Condomble

Yesterday we had a visit to Salvador's largest Condomble center. Condomble is the Brazilian form of Santeria and Voodoo. It's an animist religion created out of traditional African religious ceremonies and brought to Brazil by imported slaves. The center we visited, Jle Axe Opo Afonja, is dedicated and ruled by Xango, one of the main Condomble Orixas. The Orixas are the gods of Candomble, and each has a particular character and form, and a special attribute that helps people who pray to them. Xango is a warrior god, owner of thunder and fire, and represents masculine power.

Condomble is a matriarchal religion. There are several reasons for this, the first being that animism holds that gender doesn't shape us or our bodies, and we all have many spirits and the possibility to hold many others, both male and female. Condomble is quite gay friendly, in fact. The other reason for the matriarchal structure of Condomble has to do with the particular history of slavery in Brazil. Male slaves worked almost exclusively in the fields and were heavily policed. The work was difficult and dangerous and life expectancies were low. Female saves worked mainly in and around the houses. Some of them were educated. The women were able to congregate and were able to preserve the oral traditions of Western Africa. The "Mother" of each center is chosen by the Orixas and runs the church independently of other centers. There are a number of "Daughters of the Orixas" who act like priests, preparing the ceremonies, teaching the children, making the traditional all-white garments, communicating with the ancestors, and receiving the sprits of the Orixas in their bodies through a kind of possession. The Mother of the congregation we visited was named Mao Stella, and she is probably Brazil's most famous Mother. She is an Anthropologist and public figure who is a member of Brazil's Academy of Arts and Literature. We were shown around by a Daughter named Dare, who was about 40 and wore the all-white dress and headscarf.

The center itself was created 110 years ago when its Mother raised enough money to buy a large piece of land outside the city. This was only 15 years after slavery was abolished in Brazil and many former slaves had no place to live, no work, and were in terrible poverty. Condomble was illegal, and the land was bought under the guise of providing cooperative farming opportunities for former slaves. They erected a cross, which still stands, and practiced their religion in secret by continuing the practice of syncretism, which links Orixas to Saints and makes them on some ways interchangeable. This kept Condomble underground and secret.

Today the city hems in the land, and in fact, the center has lost almost half of it to squatters who went in overnight and built favela homes. The land has been planted with trees and plants imported from Africa, and serves as a kind of African cultural centers. There is a school that teaches 400 students in both Portuguese and Yoruba. Many families live at the center and practice communal living. Each Orixa has her or his own 'house' or shrine or place of worship.

We walked for a while around this place, with acres of forest, hemmed in by poor neighborhoods on all sides. It was beautiful and peaceful. There was lovely art and bright-colored plaster walls. And then there were the bones and carcasses. Yes, giant balls of bones, chicken-feet, patches of animal fur, feathers, skulls, and horns, tied in large clumsy clumps and hung from the rafters of an open-sided veranda. They looked dark and alarming, and they were such a contrast to the lovely warm community around us. But when we asked about these dark displays, the story behind them was completely benign. In fact, animals are sacrificed for Condomble rituals, but for the purpose of communal eating. Part of the ceremony is to bind people together by sharing a meal. The bones and skulls and feet and fur are the symbolic representation of being bound together into a community.

We were asked not to take photos so I can't post any.