Candomblé and Umbanda: Brazil's Afro-Brazilian Religions

Candomblé and Umbanda are the two best-known Afro-Brazilian religions. Candomblé, which took shape in nineteenth-century Bahia, preserves the worship of African deities, chiefly the Yoruba orixás, through initiation, sacred music and spirit possession in communities called terreiros. Umbanda, which emerged in early twentieth-century Rio de Janeiro, blends African spirits with Kardecist Spiritism, Catholicism and Indigenous Brazilian figures, and presents itself as a distinctively Brazilian religion of charity and spiritual healing.

Origins in Bahia and the Nations of Candomblé§

Brazil received more enslaved Africans than any other country in the Americas, probably over four million, and the port of Salvador da Bahia was one of the main centres of the trade. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, captives from the Bight of Benin, including many Yoruba (called Nagô in Brazil) and Fon (called Jeje), joined older populations from West Central Africa. Brotherhoods, mutual-aid societies and urban networks of free and enslaved Africans allowed religious knowledge to be preserved and recombined.

The term Candomblé came to designate organised houses of worship, each a terreiro, led by a priestess or priest. Tradition holds that the Casa Branca do Engenho Velho in Salvador, founded by African women in the early nineteenth century, is the oldest surviving Ketu house; its exact founding date is uncertain, but it was listed as national heritage in the 1980s, the first Afro-Brazilian temple so recognised. From it descend other celebrated houses, including the Terreiro do Gantois and the Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá, founded in 1910 by Mãe Aninha (Eugênia Anna dos Santos).

Candomblé is divided into nações that reflect their African heritage:

• Ketu (Nagô) houses worship the Yoruba orixás and sing in a liturgical Yoruba;
• Jeje houses serve the vodun of the Fon and Ewe, the same spirits served in West African Vodun;
• Angola and Congo houses serve the inquices (from Kikongo nkisi), and often honour caboclo spirits as well.

A striking feature of Bahian Candomblé is the prominence of women. The anthropologist Ruth Landes called Salvador a "city of women" in her 1947 study, describing a priesthood in which senior mães-de-santo held great authority. Male priests (pais-de-santo) also lead many houses, and the balance varies between nations and lineages.

The Orixás, Axé and the Terreiro§

At the centre of Ketu Candomblé stand the orixás, deities associated with forces of nature and with human vocations, all ultimately derived from Olorum, the supreme God. Among the most widely served are:

• Exu, messenger and guardian of crossroads and communication, saluted first in every ceremony;
• Ogum, lord of iron, technology and paths;
• Oxóssi, the hunter, patron of the Ketu nation;
• Xangô, king of thunder and justice;
• Oxum, of fresh water, gold, fertility and love;
• Iemanjá, mother of the sea, honoured in great public festivals;
• Iansã (Oyá), of winds, storms and the dead;
• Omolu or Obaluaiê, of disease and healing;
• Oxalá, the elder of creation, dressed in white.

The power that flows through people, objects and places is called axé (Yoruba àṣẹ). A terreiro is a reservoir of axé, built around consecrated shrines (assentamentos) and a sacred central post. Each person is believed to have a "head" orixá who governs their character, identified through divination. In Bahia, many orixás are also associated with Catholic saints, for example Oxalá with the Senhor do Bonfim, and the annual washing of the steps of the Church of Bonfim has become a major popular festival, though some leading priestesses since the 1980s have called for a separation of the orixás from the saints.

Initiation, Festivals and Divination§

Entry into Candomblé proceeds through stages. Initiation proper, often called feitura ("making the saint"), involves a period of seclusion in the terreiro, during which the novice (iaô) learns songs, dances and obligations and is consecrated to their orixá. Seniority is reckoned by years since initiation, and the house functions as an extended religious family.

Public ceremonies (festas or xirês) bring the community together. Drummers play the sacred atabaques, songs are sung in order to each orixá, and initiates may be possessed by their deities, who are then dressed in their emblems and colours and return to dance before the assembly. Food is central: each orixá has dishes, and shared meals close many ceremonies.

Divination by cowrie shells, the jogo de búzios, is performed by senior priests to diagnose problems and identify a person's orixá. It is related to the Yoruba systems of Ifá and sixteen-cowrie divination practised in Santería or Lucumí.

The Birth of Umbanda in Early Twentieth-Century Rio§

Umbanda grew up in the cities of south-eastern Brazil in the early twentieth century. Its best-known founding narrative tells how on 15 November 1908, in Niterói, a young man named Zélio Fernandino de Moraes received at a Kardecist Spiritist session a spirit calling itself the Caboclo das Sete Encruzilhadas (Caboclo of the Seven Crossroads), who announced a new religion open to the spirits of Indigenous people and enslaved Africans that Spiritist circles had rejected. Historians such as Diana Brown treat this as a foundation narrative rather than a precise historical record, and note that similar practices were developing in several places at the same time.

Umbanda combined elements from four sources: the African orixás, Catholic saints and prayers, the doctrine of reincarnation and spirit communication drawn from Allan Kardec's Spiritism, and Indigenous Brazilian figures. Federations were founded in the 1930s, and a first Umbanda congress met in Rio in 1941, seeking to present the religion as respectable, rational and Brazilian. Many early leaders stressed charity and moral evolution and distanced themselves from what they called "African" practices, though later movements re-emphasised African roots.

Caboclos, Pretos-Velhos and the Spirits of Umbanda§

Umbanda works mainly with spirits of the dead organised into "lines" (linhas) under the orixás. Mediums incorporate these spirits during sessions (giras), in which they offer counsel, cleansing and healing to visitors.

• Caboclos are spirits of Indigenous Brazilians, proud and forthright, associated with forests and with Oxóssi.
• Pretos-velhos ("old Black people") are spirits of elderly enslaved Africans, patient and wise, who sit on low stools, smoke pipes and give gentle advice. Their figure carries the memory of slavery into worship.
• Crianças or erês are child spirits, playful and sweet-loving, celebrated around the feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian on 27 September.
• Exus and pombagiras are street spirits of the crossroads, often treated as more ambiguous. In Quimbanda, a related tradition, they are the main focus of practice.

Persecution, Recognition and Religious Intolerance Today§

Afro-Brazilian religions were long treated as crimes or public-health problems. Under the 1890 Penal Code, charges of "spiritism", "magic" and the illegal practice of medicine were used against them, and police registration of terreiros persisted in some states into the second half of the twentieth century. Scholars such as Roger Bastide, Pierre Verger and Juana Elbein dos Santos documented Candomblé from the 1940s onward, and leading priestesses such as Mãe Menininha do Gantois became national figures.

Today Candomblé and Umbanda are protected by the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom, and several terreiros are listed as cultural heritage. They nonetheless face attacks and vandalism, often attributed to religious intolerance. In 2007 Brazil established 21 January as a National Day for Combating Religious Intolerance, commemorating Mãe Gilda, a Bahian priestess who died in 2000 after her terreiro was attacked. Census figures record only a small share of Brazilians as adherents, but many more people consult terreiros while identifying as Catholic. On common stereotypes, see Voodoo myths and misconceptions.

Frequently asked questions§

What is the difference between Candomblé and Umbanda?§

Candomblé centres on the worship of African deities through initiation and possession by the orixás, and values ritual continuity with Africa. Umbanda is a younger, more syncretic religion that works mainly with spirits of the dead, such as caboclos and pretos-velhos, and incorporates Spiritist and Catholic ideas.

Is Candomblé the same as Santería?§

They are sister religions. Both descend largely from Yoruba religion and serve the orishas, but Candomblé developed in Brazil and Santería (Lucumí) in Cuba, with different languages, rituals and histories.

Who is Iemanjá?§

Iemanjá is the orixá of the sea and motherhood, derived from the Yoruba Yemọja. On 2 February large crowds in Salvador bring flowers and gifts to the sea in her honour, and on New Year's Eve many Brazilians, whatever their religion, offer white flowers on the beaches.

Is Exu the devil?§

No. Exu is the messenger orixá who opens paths and carries offerings. Missionaries and some later Christian groups identified him with Satan, but in Candomblé he is an indispensable intermediary, saluted first in every ceremony.

Sources and further reading§

• The African Religions of Brazil — Roger Bastide, 1960
• The City of Women — Ruth Landes, 1947
• Umbanda: Religion and Politics in Urban Brazil — Diana DeGroat Brown, 1986
• Black Atlantic Religion: Tradition, Transnationalism, and Matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé — J. Lorand Matory, 2005
• Secrets, Gossip, and Gods: The Transformation of Brazilian Candomblé — Paul Christopher Johnson, 2002
• A Refuge in Thunder: Candomblé and Alternative Spaces of Blackness — Rachel E. Harding, 2000
• Working the Spirit: Ceremonies of the African Diaspora — Joseph M. Murphy, 1994