Candomblé

Overview

Candomblé is an Afro-Brazilian religion that took shape among enslaved Africans and their descendants in and around Salvador, Bahia, from the late 1700s through the 1800s. It centres on the orixás, deities tied to forces of nature, honoured with offerings, drumming and dance that can bring on possession trance. Devotees belong to one of several ethnic "nations" tracing their origin to the Yorùbá, the Fon and Ewe, or Bantu-speaking Central Africans, some incorporating Amerindian spirits. Each terreiro, or community, is headed by a mãe or pai de santo, a senior priestess or priest. Forced under slavery to appear Catholic, worshippers paired orixás with Catholic saints, and the religion was later driven underground by police before winning wider acceptance. Known by other names elsewhere in Brazil, Candomblé stays centred on Bahia but has since spread across the country and abroad.^{[1–5, 7–8]}

History

Formation under slavery late 1700s–1800s

Salvador, Bahia, was Brazil's first colonial capital and, from 1558, the first slave market in the New World, and Candomblé's ritual lineages grew there among enslaved Yorùbá (Nagô), Fon and Ewe (Jêje), and Bantu-speaking Congolese and Angolan captives. Forcibly baptized and barred from worshipping openly, they hid their orixás behind the Catholic saints of their enslavers, laying the basis for Candomblé's lasting syncretism.^{[7, 9]}

Nations and new communities 1800s–early 1900s

As Candomblé grew, its ritual communities organized into "nations" reflecting different African origins: Ketu and Ijexá (Yorùbá), Jêje (Fon and Ewe), and Angola and Congo (Bantu). A newer Caboclo current, which also venerates Amerindian ancestral spirits and draws on Brazilian national symbols, emerged in the early twentieth century.^[4]

Police persecution 1920s–1930s

Treated as a threat to public order, Candomblé came under direct police control: officers raided terreiros in cities such as Salvador and Recife, confiscating ritual objects and imprisoning worshippers, and for a time no ceremony could be held without police authorization.^[8]

Toward recognition 1930s–today

American anthropologist Ruth Landes documented Candomblé firsthand during fieldwork in Bahia in 1938 and 1939, including at Engenho Velho, a terreiro Candomblé scholars describe as perhaps the oldest in Brazil, founded around 1830. Candomblé has since gained far wider acceptance, though Brazil's census counts only a small fraction of the population as identifying with Candomblé and the related Umbanda; because many practitioners also call themselves Catholic, scholars judge that this undercounts the religion's real reach.^{[6, 10]}

Key moments

1. c. 1750 CEAfrican religions cross the Atlantic · West and Central Africa to the Americas

Beliefs

Orixá · orixá

deity

The orixás personify forces of nature and aspects of human life, each with a distinct personality, and are approached through offering, song, drumming and dance that can bring a devotee into trance, understood as possession by the orixá.^[3]

Axé · axé

vital force

Axé is the vital energy that runs through people, the orixás and the natural world, requiring ritual care to stay in balance; ritual communities are also known as Ilés Axé, "houses of axé".^[11]

Nations · nações

ritual lineages by African origin

Candomblé is organized into "nations" such as Ketu, Jêje and Angola, each keeping its own ritual language, chants and roster of orixás tracing back to a different African people.^[4]

Practice

Terreiro worship · terreiro

Worship centres on the terreiro, a ritual community's own compound of shrine houses, headed by a mãe or pai de santo, the senior priestess or priest who oversees initiations and the yearly cycle of ceremonies for the orixás.^[5]

Saints and orixás

Each orixá is traditionally linked with a Catholic saint, a pairing that goes back to slavery, when open worship of African deities was forbidden and devotees hid them behind the saints of their Catholic enslavers.^[7]

Divination by cowrie shells · jogo de búzios

To diagnose a problem and learn what an orixá requires, a mãe or pai de santo casts cowrie shells in a divination rite, the jogo de búzios, reading the pattern in which they fall as a message from the orixás.^[12]

Women's leadership

Most Candomblé devotees are women, and many terreiros have a long tradition of consecrating only women as their supreme ritual authority, the mãe de santo; some of the religion's best-known leaders, such as Mãe Menininha do Gantois, held that position for decades.^[13]

People

Places

Salvador, Bahia

BRA · UNESCO World Heritage, 1985

Brazil's first colonial capital and the country's main slave port from 1558, Salvador remains the historic centre of Candomblé; its colonial Historic Centre was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1985.^[9]

Common misconceptions

Glossary

Orixá · orixá

A Candomblé deity tied to a force of nature or aspect of human life, honoured by its own rites and approached through possession trance.^[3]

Terreiro · terreiro

A Candomblé ritual community and its compound of shrine houses, headed by a mãe or pai de santo.^[5]

Axé · axé

The vital force running through people, orixás and nature, nurtured and renewed through ritual.^[11]

Mãe/pai de santo · mãe/pai de santo

The senior priestess ("mother") or priest ("father") of a terreiro, who leads its initiations and ceremonies.^[5]

Nação · nação

A Candomblé "nation": a ritual lineage, such as Ketu, Jêje or Angola, tracing its practice to a particular African people.^[4]

Macumba

A regional name for Candomblé and related Afro-Brazilian religions, used especially around Rio de Janeiro.^[1]

Jogo de búzios · jogo de búzios

A divination rite in which cowrie shells are cast and read as a message from the orixás.^[12]