I watch videos of Umbanda ceremonies and read about how Umbanda arose out of a fusion of the black working-class’s practice of Candomble with the 19th century white middle/upper-class practice of spiritualism and spiritism. What has arisen over the last century . It discards the animal sacrifices, ritual Yoruba language (in favor of Portuguese vernacular), alcohol and tobacco use, and sometimes even the colorful necklaces and ritual dress.
What largely brings these Afro-American religions together in Brazil:
- the resistance to slavery and racism,
- the use of African-derived music and instruments
- veneration for African deities such as the Orishas (and sometimes for Indigenous spirits)
- the terreiros
I’m also interested in how Afro-Brazilian religion approaches LGBT participation and representation. While Candomble is by far better at welcoming LGBT people compared to Abrahamic religions (especially the Evangelical Christianity which has seized so much control over Brazilian politics), and Umbanda can profess to be even more egalitarian on sexual and gender minorities than Candomble (including the performance of same-sex weddings and inclusive initiation rites), research does show a masculine and cisgender bias in the practice of Afro-Brazilian religion which often ticks up depending on the terreiro involved.
Which brings to mind a few things:
- my own experience going to an Episcopal youth study group one time when relational theology and queer theology were discussed. Very informative, especially as to discussions of egalitarian, ungendered religious language.
- The debate and conflict within Euro-American nature religions like Wicca and Asatru on the role of gender and sexuality, which has resulted in the creation of even TERF sects such as Dianic Wicca, as well as opposite, egalitarian sects such as the Feri Tradition, Radical Faeries and more
Questions:
- What would an Afro-Brazilian religion with a relational, queer theology look like?
- How would the endemic religious language – of “mounting” by orishas, or of fertility, or of gender – change? Or even the language introduced from Kardecist spiritism?
- It doesn’t seem that sheer inclusion of gay men is enough in a country like Brazil, which still reels from the domestic and political impact of machismo. What of lesbians and transgender people? Will they take a role to the merging of relational and queer theology into an Afro-Brazilian religion?
I could take this further into questions about evolution, about vegetarianism, about political organizing, as well. But I’ll leave it at that.
