The Formation of Candomblé: Vodun History and Ritual in Brazil

4 The Jeje Contribution to the Institutionalization of Candomblé in the Nineteenth Century

87 4 The Jeje Contribution to the Institutionalization of Candomblé in the Nineteenth Century The Emergence of a Network of Extradomestic Religious Congregations Although they could be restricted to the domestic sphere, the religious practices based on the “altar-offering complex”—and their extension into public ceremonies of drumming, dance, and the manifestation of multiple deities in the bodies of their adepts—tended to be organized in private spaces reserved for such purposes. The increased ritual complexity and the maintenance of these sacred spaces required a greater outlay of resources and, consequently, the participation of a greater number of people. In this chapter, we will explore how a network of religious congregations with such characteristics emerged in nineteenth-century Bahia and examine their social interactions. Until recently, the history of African religious practices in nineteenthcentury Bahia was a topic little explored outside the work of Nina Rodrigues, Pierre Verger, and João José Reis.1 Fortunately, the past decade has seen increasing interest in preabolition Candomblé, and at last a more systematic efforttoexaminethetopicisdeveloping.2Policerecords,includingcorrespondence , housed intheArquivoPúblicodoEstadodaBahia(BahianStatePublic Archive)andthenewspapersofthetimeconstitutetheprincipaldocumentary sources; sources for the first half of the nineteenth century are still scarce, however, while those for the second half are more numerous and consistent. Among the newspapers, O Alabama, “a humorous and critical periodical” founded in Salvador in 1863, stands out. Though the editors of this paper were Afro-descendants and abolitionists, they saw Candomblé as an expression of barbarism, superstition, and sexual promiscuity and launched a systematic campaigntodenounceit.Despitethisideologicalbias,thearticlesofthispaper offervaluable,almostethnographic,descriptionsofAfricanreligiouspractices, in some cases witnessed directly by the journalists, and document African terminology , names of leaders and participants, as well as the location of various candomblés. This material undoubtedly represents the richest documentary 88 the jeje contribution to candomblé source on Bahian Candomblé in the 1860s and will be considered in greater detail further on.3 For the present, we will focus on the earlier 1800–1850 period. As we saw in chapter 3, on Christmas 1808 in Santo Amaro, there were simultaneous “gatherings ” of Angola, Jeje, and Nagô-Hausa slaves held on separate streets. These batuques,dances,andbanquetswerecelebratedintheopenairorinabandoned houses appropriated for the occasion, and did not last longer than one day.4 They were, therefore, gatherings that yet lacked an established organization and specific spaces dedicated to such activities. However, it is known that one year earlier, in 1807, on lands of the Boa Vista farm, a part of Herminigildo Netto’s plantation in the Madre de Deus district (near Santo Amaro), there was an apparently more established ritual congregation led by Antônio, a young Angola slave. Antônio was arrested and identified in the documents as “president of the candomblés’ terreiro.” This is the first known record of the word candomblé, probably a term of Bantu origin. In this use candomblé (or candombleis in the Portuguese) seems to be used as a synonym for batuque, and might refer to healing and/or divination, but the titleof“president”suggestsanincipient hierarchical organization of a religious collectivity. As Rachel Harding comments, the word candomblé emerges just as the term calundu falls from use.5 This coincidence strengthens the analytic polarity,suggestedinchapter3, betweentheoldcolonialcalundusandthenew, more organizationally complex candomblés, and perhaps allows one to date, in very general terms, the emergence and greater visibility of the latter at the start of the century. Harding’s central thesis is that Candomblé came about in response to slaveryandasaformofresistanceagainstthedehumanizationoftheenslavedAfri can . She emphasizes the concepts of “communion/community, refuge/resistance , and healing/reparation” as means of creating a sense of alternative black identity under slavery.6 The shared condition of slavery and the communality of cognitive orientations would have led blacks to form a “pan-Africanist” interethnic solidarity. Although these two ideas synthesize important dynamics of Candomblé, I believe that the formative process of this institution cannot be reduced so simply to these factors. Inthefirstplace,the“pan-Africanism”defendedbyHardingisquestionable, asisclearintheexampleoftheSantoAmarogatheringsof1808.Existingethnic divisions by nation were stimulated by the political powers, primarily in the first decades of the century. Following the end of the transatlantic slave trade in 1850, distinctions between nationsarenotsoexplicitlydocumented,though the jeje contribution to candomblé 89 they do persist in some candomblés throughout the century, despite the growingethnicandracialheterogeneityofCandombl éparticipants.Itwasonlyafter abolition, with the decrease of Africans in Bahia, that an “African” identity was assumed by certain communities, and still this “Africanness” was closely tied to the Yoruba culture, making difficult its categorization as “pan...