150 Candomblé
The Ajogun are permanent parts of creation.
When their activities flare up, sacrifice is the rem-
edy. Usually, greater calamities require greater
sacrifices. This approach is found throughout
Africa, although the entity to which the sacrifice is
directed varies. Among the Chagga, sacrifices to
God are made only during periods of extreme
duress. Among the Ila, serious illness prompts an
offering of food and water and prayers to God.
During epidemics, the head female priest of the
Leya in South Africa leads the afflicted to a nearby
waterfall and performs a ritual aimed at the ances-
tral spirits in the water.
Denise MartinSeealsoPurification; Sacrifice; Shame
Further Readings
Abimbola, K. (2006).Yoruba Culture:A Philosophical
Account. Birmingham, UK: Iroko.
Magesa, L. (1997).African Religions:The Moral
Traditions of Abundant Life. Markknoll, NY: Orbis.
Mbiti, J. S. (1990).African Religions and Philosophy
(2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Heinemann.
CANDOMBLÉ
The wordCandomblérefers to three things: the
religious tradition of Orisha worship in Brazil, a
religious festival or celebration (xirê), or the house
of worship. The house of worship is also called
terreiro, meaning “plot of land” or “homestead.”
This fact expresses the vital significance of land,
Earth, and soil in this religion. Each house of
worship orterreirocommunity has its ownaxé, a
form of the spiritual energy or life force that
moves the cosmos, placed in a specific location
calledassentamento. In other rooms similar to
chapels, called pegis, certain deities have their
own specificaxé. When one enacts the ceremony
of grounding this spiritual force in a house of wor-
ship or apegi, it is said that one is “plantingaxé,”
and to institute a newterreirois to plant its axé in
its ownassentamento.
The wordCandombléis one among countless
examples of vocabulary imported from the
Southern and Central African language groups
referred to as Bantu, but its etymology is contro-
versial and uncertain. Nei Lopes suggests that it
blends the Kimbundu kiandombe, meaning
“black,” andmbele, meaning “house” (“house of
black people”) ornandumba,ndumbe, meaning
“initiate” (“house of initiates” or “initiation”).
This uncertain derivation of the word
reminds us that the basic nature of Candomblé
is one of synthesis. Although it is often identi-
fied with the West African Yoruba and Fon tra-
ditions from which most of the liturgy and many
of the deities are derived, its name symbolically
incorporates Southern African and other diverse
origins that comprise this worship. This entry
focuses on its roots in Brazil and its wider
expression in worship and belief.Brazilian Roots
Brazil is an enormous nation, in both territory and
population. Comparable in area to the United
States (without Alaska and Hawaii) and seven
times the size of South Africa, it has almost 166
million inhabitants. According to official statistics,
about half this population is of African descent.
Enslaved Africans arrived in Brazil in the early
1500s, shortly after the Portuguese began their col-
onization, and the country was the last in the
Western hemisphere to abolish slavery, in 1888.
The history of Brazil’s African population pre-
sents many similarities with the history of other
segments of the Diaspora. Rebellions, insurrec-
tions, and maroon societies calledkilomboswere
only a few forms of resistance against the slave
regime. The Republic of Palmares, composed of
30,000 people, was a politically and economi-
cally organized, independent aggregate of several
kilombos, which fought off Portuguese, Dutch,
and Brazilian military forces for more than a cen-
tury, from 1590 to 1695. Palmares was the most
outstanding example of the kilombo phenome-
non, which was present all over the country
throughout its colonial history. But other forms
of resistance were equally important, and the
vitality and resilience of African culture was a
mainstay of the community’s survival in many
ways. One of the most important aspects of this
cultural resistance is the religious tradition of
African origin calledCandomblé.