Brazil: Candomblé, the Nations, and the Terreiros

Candomblé na the Afro-Brazilian religion of the orixá, wey dem arrange around the terreiro, wey be temple compound wey priestess or priest dey lead, wey person dey enter through initiation, and wey focus on how to grow and pass axé, wey be the vital force. E take clear institutional form for Salvador da Bahia for the first half of the nineteenth century and spread across Brazil for the twentieth century 12. E no be just one tradition but several, wey dem divide by nation, and the difference between dem na the first thing wey person need understand.

The nations, and wetin make the distinction matter

A nação, nation, inside Candomblé na name for ritual tradition: the liturgical language, the drum rhythms, the pantheon, the initiation sequence and the lineage. E no dey name the ancestry of the people wey dey practice am. Members of any nation fit come from any descent.

Ketu, wey dem also dey call Nagô, na the nation wey come from Yoruba, wey get name from the Yoruba town of Kétu for wetin be the Benin side of the border today. The liturgical language come from Yoruba, the spirits na orixá, and na this nation dominate the scholarly literature and the international image of Candomblé 1.

Jeje come from the Fon and Ewe traditions of the Dahomean coast. The spirits na voduns, the liturgical language come from Fon, and the ritual grammar na im own. The name come from Adja, wey dem begin use for Brazil from early eighteenth century 3.

Angola and Congo come from Central African, Bantu-speaking traditions. Their spirits na inquices or nkisi, their liturgical language draw mostly from Kimbundu and Kikongo, and many Angola houses don adopt the Yoruba orixá pantheon and plenty of the Ketu initiatic sequence join their own 4.

Two other points make the nations be more than just ordinary classification.

The first one na chronology. Luis Nicolau Parés argue say vodun practice wey the Jeje people carry come from early eighteenth century dey central to the formation of Candomblé, and say the common thinking say Candomblé start from Yoruba orixá worship get the sequence wrong 3. Jeje presence for Bahia happen roughly one century before the big Yoruba influx. Wetin come turn standard Candomblé initiation grammar fit get connection to vodun ritual reach as e get to òrìṣà ritual, with Yoruba content wey dem put on top structure wey already dey ground.

The second one na politics. Hierarchy dey for Bahia wey put Ketu on top Jeje and put both of dem on top Angola, for prestige, for scholarly attention and for claim of purity. Matory argument na say dem construct this hierarchy substantially for early twentieth century, through the Nagô purity discourse wey dem carry from Lagos and wey scholars from Nina Rodrigues go front strengthen as dem treat Nagô practice as the one wey evolve pass 5. E no be neutral measure of who preserve pass. A Yoruba reader suppose dey careful here: the tradition wey flatter Yoruba origins pass na still the one wey im primacy dey historically suspect pass.

Origins and the Bahian foundation

African religious practice don dey Brazil from the sixteenth century, but Candomblé as organised structured liturgy and community of practice form later 2. Between roughly 1775 and 1850, people from the Bight of Benin dominate arrivals for Bahia, and their cosmologies come strong pass among Afro-Bahians 2. Dem classify enslaved people into nations mostly by the port wey dem board ship pass, no be by their own ethnic identity, and na why Nagô for Brazil, just like Lucumí for Cuba, be trade category wey later turn religious one.

The founding house na Ilê Axé Iyá Nassô Oká, wey dem know as Casa Branca do Engenho Velho, for Salvador. Oral tradition hold am say na three African women from the Nagô nation start am, wey connect to the Barroquinha church and the lay brotherhood wey join to am, for the first half of the nineteenth century, probably around 1830, even though the earliest surviving documents wey prove say e exist date from late nineteenth century 16. Tradition name the founders as Iyá Nassô, Iyá Acalá and Iyá Adetá; document dey show the freed African woman Marcelina da Silva inside the house early leadership 12. Most Nagô terreiros for Bahia trace their lineage go back to this community 2.

Two out of the three most prominent Bahian houses na im branches.

Terreiro do Gantois, Ilê Iyá Omi Axé Iyamassé, na Maria Júlia da Conceição Nazaré found am for 1849 after leadership wahala for Engenho Velho, and dem build the terreiro buildings for 1900 under Mãe Pulquéria 7. The leader wey people know pass, Mãe Menininha do Gantois, Maria Escolástica da Conceição Nazaré (1894 to 1986), lead the house from 1922 and turn person wey the whole country know, wey Dorival Caymmi and Caetano Veloso celebrate for song and wey presidents visit 8.

Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá na Eugênia Anna Santos, Mãe Aninha (1869 to 1938) found am for 1910, through one group wey comot from Casa Branca 9. Mãe Aninha also start branch for Rio de Janeiro. For 1937, e establish the twelve Obás de Xangô, honorific male offices wey dem model after Ọ̀yọ́ court practice, based on advice from Martiniano Eliseu do Bonfim, the Bahian man wey study for Lagos 59. Na this one be the single clearest example for Bahia of twentieth-century institution wey dem build from direct African consultation and wey people now dey take as ancestral. The people wey succeed am include Mãe Senhora, Maria Bibiana do Espírito Santo, and later Mãe Stella de Oxóssi, Maria Stella de Azevedo Santos (1925 to 2018), wey stand publicly against syncretism and for 1983 sign declaration with other ialorixás to reject the practice of matching orixá with Catholic saints.

IPHAN, the national heritage institute, list Casa Branca for 1984, the first Afro-Brazilian religious site wey receive that kind protection 6.

Repression and legalisation

Police harass and monitor Candomblé for most part of im history.

Police raid on top Afro-Brazilian religious gathering dem increase for the 1820s and 1830s, for inside condition wey Haitian Revolution shape and, for Bahia, wey the 1835 Malê revolt shape. From 1822, laws allow police make dem shut down batuques, wey be drumming ceremony dem 2. The 1890 republican Penal Code ban spiritism, magic and the use of talisman, wey give police direct power against terreiros even though the 1891 constitution put religious freedom inside law 2. For practice, terreiros operate under police license systems reach mid-twentieth century, and dem require registration with police for Bahia until 1976.

Getúlio Vargas Law Decree 1202 for the 1930s recognize the legitimacy of terreiros and allow dem to practice, and the 1940 Penal Code give more protection 2. Legal tolerance and real freedom from harassment take many decades apart from each other.

Wetin Candomblé be, structurally

Axé na the main organizing concept: life force, power to make things happen, wey dey inside substance dem, word dem, blood, leaf dem, stone dem and people, and wey dem dey gather, transfer and use finish. One terreiro axé na im inheritance and working capital. The physical place wey e sit put dey buried inside the house ground. Initiation dey transfer axé; ritual dey maintain am.

The orixá dem na the deity dem: Exu, Ogum, Oxóssi, Ossain, Xangô, Oyá or Iansã, Oxum, Yemanjá, Nanã, Obaluaiê or Omolu, Oxumaré, Logunedé, Oxalá and others, with Olorum as the distant supreme being. Every initiate get tutelary orixá, the owner of their head, and dem fit get second one, the juntó. The name dem clearly come from Yoruba for inside Portuguese spelling, and the comparative file treat the link dem and their limit dem.

The head of one house na the ialorixá or mãe de santo, mother of saint, or the babalorixá or pai de santo. Under dem, structured hierarchy of position dem dey: the iyakekerê or little mother as deputy, the iyá basé over ritual cooking, the ekedi, women wey no dey enter possession and wey dey take care of the orixá when dem mount, the ogã, men wey no dey enter possession and wey dey serve as drummers, patrons and sacrificers, and the alabê over the drum dem.

The person wey dem initiate na the iaô, from the same Yoruba root as the Cuban iyawó. Initiation involve seclusion, shaving and preparation of the head, setting down the orixá, the emergence and naming ceremony where the orixá dey talk im name, and graded sequence of obligation dem at one, three and seven years, after which the initiate fit become ebomi and later start a house.

The public ceremony, the xirê, dey arrange the orixá through song dem and drum rhythm dem for prescribed order, with the initiates wey dey dance and the orixá wey dey enter through possession. The drum dem na the atabaques, wey dem dey beat with hand and stick dem, and the specific rhythm dem na ritual language just as the song dem be.

Possession na the normal way to make contact and dem no dey take am as extraordinary thing. The orixá dey enter, dem dey dress am and give am tools, e dey dance, fit give advice, and e go leave.

Regional variant dem

Candomblé na Bahian and Carioca for name, but the family of Afro-Brazilian orixá religion dem dey across the whole nation and get different regional name dem.

Bahia na the historical centre and the place where the big Ketu house dem dey. Rio de Janeiro get Candomblé alongside much bigger Umbanda presence and the practice dem wey dem dey sometimes call Macumba, one loose and often negative term for different Afro-Brazilian practice dem, wey dem dey use more specifically for Quimbanda and work wey focus on exu for Rio 10. Pernambuco and neighboring northeastern state dem dey call the tradition Xangô instead of Candomblé, with the Nagô and Eba nation dem, and e dey alongside Jurema, one tradition wey come from indigenous people wey dem dey frequently join am with 11. Maranhão get Tambor de Mina, with Mina-Nagô and Jeje house dem. Rio Grande do Sul get Batuque, with the Oió-Ijexá nation 12. The Shambá nation for Alagoas and Pernambuco don almost finish 12.

São Paulo dey show the twentieth-century spread clearly pass: from almost zero terreiro dem for the 1960s to around 2,500 for late 1980s and pass 4,000 by the end of 1990s 2. The growth of Candomblé for the south happen among people wey no get Bahian ancestry and often no get African ancestry at all, wey be the normal state of the religion now.

Umbanda na distinct formation

Umbanda no be Candomblé and no be Yoruba tradition, even though e dey use orixá name dem.

E come out for Rio de Janeiro area for the 1920s, as e mix Afro-Brazilian practice with Kardecist Spiritism and Catholicism 13. The main person na Zélio Fernandino de Moraes, wey start the Centro Espírita Nossa Senhora da Piedade for Niterói around the mid-1920s. For the founding story wey become popular from the 1970s, one spirit wey dem dey call Caboclo das Sete Encruzilhadas manifest through Moraes and defend the legitimacy of African and indigenous spirit dem wey mainstream Spiritist dem dismiss say dem never develop spiritually 13.

The structure of Umbanda na Spiritist. E take reincarnation and karmic evolution from Kardec and arrange spirit dem by level of evolution: orixás for the top, wey never dey incarnate, and wey dem often identify with Catholic saint dem; caboclos, spirit of indigenous Brazilian dem; pretos velhos, spirit of old enslaved African dem; and exus and pombagiras, entity dem wey never develop reach that level wey fit do harm or fit get redemption 13. Medium dem dey receive these spirit dem and the spirit dem dey give consultation. White Umbanda remove animal sacrifice and make initiation simple, while Africanised Umbanda keep practice dem wey close pass to Candomblé 13. Umbanda dey define itself against Quimbanda, wey e describe say dey work with spirit dem for bad purpose 13.

Di mata of whitening na real mata and people dey drag am. Di early institutional leadership of Umbanda na mostly white and middle-class people, dia theology borrow heavily from French Spiritist framework, and e make Afro-Brazilian religion get respect partly because e re-arrange am inside European evolutionary scheme where African spirits dey occupy low level. Whether dat one mean embranquecimento, whitening, or na genuine popular synthesis na wetin both scholars and Umbandistas dey argue, and Africanised Umbanda na partly response from inside.

For di time wey e reach peak for 1960s and 1970s, report talk say Umbanda get between ten to twenty million followers; census numbers far lower pass dat, as na only hundreds of thousands dey formally identify, even though actual participation dey reach millions 13. Dis gap between census identification and participation na standard feature of di whole field and dem discuss am for di world religion file.

Di current situation

Candomblé gain cultural respectability for late twentieth century, and at di same time, e come face level of physical attack wey e never face since di police era.

Attacks on terreiros for Brazil don increase well well. For 2023, 1,478 reports of religious intolerance reach di national human rights hotline, wey be 80 percent increase pass 2022, and attacks on religious freedom increase by another 81 percent between 2023 and 2024 according to official data 14. Attacks wey specifically target Umbanda and Candomblé followers triple 14. Incidents wey dem document include vandalism, stoning, burning of terreiros, threats against priests, loss of employment, and killings 14. For Rio de Janeiro, armed gang leaders wey profess evangelical conversion don destroy terreiros and pursue practitioners comot from areas under dia control 15.

How dem frame di mata dey important. Practitioners and Brazilian scholars dey increasingly use racismo religioso, religious racism, instead of religious intolerance, with di argument say di attacks dey follow Blackness and African origin pass doctrinal disagreement, and say terreiros dey face target in ways wey other minority religions for Brazil no dey face 16.

Against dis, di legal and cultural position don strengthen. Casa Branca don dey under federal protection since 1984 and other terreiros don follow. For 2023, President Lula sign law wey establish 21 March as National Day of Traditions of African Roots and Candomblé Nations 2. Brazil evangelical population dey continue to grow and dia Afro-Brazilian religious population small for census record and dem under-report am, wey make di political arithmetic no favour dem regardless of wetin di legal position talk.