that is.
Candomblé is an oral tradition and therefore has no holy scriptures.
The first official temple was founded at the beginning of the 19th century in Salvador, Bahia in Brazil.
►BELIEFS
♦Deities
Practitioners of Candomblé believe in one all powerful God called Oludumaré who is served by lesser deities. These deities are called orixas, voduns and inkices.
Orixas are ancestors who have been deified. These orixas can be from recent history, perhaps only one hundred years old, or they may be over a thousand years old. Orixas are a link between the spiritual world and the world of humans.
Voduns and inkices are spirit gods, essentially the same as orixas. Candomblé is a synthesis of three African religions, Yoruba, Fon and Bantu, and Voduns and inkices are the names preferred by the other two sects. For the purposes of clarity, the term orixa will be used throughout the article.
Candomblé practitioners believe that every person has their own individual orixa which controls his or her destiny and acts as a protector. Each orixa represents a certain force in nature and is associated with certain foods, colours, animals and days of the week. A person's character or personality is strongly linked to their orixa.
Collectively, ancestor spirits are called 'Baba Egum' in Brazil. This is also known as 'Egungun' in other parts of South America.
During important ceremonies, priests and priestesses will masquerade as Baba Egum. Specially choreographed dances will be performed in order to become possessed of each ancestor spirit.
♦Concepts of good and bad
There is no concept of good or bad in Candomblé. Each person is only required to fulfil his or her destiny to the fullest, regardless of what that is. This is not a free ticket to do whatever you want though. Candomblé teaches that any evil you cause to people will return to you eventually.
The Baba Egum are important in regulating the moral code of Candomblécists. It is their responsibility to make sure that moral standards of the past are continued in the present. This is regulated during the worship ceremonies.
When a person becomes possessed of their ancestor spirit during the ceremony, they may act out scenes from the community to highlight both good and bad actions in a sort of public tribunal.
♦Holy scriptures
Candomblé is an oral tradition and therefore has no holy scriptures.
♦History
Candomblé is an African-Brazilian religion. It was born of a people who were taken from their homes in Africa and transplanted to Brazil during the slave trade.
The religion is a mixture of traditional Yoruba, Fon and Bantu beliefs which originated from different regions in Africa, and it has also incorporated some aspects of the Catholic faith over time.
The name itself means 'dance in honour of the gods', and music and dance are important parts of Candomblé ceremonies.
♦Candomblé and Catholicism
From the earliest days of the slave trade, many Christian slave owners and Church leaders felt it was important to convert the enslaved Africans. This was in order to fulfil their religious obligations but also in the hope of making the enslaved more submissive. Others also argue that enslaved Africans were religiously persecuted in order that they held no connection to a shared past.
Although the Church succeeded in many cases, not all Africans converted. Many outwardly practised Christianity but secretly prayed to their own god, gods or ancestor spirits. In Brazil, where Catholicism was popular, adherents of Candomblé saw in the worship of saints a similarity with their own religion. Candomblé practitioners often concealed the sacred symbols of their deities inside their corresponding Catholic saints.
In the segregated communities of America, it was easy to create Catholic religious fraternities where black people would meet with each other. These meetings, however, were actually an opportunity for Candomblé worship to happen and for feasts to be held on special religious days. They were also opportunities for the enslaved to gather and plan rebellions against their masters.
Many of the enslaved Africans from Bantu found a shared system of worship with Brazil's indigenous people and through this connection they re-learned ancestor worship.
♦Persecution and resurgence
Candomblé was condemned by the Catholic Church, and followers of the faith were persecuted violently right up through government led public campaigns and police action. The persecution stopped when a law requiring police permission to hold public ceremonies was scrapped in the 1970s.
The religion has surged in popularity in Brazil since then, with as many as two million people professing to follow the faith. It is particularly practised in Salvador da Bahia, in the north east of Brazil. Interestingly, many people from African countries visit Bahia in order to learn more about the faith of their ancestors.
For many followers it is not just a matter of religious belief but also of reclaiming the cultural and historical identity which slavery stripped them of.
There is also some movement to remove Catholic imagery from worship services, in an attempt to return the faith to its more fundamental origins.
►WORSHIP ♦Places of worship
Worship services used to be held in the homes of the enslaved. There are reports of dancing ceremonies taking place in Rio de Janeiro, and laws being made that forbade any person from attending these ceremonies. Anyone caught at such places were given from fifty to one hundred lashes.
There is an important distinction between sacred and profane places for Candomblécists. In profane places, ordinary everyday life occurs; work, play, relaxation and eating.
Sacred places are called terreiro or temples. They are buildings with indoor and outdoor spaces, and special areas for the gods. Worshippers wear clean clothes and splash water on themselves before they enter to rid themselves of the uncleanliness of the world.
Followers go to terreiro for a number of reasons. Many go to have their fortunes told. To do this, a priest or priestess casts cowry shells and interprets the pattern in which they fall. Others go for months to immerse themselves in the spiritual and become possessed by their orixa.
The first official temple was founded at the beginning of the 19th century in Salvador, Bahia in Brazil.
♦Women in Candomblé
Women are very important in the Candomblé faith. Services are usually led by women, called 'mothers of the holy one', and it is the women who are responsible for ensuring the training of future priestesses.
♦Dance during worship
Worship takes the form of specially choreographed dances and hymns. The dance is a call to the spirits. At its height, the worshipper's orixa temporarily possesses the dancer's body and he or she enters into a trance like state and dances alone. Finally the gods are expelled. This is done by singing the hymns again, but in reverse order starting with the last hymn.
African dancing was well known to the slave owners of South America. Even though the dance as a form of worship was forbidden, the enslaved would still dance in their free time in the fields.
These dances became important symbols of rebellion. Their rhythmic movements and rocking bodies belied the truth behind the dances. The enslaved Africans practised a form of martial art within the dances, seamlessly moving from attacking positions to defensive ones, learning to quickly gauge how to react to their opponent. This dance is called capoeira and has become increasingly popular in the West as an art form.
►INITIATION
♦A new initiate's story
Like many people who eventually found their spiritual home in candomblé I was drawn to it by a deep respect and fascination for the orixás, an admiration of its mythology, and by the charisma of a priest who invited me to join his temple. This priest ushered me into his spiritual home by casting a set of sacred cowries and determining the role my mother's and father's ancestors played in my life, what my destiny (odu) had in store for me, and what deities would guide me through my life. After many months of interacting with the members of the temple, and gaining their acceptance, a date was set for my initiation, whereupon I would receive the title of Odé Aperin, servant of the hunting deity Oxossi.
On the night of my initiation I arrived at the temple wearing old clothes, and was led to an ancestral grove in a candle-lit procession. For the next three days I underwent a series of rituals and libations that invited my deity to take charge of my inner, spiritual head. Due to my special relationship with another priest some rituals were performed in his presence. (Longer, more elaborate rituals are performed on initiates who become fully possessed by their deity.)
On the final day the temple was prepared for a great party, whereupon the hunting deities descended to celebrate life, dance and offer visitors a banquet featuring their favourite foods. Priests from other temples and 'nations' (Candomblé has several 'nations', reflecting the different African nations the slaves came from) arrived and I was presented to the community at large: a long line was formed and all those present embraced me and wished me well. The drummers sang in many different languages (yoruba, fon, bantu) as the night wore on and deities from these different nations arrived.
Once the African deities departed the party continued, the drummers moved outside the temple and played samba. This acted as a 'call' for the ancient spirits of the land (belonging to sailors, Indians, slaves) to 'arrive', arbitrarily possessing priests and other initiates. These fun-loving and mischievous entities made sure that even the shyest person (which was no longer me) had a beer or two before going home.
