Candomblé

Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion of Yoruba, Fon, and Bantu origin developed primarily in the Northeast by African slaves from Nigeria and their descendants. Candomblé may have been introduced as early as the eighteenth century, but it became firmly entrenched in Afro-Brazilian culture in the early nineteenth century, when enslaved members of the Oyo and Dahomey empires flowed into Brazil. The Candomblé community of Engenho Velho in Bahia, perhaps the oldest in Brazil, was founded around 1830. Oral tradition also dates the Casa das Minas of Maranhão to the mid-nineteenth century. "Candomblé" is the term specifically given to the religious traditions developed by Africans from the Gulf of Guinea, but it is often broadly applied to any Afro-Brazilian religion incorporating divination and possession ritual. In the Americas, it is most closely related to Santería, developed in Cuba by slaves from the same regions of West Africa.

Candomblé is based on the principles of harmony and balance between human beings and the forces of nature. All living beings and natural phenomena are considered creations of one supreme god, called Olodumare, and each is made of axe, divine energy. Different complexes of axe make up individual people, as well as phenomena such as rainbows, thunder, and wind. Axe may also take the specialized form of Orixás, deities who personify specific aspects of Olodumare.

In Brazil, orixás are the principal intermediaries between humans and God; ancestor worship was not equally cultivated, although it is an integral part of the religion's African tradition. Through divination and possession rituals, priests communicate with orixás to determine the causes of specific problems, and to find out the steps necessary to correct them. Devotees of Candomblé undergo extensive initiation, during which time they learn the various means of communicating with spiritual forces in order to maintain a harmonious balance of sacred energies.

In the Oyo and Dahomey empires each town worshipped a patron orixá. Some, like Xangô, the royal orixá of the Oyo kings, became popular throughout the entire empire. During the slave trade African towns such as Kêtu and Abeokuta lost large numbers of inhabitants to Brazil. These people brought with them the cults of their orixá, and eventually Afro-Brazilians incorporated the worship of all the major orixás in each community of devotees. Candomblé represents an adaptation of many traditions to the conditions of the New World. Because African slaves were forcibly baptized and converted to Catholicism, they were unable to practice Candomblé openly. They continued to secretly worship African deities by outwardly equating them with Catholic saints in a process of Syncretism.

In Brazil, Candomblé has an important social aspect. Each community is divided into houses (iles), which create new familial relationships among devotees. The senior initiate, traditionally a woman, is considered a spiritual mother (mãe de santo). As head of the household, she is responsible for the spiritual well-being of all the initiates, including the observance of obligations and annual celebrations for the orixás, as well as for the household's material needs. Seniority is based upon the number of years an individual has been initiated, regardless of chronological age. Respect for elders is rigidly observed, as are other values imparted through the social aspect of Candomblé. The distribution of responsibilities, hierarchies, and specific cultural and ritual traditions varies, based on the size and ethnic origins of the house. Many houses identify themselves with the names of African "nations," such as Kêtu, Gege, or Mina. These communities are also known as terreiros or roças, references to the land they occupy. In Brazil, portions of the terreiro are devoted to a specific orixá, where its sacred objects are kept.

Candomblé worship has been traditionally discouraged by supporters of the Catholic Church and other Christian sects. In the 1920s and 1930s police regularly raided terreiros in major cities such as Salvador and Recife, confiscating ritual objects and imprisoning worshippers. Candomblé began to gain broader acceptance in the 1930s, as international scholars convened in two Afro-Brazilian congresses. These academics pressed for the acceptance and appreciation of Candomblé as part of Brazil's African cultural heritage. Simultaneously, Candomblé principles were gaining wider acceptance through the related syncretic religions of Umbanda, and to a lesser extent, Macumba, Caboclo, and Quimbanda. In each of these religions, devotees consult deities or spirits for answers to their problems through divination or possession ritual. Some of these traditions, such as Candomblé Caboclo, originated during slavery through the intermingling of African and indigenous religious rituals.

Candomblé is now practiced openly, although it remains concentrated in its area of origin, the northeastern region. Although traditionalism is a hallmark of most terreiros, innovation can also be seen as Candomblé continues to evolve. Some Candomblé houses maintain ongoing relationships with their counterparts in West Africa and in other communities in the Caribbean and North America where Yoruba-based religion is practiced.

See alsoAfrican-Latin American Religions: Brazil .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Raymundo Nina Rodrigues, O Animismo Fetichista dos Negros Bahianos (1935).

Donald Pierson, Negroes in Brazil: A Study of Race Contact at Bahia (1942).

Edison Carneiro, Candomblés da Bahia, 3d ed. (1961).

Roger Bastide, The African Religions of Brazil: Toward a Sociology of the Interpenetration of Civilizations, translated by Helen Sebba (1978), and O Candomblé da Bahia, 2d ed. (1978).

Gary Edwards and John Mason, Black Gods: Orisa Studies in the New World (1985).

Manuel Querino, Costumes africanos no Brasil, 2d ed. (1988).

Additional Bibliography

Harding, Rachel E. A Refuge in Thunder: Candomblé and Alternative Spaces of Blackness. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2000.

Johnson, Paul C. Secrets, Gossip, and Gods: The Transformation of Brazilian Candomblé. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Landes, Ruth. The City of Women. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1994.

Matory, James Lorand. Black Atlantic Religion: Tradition, Transnationalism, and Matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Parés, Luis Nicolau. A formação do candomblé: História e ritual da nação jeje na Bahia. Campinas: Editora Unicamp, 2006.

                                            Kim D. Butler