\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some terms:<\/strong><\/p>\n feijoada<\/strong>: a traditional Brazilian dish of beans (feijao<\/em>), meat, served with rice and farofa (manioc flour).\u00a0 The term also refers to an event at which this is the main dish.<\/p>\n Ogum<\/strong>: orixa from Afro-Brazilian spiritual practice. \u00a0Warrior and patron of iron workers. \u00a0Often syncretized with Saint George, but also with Saint Anthony.<\/p>\n Our Lord of the Good End (Nosso Senhor do Bonfim<\/strong>: A Brazilian Catholic church in Salvador that is also the site of various Afro-Brazilian practices.<\/p>\n Navigating the Syncretism of Salvador<\/em><\/p>\n Even though a majority of Brazilians are nominal Catholics, many are also practitioners of various spiritual practices of African heritage. \u00a0Candomble is the best known, but there are various other forms across Brazil. \u00a0Often they derive from the same West African spiritual matrix, but there are many African nations and cultures represented \u2014 including Yoruba, Fon, Jeje, Nago and many others. \u00a0In Salvador Candomble<\/em> is considered to be of largely Yoruba origins and it has been \u201cpurified\u201d and refreshed in recent decades through a process of \u201creafricanization\u201d that removed many of the new world practices and spiritual entities.<\/p>\n Yet, there are many variations in practice. \u00a0In some spiritual houses there are entities of New World origin also worshiped (including Catholic saints).\u00a0Thus, being active in Salvadoran spiritual communities may involve a nominal \u2014 even intense \u2014 Catholicism,\u00a0 and a possible association with a house of Candomble.<\/p>\n Cultural\u00a0Survival and Continuity<\/em><\/p>\n In the history of Brazilian slavery the Portuguese \u201cslavocrats\u201d (escravocrata<\/em>, as they are called in the history books) tried to separate families, linguistic groups and the diverse cultures of the slaves who were brought to Brazil.\u00a0 This had the result of mixing the cultures and enforcing the Portuguese language as the lingua franca<\/em> for all.\u00a0 There had been earlier attempted led by Jesuits to establish Nheengatu<\/em> as the general language (lingua geral<\/em>) of Brazil.\u00a0 The language was based on the indigenous Tupi and Guarani languages.\u00a0 The Jesuits generally opposed the slavery of indigenous peoples and this brought them into conflict with the plantation owners and slavers.\u00a0 As a result the Jesuits were withdrawn from Brazil by the Portuguese government which, under regent Marquis de Pombal, sided with the slavers.\u00a0 Subsequent slavery shifted from indigenous peoples to imported Africans and the Portuguese language was enforced.<\/p>\n In spite of repression, the African languages survived in part, as did the practices that came from the various peoples and nations of Africa.\u00a0 Various deities such as orixas had\u00a0 commonalities from one African group to another.\u00a0 This allowed a maintenance of common tradition, although mixing of spiritual entities (orixas and others) and languages, all with an overlay of Portuguese language and an enforced Catholic culture.\u00a0 Other entities entered African-Brazilian practice from indigenous traditions, but these are stronger in areas such as Maranhao than in Salvador.<\/p>\n Salvadoran spiritual culture embraces Catholicism and Afro-Brazilian spiritual practice \u2013 sometimes with an attempted purity in one or the other, but often combined in private and public practice.\u00a0 The usual term is syncretism, which is used here roughly to mean the identification of African entities and deities with the saints of the Catholic\u00a0 Church so that one could worship both, or appear to worship the official religion while privately identifying with African entities.\u00a0 Various authorities search a proper term for this syncretism \u2014 sometimes seeing a merging of saints and orixas, sometimes a sub<\/em>merging and camouflage of African belief beneath the practices and saints of entities of Catholicism, and sometimes seeing the two as \u201coil and water\u201d that mix and coexist but do not merge.<\/p>\n A Contemporary Example: A day in a village near Salvador<\/em><\/p>\n This particular day\u00a0 in Salvador was a mix of all these unique northeast Brazilian traditions.<\/p>\n A friend from a capoeira class took us to a modest village\/bairro about forty minutes from the center of Salvador where we visited a celebration for the orix\u00e1 Ogum<\/em>.\u00a0 It was a small, mostly orthodox house of Candomble (terreiro<\/em>) but this was not a completely formal ceremony.\u00a0 The public was invited to share the food (a traditional dish of beans and rice with the meat of an ox, freshly prepared for the event).<\/p>\n The ceremony was presided over by a man who served as the administrator, guide, sexton and director of the event.\u00a0 He oversaw the drummers, signaled the percussion rhythms to be played and gently guided the event.<\/p>\n The central figure was the mae de santos (\u201cMother of Saints,\u201d<\/em> the spiritual leader of the terreiro)<\/em>.\u00a0 She led the dancing, cared for the novitiates, and guided the spiritual integrity of the celebration.<\/p>\n A few elements of the event<\/em>:<\/p>\n By tradition there are three drums of determined sizes\u00a0 They play specific rhythms for each entity (orix\u00e1<\/em>) to be invoked, and each rhythm accompanies a specific dance movement for the orix\u00e1.<\/p>\n The high points in the ceremony occur when a novitiate \u201creceives\u201d an entity and embodies it.\u00a0 In this tradition the entities have not bodies and communicate with the believing community through the bodies of the novitiates.\u00a0 This occurs during the period of drumming and dancing when one of the devotees enters what appears to be a trance that signals the presence of the orix\u00e1.<\/p>\n The presence of the entity in the dancer is signaled by the placement of a special shawl that also serves to support the person so that he or she does not fall.<\/p>\n After the ceremony we got a special introduction to the various resting places of the orix\u00e1s<\/em>.\u00a0 Some are simple figures, some might seem to be altars, and others are resting places for the entities with specially-prepared covers and offerings.<\/p>\n The ceremony we saw was dedicated to Ogum, the orix\u00e1 of war and iron. \u00a0There was a small\u00a0altar to him in the courtyard of the terreiro.<\/em><\/p>\n There is no strict syncretism or convergence of orixas<\/em> and Catholic saints that is valid for all terreiro<\/em>s and traditions.\u00a0\u00a0 However, there are some commonalities that are recognizable despite variations by region and tradition.\u00a0 For example, Ogum<\/em> is broadly associated with St. George<\/strong>, but in many Candomble houses in Salvador Ogum<\/em> is associated with St. Anthony<\/strong> (whose day is June 13, the day of his death).\u00a0 On this\u00a0afternoon the feijoada<\/em> and ceremony were dedicated to the African-Brazilian entity Ogum<\/em>, but the same terreiro<\/em> was celebrating Saint Anthony that evening.\u00a0 The ox that had been slaughtered for Ogum<\/em> during the day would serve for Saint Anthony in the evening.<\/p>\n The terreiro<\/em>\u00a0also had a pantheon of orix\u00e1s<\/em> they honored, including<\/p>\n Iemanja<\/strong> (goddess of the sea,and often syncretized with some attributed of the Virgin Mary)<\/p>\n Ogum<\/strong><\/em>, god of iron an war (usually syncretized with Saint George).\u00a0 Patron of iron workers and warriors.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Yansa\/Iansa<\/strong>, goddess of the wind and tempest.\u00a0 Wife of Xango, the god of thunder and fire. \u00a0Sansa is often syncretized with Saint Barbara, a 3rd century saint who was executed by her Roman father because she had adopted the Catholic faith.<\/p>\n Omulu<\/strong> (also called\u00a0Obaluae<\/em> or Babaluae<\/em>): in Candomble and other Afro-Brazilian spiritual practices Omulu is the spiritual entity (oriya) associated with sickness and health. \u00a0Usually a male, but sometimes a female, Omulu is often syncretized or associated with the Catholic Saint Lazarus (for a bit of trivia, see the Note<\/em> below).<\/p>\n Many of the figures were at rest, covered in a protected space \u2014 so I don\u2019t have a photo from that terriero<\/em>. \u00a0But here are some images from various festivals in which the figure is danced.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Oxala<\/strong>, an orixa whose gentleness is often associated with Jesus.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Interesting, this terreiro<\/em> seemed not to have fully \u201creafricanized\u201d by purging itself of Brazilian entities that entered the practice in the New World.\u00a0 There were caboclos, representative of the indigenous chiefs of the forest; and there was Pombagira, a sensual entity.\u00a0 She is presented in red, drinking wine and smoking.\u00a0 Often she is adopted as the patron of prostitutes and has gained popularity among gay Brazilians as well. \u00a0She is often not included in the orthodox pantheon of Candomble, but has a wide popular appeal.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Nosso Senhor do Bonfim<\/em><\/p>\n To complete the syncretistic tour of Salvador we ended the day at the famous church of \u201cOur Lord of the Good End.\u201d the name refers to\u00a0Jesus Christ, who is also associated with the Afro-Brazilian entity Oxala.\u00a0 So far as we know, this is the largest and most famous Catholic church (and perhaps the only one) that includes Oxala in its worship.\u00a0 On special occasions the devotees of Oxala attend a special mass wearing symbolic white gowns with read sashes or scarves.\u00a0 Uniquely, the worship is of both Oxala and Jesus.<\/p>\n The church is also site of another unique syncretic practice.\u00a0 Once a year traditional Salvadoran women (Bahaianas) form a procession of several miles and walk\/dance several miles from the harbor in the lower city to the church.\u00a0 There they wash the steps of the Church to purify it for the orix\u00e1s.\u00a0 In the procession they also carry figures of Yemanja (also Iemanja), the goddess of the sea, mother of all orix\u00e1s<\/em>, and also a figure of Our Lady of Conception.\u00a0 She is also represented by a sereia<\/em>, or mermaid.<\/p>\n In his famous novel Mar Morto<\/em>, \u00a0Jorge Amado says that sailors are blessed to drown in the arms of Iemanja\u2014a romantic death that the figures in the novel do not seem to seek out with a lot of enthusiasm. However, the legend offers the consolation that someone lost at sea is in arms of the mother of all who love the sea.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n (\u00a0Note: Older readers and late-night viewers of a comedy channel may vaguely recall the Lucille Ball show in which her husband, Desi Arnaz, would often be shown with his band singing\u00a0Babalu\u2026Babaluae.\u00a0 <\/em>This is a\u00a01930\u2019s Cuban song that references the West African heritage of many Cubans Africa-descendants.\u00a0 In Cuba the practice is often called Santeria and is related to the same broad African cultural matrix as Candomble practice.)<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 An important element of the Study Abroad trip is to explore the roots and interconnections of Afro-Brazilian culture and spiritual practice in Northeast Brazil. \u00a0These reflections are meant to provide a context students\u2019 experience in Bahia, but you can skip the discursive sections and see the descriptions of the group\u2019s experiences (with photos) below. … Continue reading Religious Syncretism in Salvador: Ogum and “Our Lord of the Good End”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uwmmilwaukee-study-abroad-pre-2019"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=385"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":797,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions\/797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Church](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/IMG_7478_DxO.jpg\")
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