A Look at the State of Brazil’s Culture-Defining Religion by Malcolm McCannon
In the heart of Brazil is a religion that keeps the country’s blood pumping. From 1570 to 1888, the culture of slavery dominated the country, asphyxiating Brazil’s social development. To feel like they could breathe, the slaves of Brazil found new ways of incorporating their identities into their daily lives, helping them survive spiritually in their new oppressive space in Portuguese Brazil. Their Portuguese and Creole masters did not allow them to practice their native religions on the plantations and in cities of Brazil. To circumvent this problem, the slaves of Brazil incorporated elements of Catholicism into the Yoruba-based religion of Candomble (can-dom-bley).
Candomble is a religion native to Brazil with roots in the Yoruba religion of Africa. In Candomble, today as well as during the period when slavery was legal, women during ritual believe themselves possessed by spirits, and under trance, they dance beyond their control wildly for hours, as the gods who possess them are themselves driven out of control by the pounding rhythm of the drums beaten by the men.
By taking the names of Catholic saints who were similar to the gods they venerated in Candomble, slaves were able to talk about their religion within earshot of their masters. Some masters (illegally) even allowed the practice of Candomble on their properties to keep the peace among their slaves. By the time slavery in Brazil was abolished in 1888, three hundred years after slaves had first begun to be transported by the Portuguese from Africa to Brazil, institutions of Candomble were embedded in Brazilian culture and politics. Slaves mentally released themselves from bondage through
ritual possession, maintaining faith in a higher power representative of their own identities through the practice of Candomble. Further, this allowed them to keep a sense of cultural self-awareness.
Brazilians of different races (black, mulatto, and white alike) continue to practice Candomble today, though it is still not a state-recognized religion. Consequently, movements of “re-Africanization” have gained increasingly more traction since the 1970s. Re-Africanization is the terminology that refers to bringing Candomble back to its African roots. It concentrates on the parts of Candomble that are African and omits mention of the parts that are Brazilian. In short though, it is a false retelling of history.
Many who practice Candomble, and still many more who barely tolerate the practice of Candomble, want to re-Africanize the religion because there are parts of it that the government believes that foreigners, who bring their cash to poverty-stricken Brazil, might find unsavory. Homosexual men who practice Candomble under the same roles of women are persecuted under re-Africanization because traditionally, they are not allowed to practice. Re-Africanization reconstructs racism in Brazil as well, which purports itself to be a racial democracy, because only people of African descent may traditionally practice Candomble. Add to this that many people, both practitioners and
non-practitioners, want to maintain the patriarchal nature of Candomble and Brazil itself, and they see re-Africanization as a way to make this possible. But to re-Africanize Candomble is to do to women, homosexual males, and people of non-African races what slave-masters did to their slaves when they disallowed them to practice Candomble.
Re-Africanization destroys the outlet for faith and self-expression of identity that women, male homosexuals, and people of non-African descent have found in Candomble.
I came to this realization slowly. When I looked at Candomble for the first time, I saw what prominent scholars of anthropology and history also saw when they first witnessed the ritualistic religion in practice: I saw a glimpse into why Brazil is the way it is today.
Ruth Landes and her anthropological study The City of Women is one of the better known works on Candomble. Later on, I would find controversy surrounding Landes from the subsequent twenty years of study that resulted from her work. What I first read did not contradict nor support the claims of Landes (which I will delineate later in my discussion of gender controversy in re-Africanization).
The book I first read after reading Landes seemed to take me further away from my perceptions of what Brazil was and is, opening doors to parts of Brazil that seemed marginal and unrelated to a study of what race in Brazil and within Candomble is really about. But as I read further, it became apparent that the door I had opened by reading Jim Wafer’s dissertation on Candomble, The Taste of Blood, made the subject of homosexuality only seem marginalized within Brazil because many have sought to marginalize it. Marginalization of homosexuality in Candomble was actually very effective until about the 1940s. I would come to find that understanding homosexuality and the broader though related theme of gender would be integral to understanding Candomble and modern-day Brazil.
The prevalence of homosexuality in the terreiros (literally, spaces of ritual where Candomble is practiced; also, different congregations of practitioners) that Jim Wafer studied led me to question the place of gender within Candomble: Had the role of males always been secondary within Afro-Brazilian Candomble, and had the role of the women always been primary before Landes’ 1940s studies; have they been consistent since?
Which gender, male or female, did homosexual males fall into, if either, and if neither, had a “third” gender somehow developed? Later, I would also come to ask what role gender played in the trouble of re-Africanization.
I began searching for succinct and current articles on gender roles within Candomble, specifically about how homosexuality had become so widespread. The first article I found, “The Gender of Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes” helped me to solve the riddle of the possibility of a third gender within Candomble and within Brazil, although it did not focus on Candomble, but merely on the socio-economic factors that often motivated Brazilian boys and men to adopt or discover in themselves homosexuality and an effeminate nature.
A second article by Peter Fry made two links between my three previous studies of interest: Fry cites Landes as the first scholar to point to Candomble as a source for empowerment for homosexual men. He then affirms Candomble as a factor in many males choosing to become homosexual in Candomble-influenced parts of Brazil. And finally, Fry mentions the controversy that surrounds Landes’ work. Robert Green’s text, Beyond Carnival: Male Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century Brazil rounds out my sources concerning male involvement in the feminine gender roles of Candomble.
The subject of Re-Africanization has been a topic in virtually every source I have found that covers Candomble, but it is never covered in much depth. The problems of gender and race are at the heart of Re-Africanization though, and that is what this paper seeks to evaluate.
WHAT IS CANDOMBLE?
“The splendor of Brazil les in the path of the drum.” – Felipe Nery
Candomble was first put together from a group of religions that came across the Atlantic Ocean with slaves that were brought by the Portuguese to Brazil. It has since come to incorporate Islamic, Catholic, and Brazilian Indian customs as well. The first slaves to come to Portuguese Latin America in 1570 were mainly from the Congo, Mozambique, and Angola.1 They brought three forms of Candomble with them: Jeje,
Angola, and the prevailing type of contemporary Afro-Brazilian Candomble, Nago. The three different types of Candomble are different for the different spiritual entities and deities that practitioners within each sect worship.2 Nago, of Yoruba origins, has been
uncontested as the predominant form of Candomble within Brazil, but in “The Birth of Yoruba Hegemony in Post-Abolition Candomble,” Luis Nicolau Pares contends that during the slavery period Jeje was more widely incorporated.3
When slaves first arrived in the New World, they relied heavily upon their distinctly different African national identities, and they attempted to segregate themselves
1 Rachel Harding, A Refuge in Thunder: Candomble and Alternative Spaces of Blackness (Indiana University Press, 2000), 38.
2 Luis Nicolau Pares, “The Birth of the Yoruba Hegemony in Post-Abolition Candomble”, (Journal de la Societe des Americanistes, 2005), 1.
3 Pares, 1.
by their various national groups. To the slaves, having separate sects of Candomble to practice within afforded them noticeable differences to help maintain senses of authentic and distinct group identities, even if their masters did not realize it.4 The basis of
institutionalized Candomble was created in the mid-1700s through the organization of slaves into religious congregations that would in the future become institutions of Candomble. It was Jeje that was used as the basis for most of these congregations; Nago was not in practice on a large scale until 1820 and thereafter. It was not until the end of the nineteenth century, around the time of abolition, that Nago became practically the only sect of Candomble in application, and that slaves from different parts of Africa came to interact and participate together in the same terreiros.5 This occurred through the
assimilation of Jeje into Nago because of Nago’s linguistic superiority to Jeje, and because of Nago’s more complex belief structure.6 As it is that Nago became by far the
predominant form of the religion, it will be the only sect of Candomble discussed in this
paper with regards to the religion’s practices; however, other strains of Candomble will be discussed with regard to re-Africanization.
Candomble within Afro-Brazilian culture is a merging of African religions, indigenous Brazilian beliefs, and Catholicism. Candomble adherents believe in three types of deities. These deities are referred to by the names of African deities but are often referred to by the names of Catholic saints, or in some cases by Islamic names.7 Candomble practitioners have believed Candomble deities and Catholic saints to be one
4 Pares, 3.
5 Harding, 40.
6 Pares, 4.
7 Jim Wafer, The Taste of Blood: Spirit Possession in Brazilian Candomble, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991), 56.
and the same since about the time in the late nineteenth century when first-generation priests were no longer the leaders of Candomble.8
There are three different types of spirits in Candomble worship: Orixas, Exu, and Cabolcos. The Orixas are the highest deities in Candomble and can be compared to the gods of Greek mythology in their multiplicity, variance, and importance. Unlike Exu and Cabolcos, Orixas can only be summoned through special ceremonies. Exu often come and go into their adherents, often seemingly of their own accord, and Cabolcos are only summoned during Carnival. When an Orixa enters the body of an adherent of Candomble, the adherent will fall into a trance and will usually then dance for hours to the rhythm of drums beat by the Oga drummers.
Eres are the child forms of the Orixas.9 When an entranced dancer of Candomble
has her Orixa leave her, the Orixa first turns to its child form of eres before it completely departs. While the Orixa will inhabit the body of a practitioner for a few hours, its eres will stay overnight, and sometimes, up to a week. Eres, as they are the child form of the Orixas, are childish. They behave like children; they have practically no understanding of social norms within the material world. It could be said that when an Orixa becomes an eres, it is coming to terms with its material surroundings. Acting like a child, it has no quibbles with stealing things, (harmlessly) slapping others, eating dirt, or simply babbling gibberish.10
8 Harding, 40.
9 Wafer, 129.
10 Ruth Landes, The City of Women, (The MacMillan Company, 1947), 46.
Exu are lower spirits who can be compared to demons within Christianity as they belong to the underworld.11 In fact, most Exu in Afro-Brazilian Candomble take their
Christian names from Christian demons, such as Lucifer or Beelzebub.12 The chief
“devil” or spirit, however, is actually himself named Exu (much like Satan is often referred to as “the devil” even though there are many devils or demons in Christian folklore).13 However, unlike the demons of Christianity, Exu are not tormented in hell. In
ritualistic aspects, they are the slaves of the Orixas. Though they are less celebrated by Candomble practitioners, contrary to Orixas, they often take possession of Candomble practitioners more than any other spirit or deity.14 They are simply of a different nature
than that of Orixas, the supreme deities: They are lower spirits than the Orixas, but as they are of the spirit realm, they are of a higher level than humans because humans are of the material world. Exu like to have fun; they enjoy living in the material world through their possessions / trances of Candomble adherents. Exu even enjoy food, and they especially enjoy alcohol and even sex, though they are not believed to have sex with people who are not possessed by other Exu except in dreams.15 Exu are also “the most
closely linked” to the destinies of practitioners of Candomble.16
Cabolco spirits are a form of Candomble spirits that only came into being in Brazil; they are spirits of the ancestors of the indigenous Brazilian people.17 Even though
most adherents of Candomble are of African ancestry, most everyone who practices
11 Wafer, 13.
12 Wafer, 14.
13 Landes, 43.
14 Wafer, 14.
15 Wafer, 28.
16 Wafer, 15.
17 Wafer, 53.
Candomble has a Cabolco spirit. This is one instance that specifically ties people of African descent to Brazil through Candomble. Like Exu spirits, Cabolco spirits also enjoy drinking beer and wine. The advent of Cabolco spirits in Candomble is a purely
Afro-Brazilian phenomenon.
Practitioners of Candomble believe that they can be induced into trances to “receive” these spirits. Traditionally, only women are able to receive spirits because it would mean that a man would have to sacrifice his masculinity if he were to become possessed, even by a god. While the religion seems matriarchal in that it focuses on women in its practice, it is patriarchal because to be possessed by the gods is to show femininity, and thus to show weakness. Men have historically, both in Africa and Brazil, been allotted the task of Ogas, but sometimes also perform the role of priests.
Ogas are drummers who summon forth the Orixa spirits (and sometimes the Exu and Cabolco spirits as well) through complicated rhythms specific to Candomble. It is the responsibility of Candomble priests to throw cowry shells (objects of divination) that determine when cast whom a person’s Orixa (or Orixas, though person usually only has one) will be and to determine life choices or fates of individuals.
As mentioned earlier, slaves blended elements of Catholicism into Candomble to make discussion of ritual less conspicuous. Candomble was able to merge with Catholicism because of similarities that God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and many Catholic saints shared with many of the Candomble Orixas and Exu. As African slaves were not allowed by their masters to practice their native religions, slaves secretly maintained their beliefs in Candomble by substituting the names of their Orixas and Exus with the names
of their Catholic near-equivalents.18 Candomble has most significantly survived in Brazil
where “dancing” was allowed after Sunday church service (masters usually were unaware that their slaves were under trance).19 In contemporary Candomble, many rituals involve
attending Catholic mass as a key component of ritual.20 It is vital to remember for a
complete understanding of Candomble that much of the religion is rooted in Catholicism, as this paper will not focus on that aspect as much as others. Furthermore, is essential to the subject of re-Africanization: To re-Africanize is to remove Catholic elements from Candomble.
HOW AFRICAN IS CANDOMBLE?
WHY “RE-AFRICANIZATION” IS A NONSENSICAL TERM
“The slave had to come to terms with the opaqueness of his condition and at the same time oppose it.” – Charles H. Long
Re-Africanization started as a movement to make Candomble a state-recognized religion. Establishing Candomble’s beginnings in a land of ancestry, and to a time prior to the practice of slavery in Brazil as beliefs that had been held by one specific group of people for hundreds of years previous would make a better argument for state recognition of Candomble as a real religion. Candomble has been viewed as a cult group for all of its history by most the intellectual elite of Brazil, both under the Portuguese, and after colonial rule had ended, under the Brazilian government. Without the status of a real religion, Candomble has been persecuted. It is the goal of the re-Africanization movement to gain Candomble recognition as a religion from the government, but in so
18 Harding, 123.
19 Harding, 122.
20 Wafer, 15.
doing, the way re-Africanization is most often implied, many practitioners of the religion such as women, homosexuals, and non-Africans will be marginalized in their own beliefs.
Part of the trouble in saying whether or not Candomble can be re-Africanized is in deciding whether or not Candomble ever was completely African. Candomble would not have to be re-Africanized though if it were already African. Brazilian influence permeates Candomble, and while there is still much of Africa alive in Candomble, the difference in application is as great as the difference between a caterpillar and a butterfly: Candomble has transformed from its Yoruba origins in Brazil.
In the nineteenth century, Candomble brought together black slaves of varying shades of black (and a few whites), ignoring status.21 What’s more, even the deities of
Candomble are multi-ethnic, bringing together deities representing different regions of Africa before they even came to Brazil, and accepting Brazilian deities as part of the spirit pantheon.22 This was a major victory for race relations in Brazil, but the
government is seeking to subvert this victory through policies that support
re-Africanization.
Within the space of ritual, slaves felt a keener sense of what it is to be
Afro-Brazilian.23 The same priest, Martiniano, that Ruth Landes would interview in the
1930s had told Nina Rodrigues fifty years earlier that private altars in family living spaces were ways of maintaining blackness in a world that sought to eliminate it.24
21 Harding, 55.
22 Harding, 57.
23 Harding, 3.
24 Harding, 115.
However, with the influx of practitioners indigenous to Brazil and of mulatto coloring, Candomble became more Brazilian. It is because of this ability to adapt to the new circumstances of Brazilian slave society that it remained a viable religion in Brazil.25
Brazilian slavery stopped the development of specific and continuous religious traditions from Africa.26 Therefore the Afro-Brazilian religions, including Candomble,
were new to Brazil, and not specifically and wholly African, however African their origins. Candomble borrowed from many different African religions, but it was cultivated in Brazil as a brand new religion.
Indian and Catholic influences were documented as early as 1807.27 Yet in the
1970s, about the time the movement of re-Africanization began to pick up speed, the Brazilian government authorized the creation of the Afro-Brazilian Museum. The museum was going to be named “Museu de Negro” (Museum of the Black) but
re-Africanization movements successfully lobbied to have it named the Afro-Brazilian Museum instead. The name the museum ended up taking implies that the museum is accepting of all heritages, and is meant to convey Brazil as a mixed race nation, but the museum only has African artifacts. There are no artifacts related to Portugal or Brazil.28 To call it a museum of Africa would have been most accurate, but government authorization of the new name is just one way that the Brazilian government is
re-Africanizing Candomble and Afro-Brazilian culture, and falsifying the history. By
25 Harding, 18.
26 Harding, 40.
27 Harding, 50.
28 Jocelio Teles dos Santos, “A Mixed-Race Nation: Afro-Brazilians and Cultural Policy in Bahia,
1970-1990” in Afro-Brazilian Culture and Politics: Bahia, 1790s-1990s, ed. Hendrik Kraay, et. al., (M.E. Sharpe, 1998), 122.
calling Afro-Brazilian what is purely African is to change and obscure the true nature of both heritages.
Candomble was becoming a blend of African traditions before Brazilian traditions were melded to it, but it is only in Brazil that these religions have merged into one. This makes their composite hybrid Afro-Brazilian. By the mid-nineteenth century, there were already documented instances of slaves from different parts of Africa practicing forms of Candomble together, creating a synthesis of African culture. Today, the Brazilian government portrays these facts as evidence of the African-ness of Candomble.29 In
practicing Candomble in a multi-African-nation environment though, the fact is that they lost a number of their ancestral traditions that were specific to local traditions. In becoming one, the religions lost many of their African components.
“Unreconstructed African-ness” is today seen as a bad thing in Candomble in Brazil. This is paradoxical to the status quo in other areas of the country. Many blacks of medium skin tone may claim mulatto at a job interview, but at a Candomble gathering, they will declare African purity.30 In addition, non-blacks are defining themselves as
black within the domain of religion.31 Racial identities and attitudes of racism are being
reconfigured in ways that make Brazilians question what they believe themselves to be. People are not proud of what they are in this or that sphere of conduct.
Perhaps the stickiest thorn in the passage of re-Africanization is the Brazilian government’s own nineteenth-century policies that encouraged “whitening”. Most Latin American governments attempted to whiten their populations by encouraging
29 Harding, 36.
30 Harding, 107.
31 Harding, 111.
immigration from the United States and European countries to gain more acceptance and recognition in the international community of developed countries. Brazilian blacks had to move away from African-ness in Candomble, to survive in Brazil.32 This is one reason
for the early acceptance of all colors within the religion’s practice. Because the Brazilian government promoted whitening in policy though, the current Brazilian government’s efforts to re-Africanize must deal with a Candomble that has many Brazilian adherents who have little to no African ancestry.
A HISTORIOGRAPHY OF PROMINENT SCHOLARS OF CANDOMBLE AND THEIR IMPORT ON THE SUBJECT OF RE-AFRICANIZATION
Candomble was first studied by Nina Rodrigues, and he studied the religion according to “the scientific racism and criminology of the late nineteenth century”.33 Since the “science” of the times declared anyon of African descent inferior, Rodrigues and his contemporaries probably looked at Candomble as being very African because most of its practitioners were black slaves. Most who practiced the religion were black, and only one in ten were mulatto, or even more rarely, white – However, to those practicing Candomble, the religion was revolutionary in its acceptance of so many different skin colors.34 We look back at these statistics today, and see unprecedented
simultaneous involvement of many different races – This phenomenon has only grown.
32 Harding, 93.
33 Robert Penner, “The American Professors of Candomble: Identity, Translocalism, and the Struggle for Authority”, Duke University Press, 2009), 2.
34 Harding, 57.
Since there was involvement from people of non-African descent at all, Candomble’s African-ness was already being subverted in the 1800s. I contend that Candomble to Rodrigues was very African because of the science she was using, not because it actually was African. Rodrigues’ objective was to portray Candomble as a cult with uneducated, savage followers, and to the elite of Brazil, this meant classifying Candomble as African as possible.
The next prominent western scholar of Candomble came to Brazil in the 1930s, Ruth Landes. Landes believed Candomble to be a matriarchal religion, but her view beyond this was that Candomble was Brazilian. More on this will follow below.
Roger Bastide, a French sociologist, and Melville Herkovits, an American anthropologist, became the preeminent scholars on the subject in the period immediately following Landes, that of World War II and post-World War II. Bastide and Herkovits understood Candomble to be the result of culture, political structure, and environment, rather than biologically determined as Nina Rodriguez had claimed.35 By the 1980s
however, most scholars had grown bored with the approaches of Herkovits and Bastide,
and had turned to analyzing Candomble from a belief that religion and race were constructions that the individual mind self-consciously created to justify for itself a place in a greater sphere, i.e. society.36
These 1980s studies claimed that Candomble was a “dynamic” religion, and so able to thrive in the New World, whereas many other religions from Africa had not transported effectively across the Atlantic.37 Later interpretations of why some African
35 Penner, 2.
36 Penner, 2.
37 Penner, 2.
religions thrived in Latin America and why others died off would be allocated to survivalism – Those religions that were fit to thrive in the New World did, while others that were not, died off. For example, according to the trends of 1980s studies, Candomble thrived in Brazil because although slaves could not practice any religion but Catholicism, they recognized similarities between their native Candomble and Catholicism. Survivalist interpretationists of the history of Candomble are important to its historiography because, according to Penner, they ended up providing the entire structure of the history for 20th century historians.38 Survivalist interpretations of the history of Candomble discredit
re-Africanization.
Re-Africanization is in conflict with survivalism because survivalism envisions a view of Candomble as Afro-Brazilian. Candomble survived in Brazil in part because keeping faith was a way for slaves to fight the dehumanization of slavery.39 To be
survivalist, Candomble had to adapt to elements of its new environment of Brazil. It had to assimilate parts of Catholicism and native beliefs into itself to remain viable in this new land. To call Candomble African is to deny its traits of survivalism, and to then deny its heritage of Brazilian-ness.
Lorand J. Matory is one of these 1980s historians who restructured the history of Candomble to fit a theme of African religion survivalism. Survivalism of African religions in Brazil also has broader implications. Matory argued in his work that
re-Africanization was possible, but in doing so, challenged Landes as having constructed a feminist argument that pointed toward a matriarchal society within the Candomble of
38 Penner, 4.
39 Harding, 33.
Bahia for the sake of feminism. Matory sees Candomble as entirely patriarchal, although Landes’ work has been attacked and subsequently vindicated by scholars previous to and following Matory, though none have asserted the matriarchy Landes found.40 It is because
Matory sees Candomble as patriarchal that he believes re-Africanization is possible: It behooves the patriarchal Brazilian government to re-Africanize Candomble.
An examination of their points will prove necessary in decoding how gender roles have changed within Candomble and how they encumber movements to re-Africanize and frustrate the proponents of re-Africanization. Whether Candomble is patriarchal or matriarchal does not mean one way or the other that Candomble was once more or less African than it is today. Different gender-based groups who believe that Candomble is either matriarchal or patriarchal use this argument to prove that Candomble was once African or that it is a completely Brazilian religion. Most of these groups are pushing for re-Africanization rather than against it, and seeing how and why they argue for
re-Africanization based on their arguments that Candomble is either patriarchal or matriarchal is what is important to understand.
THE CONFLICT OF GENDER: PATRIARCHY VS. MATRIARCHY, AND WHY WOMEN WOULD SUFFER FROM RE-AFRICANIZATION
At first glance, it may appear that Candomble is a matriarchal religion. No matter what objective perspective is taken though, when analyzed thoroughly, Candomble seems to be patriarchal on paper. This on-paper reading of Candomble helps to push the
re-Africanization movement. Men are perceived as controlling the women while they are
40 Penner, 11.
in their trances as they “drive” the gods with the rhythm of the drums.41 Women in their
trances are under the power of their Orixas, and their Orixas are also under the power of the drums beaten by the male Ogas. From this perspective, men are in control. Jim Wafer observes in The Taste of Blood that “Trance reflects the subservience of women in a
male-controlled society”.42 As Brazil is a male-controlled society, the government’s
sympathy to re-Africanization movements is evidence of its efforts to maintain the lower position of women in society.
Strangely, more evidence to the patriarchal lineage of Candomble can even be found in Landes’ work, even though The City of Women has since its publication been regarded as a feminist portrayal of Candomble matriarchy.43 Nonetheless, there are
several instances in which a patriarchal system in Bahia, Brazil, the center of Candomble, is noticeable within Landes’ work. When Landes and her companion the noted Brazilian sociologist Edison Carreiro meet Martiniano, a reputable Candomble priest, for dinner, even though Landes is a respected American scholar, she is expected to remain quiet at the dinner table because of her gender while Edison and Martiniano converse. She can only listen in this space (though she did talk at length with Martiniano herself away from the table).44 Martiniano was also interviewed for Nina Rodrigues in the late nineteenth
century forty years earlier.45 Landes also found that it was forbidden for a woman of her
upper-class stature to walk the streets of Bahia without a male companion, and when
41 Landes, 48.
42 Wafer, 103.
43 Penner, 5.
44 Landes, 63.
45 Harding, 115.
accompanied, it was uncouth for her to speak to passersby, but her male companion could readily converse with them.46
This is not to say that on this basis Landes’ own argument is flawed; her argument is that women occupy a greater sphere of influence within Candomble and Brazilian society than American women do in their religions and societies, and further, that this greater role should be celebrated.47 Landes’ book taken as a whole however, is meant to
be evidence of a matriarchal Candomble, and these depictions of the greater society surrounding Landes’ vision of Candomble suggest an eschewed perspective over which gender predominates over Candomble and Brazil. Landes, who even reported that the gods who possessed the women were “driven” by the drums beaten by the men, concluded that the religion was more matriarchal than patriarchal.48
This feminist writing on Candomble would oppose re-Africanization had the movement already begun because Landes’ objective in her writing was to showcase to American readers a society in which women had a greater role. Re-Africanization would seek to undermine this greater role and to keep women in a secondary position to men.
While Landes’ work is the most well-known on Candomble of a feminist leaning, there are other figures and groups who advocated for feminism in the religion. The Filhas d’Oxum was created to re-Africanize Candomble to a feminist perspective. The Filhas d’Oxum were born out of the Filhas de Gandhi, which supported the Filhos de Gandhi, a group of men who sought to re-Africanize Candomble along patriarchal lines. The Filhas d’Oxum were short-lived, but it was their contribution to re-Africanization that most aids
46 Landes, 15.
47 Landes, 248.
48 Landes, 248.
in seeing how re-Africanization in its most typical and patriarchal form places groups of people other than men at a lower status. It is therefore worth a look into this little known microcosm of Brazilian politics.
The Filhos de Gandhi (Sons of Gandhi) was an organization of men that came together in order to re-Africanize Candomble. Their desire to re-Africanize Candomble, like most re-Africanization groups, was to obtain state recognition of the religion. They took the name of Gandhi following his assassination in 1948 as they planned to aggravate for their rights to practice Candomble as their ancestrally passed-down religion through nonviolent means of protest.49 By arguing that Candomble was an African religion with
little changes from Brazilian influence, they could argue that it was their right as Africans to practice. The chief benefit of Gandhi’s nomenclature within the name would be that the government would think twice before persecuting the group on the basis of their black race as Gandhi’s name afforded them publicity and protection within his infamy.50
The Filhas de Gandhi (Daughters of Gandhi) at first were a group of women who had gathered to support their husbands in the Filhos de Gandhi. They were seen by outsiders however, only as “the wives”. They may be likened to the Daughters of Liberty in the U.S. American Revolution who sewed uniforms for their husbands in the Revolutionary army and boycotted British goods (though the Daughters of Liberty probably are able to boast a far greater impact to their cause than the Filhas de Gandi were to theirs). The Filhas de Gandhi had a supplementary role to their husbands, quite the opposite of the practice of Candomble, which matriarchal or patriarchal,
49 Carol Boyce Davies, “Re-/Presenting Black Female Identity in Brazil: Filhas d’Oxum in Bahia Carnival”, (Art eJournal of the African World, 2001), 4.
50 Davies, 5.
unequivocally has always focused on women in its ritual application. In their fight to bring government recognition to Candomble through re-Africanization, the Filhos de Gandhi had relegated women to the outside of the discussion. But if Brazilian politics and beliefs are patriarchal, of course the religion would have to be too as its adherents fought for government recognition.
Forty years after the founding of the Filhos de Gandhi in 1948, and their subsequent annual marches in the Bahian Carnivals, an Afro-Brazilian woman, Rosangela Guimares, the then-head of the Filhas de Gandhi in 1991, founded the Filhas d’Oxum.
The Filhas d’Oxum was a feminist organization with a multi-faceted purpose.
They strove to make sure that women were safe in Carnival. They spread public awareness to recognize the attributes of the female Orixa, Oxum, of “beauty, fertility,” and “female power,” in women. Oxum was a wise choice to be the symbol of the organization, and the spirit for whom they danced for, as she is one of the most powerful Orixas in Candomble and is gendered female. A third and final purpose of the Filhas d’Oxum was in pushing the government to institutionalize Candomble through a
re-Africanization that placed deserved emphasis on women. With the women of the Fihas d’Oxum dancing in Carnival, “women reclaim[ed] the space of ritual for political statements which critique dominant discourses of gender, race, [and] sexuality”.51
Every year since their foundings, the Filhos and Filhas de Gandi, and later the Filhas d’Oxum, have paraded in Carnival. Carnival attracts many tourists.52 It is an ideal
51 Davies, 6.
52 Davies, 1.
place for anyone to advocate for their rights: This is the moment of every year when Brazil is on display to the world. Carnival is regarded by many Brazilians and foreigners alike as hypersexual, and it is a strength of the Filhas d’Oxum that they transcend this stereotype with their tasteful protests while they advocate under trance.
The Filhas d’Oxum did much for the international and Brazilian perception of women in Brazil. The Orixa Oxum has many representations, and each of her representations are carried out during Carnival in the female dancers of the Filhas d’Oxum. The singular and derogatory personification of woman as exotic sex symbol in Carnival that is propagated by the Brazilian government’s tourism industry and patriarchal re-Africanization is denounced through their performance. Their performance is not for the Brazilian men, but for themselves because its practice invokes the being of womanhood.53 Unfortunately, the performances of the Filhas d’Oxum waned after the
death of Guimares in 2001, while the showings in Carnival of the Filhos de Gandhi
remained as potent and powerful as ever. Perhaps the Filhas d’Oxum, which summarily was attempting to re-Africanize Candomble and Carnival from a feminist perspective, only shows how Candomble is for the moment, patriarchal. With the sublimation of the Filhas d’Oxum after Guimares’ death, re-Africanization groups have continued to hold patriarchal worldviews and agendas.
An analysis of general Brazilian gender politics with the background of the specific case of the Fihas d’Oxum will further serve to illustrate the patriarchy at play in
53 Davies, 8.
Candomble and how an implicit patriarchal view is the most common used in suggested application of re-Africanization. .
Despite Landes’ valid argument that women play the central role in 1930s Candomble, Brazil is still nonetheless patriarchal, and Candomble is most often a reflection of its patriarchy viewed through the lens of re-Africanization. This is evidenced by the roles of people in households, where women are subservient to men, speak at the men’s behest, and in the ways they are permitted to walk about in greater society. The schism occurs because of the way women are controlled in Brazil. Women of higher social class are not allowed to walk the streets unaccompanied by men, as was the case with Landes during her stay in Brazil, but this is only for their protection. As most of Brazil’s population is lower-class and black however, women are seen more than men on the streets conducting daily business.54 And although women are not allowed to speak
unless spoken to, women still, as Landes points out again and again, occupy the places of
greatest importance in Brazil.
That women are given roles of most prominence, visibility, and importance is what causes the gender rupture. First, it often makes the outsider perceive a matriarchal society as it is the female role to be the one who is possessed by the gods, the one who is moved by the spirit that possesses her to dance. Women are at the focal point of the religion. Within Candomble and in other arenas of Brazilian life such as sex, Carnival, and the ability to make a living, many men become jealous of the roles women maintain in Candomble and Brazilian society.
54 Landes, 18.
The only thing more visible than women in Candomble are the spirits who possess them. On any given day of the week in Jarachi for instance, Exu possess the customers of any bar, eres chatter and play in the bodies of people on the streets, and people unburden themselves of strenuous walking distances by allowing possession of Cabolco spirits.55 An understanding of the spirit realm of Candomble, as it is the religion
in practice itself, is essential to an Afro-Brazilian understanding of patriarchy in Candomble and to the implications of re-Africanizing Candomble. Understanding the nature of the spirit realm also informs why patriarchy and matriarchy are moot points within Candomble, as much as patriarchal Brazilian government and society try to make it patriarchal in their re-Africanization movements.
Candomble relies on the spiritual force of axe for comprehension. Axe is the life force, and the spiritual force of any object, alive or inanimate. In the spirit world, axe is a space of transformation. Within axe, people are not old or young, do not love or hate, are not even white or black, and men and women are not heterosexual or homosexual. Axe and the spirit world represent a space of “temporal transformations” and “perspectival inversions”.56 Within the material world, axe can be renewed and lost as it belongs to the
spirit realm. In the material world, things can appear to develop permanence, when really,
they are always in the state of axe, and so always in flux, always changing. Things in the material world can only be as they seem in one moment or another, and to gain or lose axe changes everything all over again. This is the reason for continual animal sacrifice within the religion of Candomble; sacrifice renews and adds to the axe of an altar.
55 Wafer, 23.
56 Wafer, 22.
Understanding that all life is constituted and continually changed by axe is a key to understanding how fluid and interchangeable the concepts of matriarchy and patriarchy are in Candomble, and how actually incompatible they are with re-Africanization.
Were an Afro-Brazilian to comment on whether or not Candomble or Brazilian politics were matriarchal or patriarchal, he or she might find him- or herself at a loss to explain. He or she might be able to give explanations of customs or behavioral patterns, but to apply one or the other might seem too definite.
This is because the spirit realm of Candomble is rife with gender contradictions. There are both male and female Exu, but because they are said to penetrate the bodies of the entranced, they are considered masculine within a sexual context – One adherent even told Wafer “Exu is the penis”.57 By contrast, Orixas, although they also penetrate the
bodies of those they possess (they could not possess if they did not penetrate), are feminine.58 This is possible because although the Orixas penetrate as the Exu do, their
nature is to give, which is seen in Candomble as a female quality. To make matters even
more complicated, like Exu, some Orixas are male and some are female, but unlike the Exu, most are simultaneously both male and female (Wafer 87). From this vantage of the Orixas though, the transcendence of time, space, and distinctions of the material world exhibited in axe make more sense: The Orixas are axe embodied. Thus, their gender is fluid and non-constant.
It is because of the patriarchal nature that Brazilian society places on Candomble that it is impossible to be of male gender and to receive spirits. Only women may be
57 Wafer, 17.
58 Wafer, 18.
possessed by the deities of Candomble. Consequently, it is the object of envy by many men who can wish to, but can never hope to feel what it is like to be possessed by a god. There is only one way for a man to feel what women in Candomble feel in their trances. The problem with this is that re-Africanization of Candomble in most applications would terminate the one “out” that makes it possible for men to occupy the feminine roles of Candomble.
HOMOSEXUALITY IN CANDOMBLE AND ITS INHERENT TROUBLE WITH RE-AFRICANIZATION
“This notice begs gentlemen to observe the greatest respect. Their sex is prohibited from dancing among the women celebrating the rites of this temple” – sign outside of a terreiro attended by Ruth Landes 59
Jim Wafer’s studies of Candomble, published in 1991, focus on homosexuality within the religion, and how homosexuals practice contemporary Candomble. Unlike Landes, whose sources were primarily interviews with female practitioners of the religion, Wafer’s contacts were primarily with homosexual males who undertook the gender roles of women when practicing Candomble. Landes had made mention in brief of certain terreiros that had allowed men to dance and be possessed by deities and spirits.
Traditionally, only women are allowed to be possessed, as it would be emasculating for a male to allow himself to be “ruled” by a god.60 As Wafer explains, a way “out” of
tradition had been devised: Just step “out of the closet”.
59 Landes, 52.
60 Landes, 37.
In the 1930s, some terreiros for the first time deemed it acceptable and possible for a male to receive trance and possession by spirits if he were homosexual. Since then, the number of homosexuals has increased dramatically in Brazil. The terreiros that allow homosexual dancers have also increased in number. Cross-dressing by homosexuals in Candomble was documented as early as the 1913 Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, but terreiros did not begin to accept homosexuality until the 1930s, and even then, there were only a few that allowed this.61
Homosexuality within Candomble is a target of redress through re-Africanization because it was never allowed in the Yoruba religion of Africa that Candomble is based on.62 This makes the phenomenon of homosexuality in Candomble a completely Brazilian
one. There are many different groups of various background and intent that, despite their own differences, agree upon the removal of the allowance of homosexual male dancers in Candomble.
The reason that homosexuality has increased in Brazil since the 1930s is not solely because of Candomble, but Candomble has played a key role. Socio-economic factors played a role in the increase of homosexual men in Brazil, however acceptance in select terreiros is what made it acceptable at a societal level, at least to those who accepted Candomble – Many people in Bahia, and a great deal more in greater Brazil disapprove of Candomble, and not the least of them are those who disapprove of homosexuality.63 Many of these would be appeased by
61 James N. Green , Beyond Carnival, Male Homosexuality in Twentieth Century Brazil, (The University of Chicago Press, 1999), 210.
62 Landes, 37.
63 Green, 3.
re-Africanization.
Homosexuality challenges patriarchal control in Candomble. If a man is possessed by a god, then even if men are driving the gods within the possessed (men) by the beat of the drum, then the gender distinction is disturbed. I have found no cases of female ogan drummers in my studies, and the presence of lesbians is far less than that of gay men in Brazil, but the existence of homosexual male dancers in Candomble begs the question: If a woman wanted to become a drummer, and not a dancer, would this be possible if she were a lesbian? Could it be possible otherwise? Re-Africanization would of course restrict and disallow this form of self-expression if it were by other means allowed to pass. To allow a woman to pound out the rhythms that control the gods incarnate would be to challenge Candomble’s patriarchy even further than male dancers have.
That the view of homosexual men and the fact that roles between Brazilian homosexual men and heterosexual women are so similar leads Don Kulick, associate professor of social anthropology at Stockholm University, to argue that gender divisions in Latin America should not be seen as merely between men and women, but in a broader term, men and… not-men.64
In the 1960s, gender divisions among homosexuals occurred, and most homosexuals began to not think of themselves as men any longer, although they also did not see themselves as women.65 When homosexuality had begun to emerge in
Candomble, effeminacy was not observed in homosexuals.66 Known as “travestis”
64 Don Kulick, “The Gender of Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes”, Stockholm University Press, 1998), 3.
65 Green, 7.
66 Green, 8.
(transvestites), homosexual men have a prominent place in Afro-Brazilian and Brazilian culture, as well as in the culture of Candomble. Re-Africanization would reduce this prominence to nonexistence.
Many in Brazil, especially those in the re-Africanization camp, would say that Candomble is a chief cause of the prevalence of homosexuality in Brazil. To be homosexual in Brazil is different than it is to be homosexual the United States or in Europe. In Brazil, one is only homosexual if he allows himself to be sexually penetrated, or if he performs fellatio on another man – The man who is doing the penetrating or who is having fellatio performed upon him, is not societally deemed homosexual 67. Whether
one is considered a male or female in terms of gender (not sex) is based on whether the action is being performed on or by the subject.68 It is this way in part because of
Candomble – A man can only be “penetrated”, that is possessed, by a god, if he allows himself to be.69 To be possessed by a god in Candomble is literally to be penetrated –
When an initiate undergoes the rites to become a practitioner of Candomble, a
“daughter-of-saint” (or in homosexual cases, a son-of-saint), an incision is made at the apex of the back of his head that allows the spirit to enter her or him.70 If a man allows
himself to be penetrated or possessed, by another man, or by a spirit, then he is not masculine but feminine.
Whether Candomble is a primary cause of the rise of homosexuality or a secondary cause is up to debate. It may be that homosexuality is biologically determined,
67 Green, 6.
68 Kulick, 9.
69 Kulick, 2.
70 Wafer, 130-132.
and the societal conditions of Brazil, indicative in customs such as Candomble in its late twentieth and early twenty-first century state, are merely accepting of homosexuality and allow for it to grow. It is for certain though that most men who self-identify as homosexuals, usually starting between the age of ten and twenty, are from economically poor backgrounds and black families.71 It is also certain that throughout its history, most
practitioners of Candomble have been from economically poor backgrounds, and have mostly been black.72
Economic incentives outside of Candomble to become a travesti lie in prostitution. As travesty prostitutes, men fill their bodies with female hormones that redevelop parts of their bodies associated with the female body – accentuated hips, chests, and buttocks.73 There is also the incentive to be involved in Candomble and
Carnival at the focal point of ritual.74 Candomble.
Only those possessed may be the “stars” of
As male cross-dressing became more accepted in Carnival, the quality of
estrelismo evolved. “Estrelismo” means “the desire to be a star”.75 It is strictly a gay
cultural term within the larger Afro-Brazilian cultural context of Candomble, and so is a cultural item resistant to re-Africanization. “Living for the moment,” that greatest call of axe, became the call of Carnival, and the lifestyle of many in Brazil as Candomble became more publicly acceptable throughout the twentieth century.76 Every moment of
71 Kulick, 4.
72 Green, 7.
73 Kulick, 7.
74 Landes, 37.
75 Wafer, 8.
76 Green, 214.
daily life became an opportunity for performance, estrelismo. What better way to be able to perform acts of theater at any moment than to be an initiate of Candomble?
Candomble rituals to many are a form of theater themselves. Re-Africanization seeks to marginalize this theatrical component of Candomble as well, because many outsiders believe that as a religion it should be more “civilized”. Rituals are no longer always held in terreiros, they often are also held in private spaces by private parties. One of Jim Wafer’s chief primary sources, a travesti named Tais, had an Exu who made Wafer her patron (Tais himself is a travesti). Wafer bought food, decorations, two hens and a rooster for sacrifice, and made donations of more money during the ceremony. The ritual itself was a seating ceremony, in which friends would call forth Tais’s Exu and have her “seated”. Once this particular ceremony for Tais’s Exu started though, Tais’s other Exu took over Tais’s body instead of the Exu the ceremony was intended to honor.
This is another case of estrelismo, of theater, but Tais claimed it was merely the result of a feud between the two Exu. This is, after all, what everyone believed to be true anyway. The deities of Candomble are always in conflict with one another, and their conflicts are often acted out through the adherents of the religion. This theater, although perhaps not in Tais’s Exu ceremony’s hyper-sexualization, is a major part of Candomble that re-Africanization seeks to subvert.
The Exu who had taken over Tais’s body then took the ritual into a more debased form of what is commonly practiced in the terreiros. Instead of there being only sacrifices, invocations, drumming and dancing, the Exu soon began to get drunk, sharing liquor with ritual participants and witnesses, called the drummers into the circle, and then
proceeded to simulate anal sex.77 Private ceremonies for Exu have been common in
African history, but this is one more example of why homosexuality is a larger thorn than others in re-Africanization groups, and why homosexual depictions of Candomble may be seen as unsavory by the government: Conservative, hetero-normative tourists may be adverse to witnessing Candomble rituals that are in any way like Tais’s Exu ceremony.
Ceremonies for the seating of Orixas remain more traditional and even African in their presentation though, and are only held in the terreiros. The use of liquor is very controlled, if there is any consumption at all. There is no room for alteration of the ritual’s sequence, and the witnesses, drummers, and dancers are all confined to specific roles with bound duties. Cabolco festivals, such as what Carnival has for the most part become, are also more strictly formalized than private Exu ceremonies, but they are still less formal than Orixa ceremonies. However, again, in the case where the dancers are exclusively homosexual, even Cabolco ceremonies become wilder than traditional ceremonies. In the terreiros where homosexual dancers are merely allowed to participate with the women in Orixa ceremonies, formality is still strictly enforced.78
The growing popularity of sects of Christianity other than Catholicism in contemporary Brazil bears trouble for Brazilian homosexuals, and pushes further toward re-Africanization in the field of gender. Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism are increasing their members, and these sects of Christianity are not only anti-homosexual, but also
anti-Candomble. Candomble has been the only religious outlet for Brazilian homosexual men for almost half a century today, and with these religions gaining more members, and
77 Wafer, 39-44.
78 Wafer, 45.
thus more political capital, this also gives the Catholic church the political might that it needs to speak out against homosexuality within Candomble. In the 1980s, Evangelical legislators teamed with legislators who were of traditional Catholic leanings to stop a bill from becoming law that called for prohibition of discrimination against sexual orientation.79 The reality is that the emergence of new Christian sects in Brazil may lead
to Catholic suppression of Candomble itself.
As Martiniano tells Ruth Landes, homosexuality was not permitted whatsoever in the Yoruba of Africa that Candomble has its origins in. 80 Other races did not practice
Candomble in Africa either, and the spirits of Afro-Brazilian Candomble were not all practiced in Africa either. To re-Africanize is to omit homosexuality from Candomble.
RE-AFRICANIZING CARNIVAL
“In Bahia they say [Carnival] is the festival of the devil blessed by God” – Jim Wafer81
The United States government has for most of the history of jazz and blues embraced the music as a cultural form of music that is completely unique to what it means to be “American”. Why does Brazil not do the same with Candomble? Candomble is as uniquely Afro-Brazilian as jazz and blues are uniquely African-American. Like the United States, Brazil could capitalize on their unique cultural signification, but instead they seek to re-Africanize the religion. How does the re-Africanization of Candomble lead to big bucks over calling Candomble Afro-Brazilian, which evidence clearly
79 Green, 243.
80 Landes, 37.
81 Wafer, 10.
supports is actually the case? The reason again is because Candomble has some parts that many tourist may not like, and the traditional, tamer roots of the religion, though not representative of its contemporary practitioners, may be more appealing to foreigners who might spend their money in Brazil to see Candomble.
Many terreiros already have been re-Africanized.82Tourists are not allowed to see
the Candomble of the private terreiros though, whether they are re-Africanized or not. Only by special invitation is anyone allowed to witness Candomble in a terreiro if one does not belong to that terreiro. Other Candomble practitioners who belong to other terreiros cannot even visit. It is partly because Candomble is so sexually elicit and suggestive within the public sphere that re-Africanization becomes such an increasingly popular notion. The sexual suggestiveness is rarely more prevalent in Candomble though than in Candomble’s most public incarnation: Carnival.
Carnival is a European Catholic tradition of annual festival, where Catholics parade in the streets every year. Since its arrival in Brazil though, Carnival has become world-renowned particularly as it is practiced in Brazil by adherents of Candomble.
These celebrators of Carnival in Brazil are usually possessed by their Cabolco spirits.
The Cabolco spirits in Candomble are not very sexual in their nature, but as they are certainly not of African origin, a brief discussion of the Cabolcos is vitally important to a discourse on re-Africanization. The Cabolco spirits represent freedom and excitement in the religion; previously to their incorporation, according to Edison Carreiro, the Candomble of Yoruba ceremonies had been “solemn” affairs.83 When
82 Wafer 62.
83 Landes, 37.
possessing their adherents, Cabolcos speak in a form of Portuguese that might be
described as “backwater”.84 They also dance a Brazilian fighting dance known as
Copoira.85 This further attests to the Brazilian-ness and un-African-ness of the Cabolco
spirits, and by extension, Candomble.
As Cabolcos are the most prevalent deities to descend into and possess the dancers of Bahian Carnival, why is it that the Brazilian government would want to
re-Africanize Candomble? To re-Africanize would be to all but forego Carnival, which brings in much foreign cash to Brazil. Brazil wants the foreign cash, and needs it, so why the push to re-Africanize Candomble, and thus extinguish the Cabolco spirits from participating in Carnival? If Cabolco spirits were not invoked during Carnival, it would certainly not mean the end of Carnival, but the flavor of Carnival would completely change.
Re-Africanization of Carnival meets a more contentious and controversial point in the field of gender. Whereas the embodiment of Cabolco spirits unites the people of Brazil under one ethnicity, that of Brazilian Indians, the overt display of homosexuality and femininity in the male cross-dressers of Carnival raise tensions that are always beneath the surface in Brazilian culture year round.86 Men for many years were only
allowed to present themselves femininely during Carnival. Nevertheless, as the years
have steadily passed from the beginning of the twentieth century to the beginning of the twenty-first, displays of male femininity have come to be one of the primary focuses of Carnival.
84 Wafer, 65.
85 Wafer, 37.
86 Green, 283.
Whereas many might assume that homosexual domination of Carnival has long been upheld as tradition, it was a long, slow process in becoming actualized.87 Carnival
has historically been a time when societal norms have been cast aside in favor of taboo behaviors.88 From the start of the twentieth century though, intellectuals were calling
what little there was evident of homosexuals’ almost-nonexistent involvement in Carnival “an assault of decency”. In the 1930s, when homosexual involvement was becoming noticeable enough on a regular basis within Candomble rituals, and prominent in Carnival to be sure, the Vargas administration attempted to keep them out of Carnival entirely. In the 1950s, groups of travestis managed to apply successfully for their own legal spaces at Carnival masquerade balls. Acceptance of male cross-dressers in the 1950s resulted in part because of a scaled-back dress code for Carnival.89
“As an embodiment of the Carnival spirit,” travestis cross-dress and are as visibly entranced and possessed as the women.90 In recent years homosexual men have come to
be even more prominent in Carnival parades than women.91 Not all men who cross-dress
in Carnival are travestis though; many are men who actively penetrate in sexual intercourse with other men and/or women regularly, and who are not seen as being “non-men” (homosexual or a travesti); these cross-dressers merely dance in Carnival in drag a few days of the year, and then return from their gender inversions to Brazil’s societal expectations of their gender roles.92 This suggests that although Candomble
87 Green, 201.
88 Wafer, 55.
89 Green, 211.
90 Kulick, 2.
91 Wafer, 34.
92 Green, 203.
provides an avenue for public acceptance of homosexuality during Carnival, it is still not enough for men who wish to be openly gay, or at the very least,for heterosexual men to display a feminine side, the rest of the year. It also suggests that re-Africanization may not stop cross-dressing in Carnival, as it is not always men who are homosexual who dress in drag for Carnival.
Oftentimes, Carnival, despite its orgiastic reputation, is a center for the politics of race.93 Jim Wafer though holds in The Taste of Blood that the Carnival festivals are a time
when the differences of race are forgotten. Although Orixas and Exus are summoned during Carnival, and indeed, often have their own specific ceremonies set aside for them, the majority of the people of Bahia and greater Brazil receive during Carnival their Cabolco spirits.94
The Cabolco spirits are native spirits, and as all possessed by the native ancestors during this time of celebration, it is a time when race and differences are forgotten. Brazil has a symbolic association of its indigenous peoples and nationalism. Every failed revolution in Brazil, along with the successful abolition of slavery, has utilized a variation of the image of the Indian breaking its chains as a symbol.95 Because the people of Brazil
are celebrating the ancestors of the land, with whom the vast majority, over 95%, are not
descended from, Wafer claims that Carnival creates not only an anti-racist environment,
but an environment where race is a total non-issue.96 This is a major problem for
re-Africanization because re-Africanization needs race as a distinction to work.
93 Davies, 1.
94 Wafer, 54.
95 Wafer, 54.
96 Wafer, 55.
CONCLUSION
“When they say that religion is the opium of the people and has been the instrument of social immobilization, this is not applicable to the African religions. It is not applicable to Candomble … nor to any of the branches of the so-called Afro-Brazilian religions, because these, to the contrary have been [the means of] cultural resistance, have provided the parameters for our identity.”
– Abdias do Nascimento
It’s hard for historians to tell from personal accounts just how African Candomble has been at different parts of Brazilian history. The history of Candomble among its adherents is an oral history, and as so many people have been involved in the oral passage of the history, the storytellers of Candomble’s legends, stories, and myths that glue the religion into a cohesive cultural fabric do not even make claims to the validity of their stories – Only, as Jim Wafer heard time and again from numerous Candomble storytellers, that they “ ‘sold the fish for the price at which they bought it’ ” – meaning that they are relating it to the best of their ability, and any inconsistencies when compared with stories from other adherents of Candomble are not the fault of this storyteller or that storyteller. It is possible to reconcile Cabolcos within a re-Africanization of Candomble as traditions involving Brazilian ancestral Cabolco spirits have origins in veneration of African ancestors.97 This is unlikely though. The origin for the beliefs may be traditional,
but the fact that it is Brazilian ancestors being worshipped leaves little possibility for survival past re-Africanization were re-Africanization successful. Homosexuality within Candomble would not stand a chance of survival either.
Luckily for both the practitioners of Cabolco rituals, and the travestis who dance in that and all other areas of Candomble, their greatest strength in their resistance to
re-Africanization is their numbers. There are simply too many practitioners of
97 Wafer, 83.
Candomble that adhere to parts of the religion that are purely Brazilian in origin.
Re-Africanization proponents may try to rewrite the history of Candomble, but the people who practice what has come to be purely Brazilian in the religion are too many to be ignored. In another time, government suppression may have been possible, but given Brazil’s determination to present itself as a “racial democracy” in the modern world, any suppression is also unlikely.
The most attractive feature of re-Africanization to any and every practitioner of Candomble, be he or she a proponent or opponent of re-Africanization, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, or subculture, is the possibility of making Candomble a
state-recognized religion. Since the recognition of its mere presence on a large scale, the government has not deemed Candomble worthy of recognition beyond a “cult”. The adherents of Candomble have a long history that begins with their time in slavery. Like the African-American slaves of the United States, who found strength in their forms of Christianity, the Afro-Brazilian slaves found strength in Candomble. Their faith sustained them through slavery. Candomble afforded them a way of finding a semblance between their multiple identities as slaves, spiritual beings, material people, and reconciled the differences they saw in the way they looked at themselves and at the way their masters looked at them.
On a multi-cultural level, the celebration of Cabolco spirits allows Brazilians to forget their differences and celebrate their sameness. While re-Africanizing may create more money in this poverty-stricken country, the denial of cultural sameness eats away at the fabric of Brazil’s claimed racial democracy.
Candomble affords women, homosexual men, and peopleof all races a way to view themselves the way they wish to be seen in society while reconciling the fact that society does not want to see them that way. Ceremonies on a small scale from Exu seating ceremonies in a private backyard, to the once-a-year public festival of Carnival allow them a space to celebrate their identities. Re-Africanize Candomble, and this avenue of identity expression is banished to them, and their faith in themselves and reality as well. What more is a religion supposed to do than give a person faith?
Candomble is a religion, but to re-Africanize it is to deny it as a religion to select groups of people, and a fierce indicator that Brazil is not the racial democracy it wishes the world to see it as.
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