Candomblé

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Candomble ritual

The Candomblé is an Afro-Brazilian religion that is practiced mainly in Brazil , but also in neighboring countries.

History of the origins of the Candomblé

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The Candomblé is a Brazilian religion that has deep roots and its cradle in West Africa. Basically , Candomblé is about establishing an exchange between the people who practice it and the gods - called Orisha , Nkisi or Vodum - depending on which nation the Candomblé comes from. In contrast to the supreme god Olorun, the saints (Orixá, Nkisi or Vodum) are, so to speak, "addressable". During a candomblé rite, a saint can take possession of a person. This person then moves differently than the other cult participants who dance around the altar, which is located in the center of the Candomblé temple, which was specially built for this saint. Every saint moves in a very special way: the possessed person dances like the saint when he is possessed. Each saint has a day assigned to him, a zodiac sign assigned to him, food, drink, color, flower, animal and much more.

The Candomblé found its entrance through the deportation of African slaves to Brazil. In West Africa, different ethnic groups mixed, some of which were enemies, and sold the tribesmen who were enemies with them as slaves to the Europeans. Between 1780 and 1850, the "import of slaves" reached its peak. More than two million slaves - more than half of all people stolen from Africa - reached Brazil during this time. Many reached the coastal city of Salvador da Bahia , the former capital of Brazil, which for three centuries from 1538 had been the linchpin of the slave trade of the Portuguese colonial masters in South America . Up to 40% of the estimated ten to twelve million people forced into slavery from Africa were deported to Salvador da Bahia, where they were sold on the Salvadorian slave market. In this respect, the African roots of today's Candomblé religion in Brazil result largely from the deportation of enslaved Africans who were deported to Brazil from the 16th century, especially between the 18th century and the second half of the 19th century .

First came the Bantu people, then the Jeje and finally the Yoruba. Most of the enslaved Africans came from the West African region of Nigeria  / Benin and were usually influenced by the African tradition of the Yoruba or the Bantu . Many Yoruba and Bantu were not only used as slaves on the plantations in Brazil, but also as house slaves in the cities. Since they had greater freedom of movement and communication here, there were better opportunities for them to exchange the original African tradition. Therefore, the Candomblé has mainly urban roots. Corresponding to the trade routes through which the slaves were brought from Africa to America, closely related religious groups can also be found in the Caribbean , for example in Cuba ( Santería ) and Haiti ( Voodoo ). Therefore, the Candomblé is often referred to as the "sister religion" of the Voodoo.

Casa Branca

Although Africans were collectively forcibly baptized upon arrival in Brazil and the governments followed their original religion, the picture of the Catholic Church was ambivalent. Although it discriminated against the African religion, it protected the slaves from the worst attacks. In addition, the Catholic Church founded the black “council assemblies” or “brotherhoods” of the urban slaves, which were called “an instrument of colonial and missionary policy”. These congregations then provided the framework for the enslaved Africans to reconstruct their original Bantu and Yoruba traditions and religions and to pass them on under the guise of Catholic popular piety . Due to the necessity of survival to conceal the practice of their rites, as well as a certain affinity of the African cult to the cult of saints of Catholicism , a kind of syncretism developed over the centuries . Nevertheless, the practice of their traditional religion played a very important role in the function of preserving their own culture, insofar as they survived the harsh reprisals, persecutions, crises and rebellions. The religious place can be seen as the last refuge to preserve the Afro-Brazilian identity. With the abolition of slavery, which was not carried out in Brazil until 1888, the Candomblé continued to expand. While it used to be restricted and persecuted to members of the slave class, freedom of religion is now legally guaranteed not only in Brazil but also in all other Latin American countries.

Current situation

The Catholic Church is currently relatively neutral towards the Afro-Brazilian religion, but even today evangelical fundamentalists in Latin America condemn the Candomblé and other Afro-American religions as the work of the devil. In contrast, the Candomblé has now developed into an established religion with its followers in the most diverse social classes and in various places around the world. In recent polls, 2 million Brazilians (1.5% of the total population) have declared that their religion is Candomblé.

Demarcation

In Brazilian culture, religions are not mutually exclusive; many people of other faiths - up to 70 million according to some Afro-Brazilian cultural organizations - participate regularly or occasionally in candomblé rituals. Deities, rituals, and candomblé holidays are an integral part of Brazilian folklore.

Candomblé is to be distinguished from Umbanda and Macumba , which are two other Afro-Brazilian religions with similar origins. Candomblé also differs from other religions on the American continent, which are also of African origin, such as Haitian Voodoo or Cuban Santería and Obeah . These developed independently of Candomblé and are almost unknown in Brazil.

"Nations"

Brazilian slaves came from a number of different ethnic groups , including the Yoruba , Ewe , Fon, and Bantu . Since the religions of the individual groups developed differently depending on the geographical region, a distinction is now made between sects or nations ( Nações ), which differ in terms of the worshiped deities, music and festivals as well as the religious language used in the rituals. Different saints from different nations resemble each other but are not the same deity.

The following list is a rough classification of the major nations and sub-nations , their regions, and their sacred languages :

  • Jeje (states of Bahia , Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo ). the word "jeje" comes from the Yoruba word "adjeje" and means "foreigner, stranger." There was never a Jeje nation in Africa. What is called Nation Jeje in the Candomblé is made up of the Fon people who came to Brazil mainly from the Dahomey region and the Mahis or mahins people. "Jeje" was the pejorative name given by Yorubas for the people who inhabited the east, because the Mahis were a tribe on the east side and Saluvá, or people from the south side of Savalou . The term Saluvá or Savalou actually comes from "memory", this was the place where " Nana " (saint) was worshiped. Nana, one of the origins of which would be Bariba, an ancient dynasty of a son of Oduduwa origin who is the founder of Schaveh (in this case dealing with the Fon people). The Abomey was to the west while the Axantis were the northern tribe. All of these tribes were Jeje people. The Fon , Ewe , Fanti , Ashanti , Mahi , Abomey, Minas peoples who speak a mixture of the Ewe and Fon languages ​​and whose sacred is called Vodum .

Faith

Candomblé is a form of spiritualism and worships a number of gods or spirits derived from African deities:

  • the Orixás Yoruba mythology of a god father Olorun were created
  • the Voduns the Fon or Ewe mythology that the God Father Mawu created
  • the Inkices of Bantu mythology, created by the supreme god Zambi or Zambiapongo .

Candomblé kept only a few dozen of the hundreds of deities worshiped in Africa. The deities of the different nations are superficially very similar; H. many Ketu-Orixás can be compared to Jejé-Voduns or Bantu-Inkices. In reality, however, the cults, rituals and rhythms of the deities can vary widely.

The Orixás have their personalities, skills, and ritual preferences and are associated with specific natural phenomena (a notion not dissimilar to the Kami of Japanese Shinto ). Each person is given an Orixá godparent at birth , who is appointed by a Babalorixá (a priest). Some orixás are embodied by initiated persons in candomblé rituals; with others this is not common, but they are worshiped, for example, by a tree. Some other Orixás, called efunfun (white) , who are imagined to have been involved in creating the world , are also not embodied.

Over the centuries the Candomblé has absorbed many elements of Christianity . For example, crucifixes can often be found in Candomblé temples, and Orixás are often equated with specific Catholic saints.

This historical development was in part a consequence of persecution by the church, authorities and slave owners. In order to be able to venerate their Orixás, Inkices and Voduns, the black slaves often used an altar with images of Catholic saints, under which the Candomblé objects were hidden. This practice had already begun with the Christianization of Africa and was partially introduced by the missionaries themselves in order to simplify the conversion to Christianity. On the other hand, the Candomblé has also incorporated Indian elements, which is why it cannot be said that the persecution was the only reason for mixing with other religions.

In the last few years a “fundamentalist” movement has emerged within the Candomblé, which rejects the Christian elements and tries to create a “pure” Candomblé based only on African elements.

Rituals

The Candomblé ritual has two parts

  • The preparation, which sometimes begins a week before each ceremony. The place of the ceremony is cleaned and decorated by the initiated. Flags in the color of the Orixá - in whose honor the ceremony is carried out - are procured and placed on the place of the ceremony and animals are sacrificed, with part of the meat going to the Orixá, the other part being prepared for the feast in the evening .
  • The public part and the festival is that the Holy Child (filho de santo - the initiates) the ritual dance in a trance-like state (see trance dance expire), in which they put her body to the spirit of their Orixá available so that this can manifest in the material world and interact with its environment. The Babalorixá ( God the Father ) performs symbolic chants and dances that evoke the peculiarities of the Orixá. The ritual ends with a banquet.

The Candomblé music , an essential part of the ritual, derives from African music and has a strong influence on other popular (non-religious) Brazilian music styles .

temple

Candomblé Temple in Recife

The Candomblé temples are Casas ( houses ), Roças or Terreiros called.

There are two types of casas :

  • Big Casas , which are subordinate to a strict hierarchy and where either only women hold the leadership (as Ialorixá - Mother of God) or both sexes can lead. Matriarchal Casas are for example:
    • Ilé Axé Iyá Nassô Oká - Casa Branca do Engenho Velho - in Salvador da Bahia , which is considered the first casa to be opened
    • Ilé Iyá Omi Axé Iyámase do Gantois - Gantois - Salvador da Bahia
    • Ilé Axé Opó Afonjá - Opó Afonjá - Salvador da Bahia
    • Ilé Axé Alaketu - Alaketu - Salvador da Bahia
    • Terreiro do Bogum - Salvador da Bahia
    • Casa das Minas - Founded around 1796 - São Luís , Maranhão

Mixed- gender casas are for example:

    • Ilé Axé Oxumare - Casa de Oxumare
    • Asé Yangba Oloroke ti Efon - Terreiro do Oloroke
  • Small casas that are independent and are administered by the Babalorixá ( God the Father ) or the Ialorixá ( God the Mother ) and the Orixá and also belong to them. There is no central administration, and in the event of death, the temple will either be continued by interested relatives or closed.

In order to rise in the hierarchy of a large casa , the learning of lengthy initiation rites is required. After the death of an Ialorixá , her successor is usually chosen from among her daughters, using the Búzios game as a choice. However, the successor can be very controversial or it is possible that no successor will be found. This often leads to the split or closure of Casas , which is why only a few Casas in Brazil are more than 100 years old.

See also

bibliography

  • Hohenstein, Erica, Jane de: The realm of magical mothers: Investigation of women in the Afro-Brazilian obsession cults Candomblé , in: Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation, Frankfurt / M. 1991 (Science and Research; Vol. 18).
  • Maik Sadzio: Conversations with the Orixás: Ethnopsychoanalysis in a Terreiro in Porto Alegre / Brazil, Transkulturelle Edition Munich, 2nd edition 2012. ISBN 978-3842355095
  • Stefania Capone: "Searching for Africa in Brazil. Power and Tradition in Candomblé". Duke University Press, Durham 2010.
  • Joachim G. Piepke: "The Candomblé and the question of identity". In: "Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft und Religionswissenschaft", Vol. 84, No. 4 (2000), pp. 275–285.

Hubert Fichte - Xango

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "At its most basic level, Candomblé is the practice of exchange with orixás, which mediate between Olorun, a distant high god, and human beings." (Paul Christopher Johnson: Secrets, Gossip and Gods. The Transformation of Brazilian Candomblé. Oxford 2002)
  2. ↑ Airton Barbosa Gondim: Seu Guia No Candomblé. Salvador 2004.
  3. ^ Paul Christopher Johnson: Secrets, Gossip, and Gods. The Transformation of Brazilian Candomblé. Oxford 2002, p. 61.
  4. ^ Hohenstein, Erica Jane de: The realm of magical mothers: Investigation of the women in the Afro-Brazilian obsession cults Candomblé. Publishing house for intercultural communication, Frankfurt / M. 1991 (IKO Science and Research 18); zugl .: Frankfurt (Main), Univ., Diss., 1991.
  5. ^ Hohenstein, Erica Jane de: The realm of magical mothers: Investigation of the women in the Afro-Brazilian obsession cults Candomblé. Publishing house for intercultural communication, Frankfurt / M. 1991 (IKO Science and Research 18); zugl .: Frankfurt (Main), Univ., Diss., 1991.
  6. ↑ Reuter, Astrid: Voodoo and other Afro-American religions, Munich 2003.
  7. ↑ Hohenstein, Erica, Jane de: The realm of magical mothers: Investigation of the women in the Afro-Brazilian obsession cults Candomblé. Publishing house for intercultural communication, Frankfurt / M. 1991 (Science and Research 18); zugl .: Frankfurt (Main), Univ., Diss., 1991.
  8. ^ Pollack-Eltz, Angelina: drum and trance. The Afro-American religions, in: Khoury, Adel, Theodor [Hrsg.]: Small library of world religions, vol. 2, Freiburg 2003, pp. 145–190.

Web links

Commons : Candomblé  - album with pictures, videos and audio files