Candomblé is an Afro-Brazilian religion that developed in the cities and plantations of northeastern Brazil in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Created by enslaved Africans and their descendants, its roots are in ancient societies of West, Central and Southwest Africa -- among these, the Dahomey empire; the Yoruba kingdoms of Oyo, Ketu and Oshogbo; and the Kongo and Angola nations. In addition to the African origins of Candomblé, there are some Amerindian and Catholic elements which reflect influences of the colonial society in which the religion came into being.
Fundamentally, Candomblé is a religion of balance and reciprocity which places great emphasis, in its rituals and in its cosmology, on the interconnectedness of all forms of life. Human beings are not seen as somehow separate from other elements of the natural universe. All life is related. And all life is necessary.
Candomblé is also a religion of resistance. During the period of slavery Candomblé was one of the most important means that Afro-Brazilians created to maintain their most deeply human identities, in spite of their subaltern position in the larger society. In the present-day the religion continues to serve as a way to cultivate profound connections to ancestral traditions, to sacred energies (voduns, orishas and nkisis) and to positive meanings of blackness in the midst of an often painfully racist society.
Finally, Candomblé is also a religion of creativity and healing. As in the African and indigenous Amerindian traditions from which it emerged, human illness in Candomblé is understood in the larger, holistic context of physical, psychological, spiritual, environmental and social forces. For healing to occur, often multiple elements of disease or imbalance must be addressed. For example, a person suffering from debilitating headaches may be in need of a cure that addresses her spiritual state as well as her physical discomfort. Generally speaking, some form of divination is used to determine the source of any illness and the proper route to its remedy. Plants and herbal medicine are key components of healing in Candomblé. Leaves and bark, seeds and flowers are also essential to rituals of cleansing, initiation, and other ordinary as well as extraordinary rites in the religion. In fact, there is a popular saying in Brazil, “If there are no plants, there is no Candomblé.” This indicates the elemental importance of the natural environment for the effective conduct of devotion and healing in the religion.
The three Afro-Brazilians who participated in the PROMETRA conference in January 2002 – Valdina Oliveira Pinto, Valnizia Pereira Oliveira and Everaldo Conceição Duarte – are well-respected ritual elders in the Candomblé religion in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. They are sacerdotal leaders and healers who serve a large clientele (both devotees and people outside of the religion) who seek them for their expertise in plant- and ritual-based healing. The priestesses and priest were happy and honored to participate in the conference in Benin and look forward to other opportunities to share their knowledge and insights with colleagues from Africa and elsewhere in the diaspora.
Rachel E. Harding,
March 2002
Denver, Colorado