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The introduction presents the concept of secretism and its relevance for the study of Brazilian Candomblé. Secretism is framed as a key issue brokering relations between indigenous religions and their host nation states. The overall strategy of the book is proffered, along with salient methodological notes and an introduction to the primary research sites.

Presents a point of departure for the study of secrecy through a close examination of Georg Simmel's seminal 1906 essay and offers a preliminary examination of secrets and secretism in Candomblé discourse. The chapter explores the meaning of the assertion that “a secret religion becomes public.” The chapter suggests that though there are no consensual secrets uniting the religion of Candomblé as a whole, there are “local secrets” that mark grades of status within each temple. Secrecy is theorized as a technique for the construction of social boundaries; it is a boundary without specific content marking reclusion from the public sphere.

Here, the religion of Candomblé is described. Candomblé is presented as a relatively stable system of meanings and practices. Johnson maps out the contour lines along which variations occur, the semiotic system linking historically disparate groups of practice. The key vectors of signification described include: (1) the orixás (orishas) and the digestive metaphor of exchange, (2) Africa, “Africa” and Afro‐Brazil, (3) gender and spirit possession, (4) axé and the terreiro, and (5) Candomblé in the context of a broader Brazilian religious field of spirit‐possession religions.

Presents conceptions of secrecy West Africans brought with them to Brazil: the interpretive separation of superficial appearance from “deep knowledge,” the face presented in public (ori ode) versus the inner head (ori inu), the layered nature of knowledge, which is ultimately bottomless, and the secret society of the Ogboni earth cult among the Yoruba. Additionally, the chapter recounts the nineteenth‐century context and motivations for a second historical layer of secrecy generated in response to repressive slave laws and policing, and the construal of Candomblé as illegal sorcery. Candomblé is interpreted as a secret society that was both built upon West African ideals of secrecy and constructed in Brazil as a religion that was seen, but not penetrated, and whose members concealed their affiliations with the orixás. Finally, in a third use of secrecy, the chapter demonstrates how masters with reason to fear it attributed extraordinary powers to exotic Candomblé.

Describes the sociopolitical context of the new republican public order of Brazil between 1889 and 1930 that uncovered a third historical layer of the practice of secrecy, now as resistance to the republic.

The problem of the classification of Candomblé in the Brazilian public sphere began in 1888 with abolition. It is precisely at this juncture that the relation of Afro‐Brazilians and their religions to Brazilian national identity became a pressing concern. With the advent of abolition and the inchoateness of Afro‐Brazilians’ new social position, their provisional status as “Brazilians” shifted in the eyes of white élites back to that of “Africans” and therefore, foreigners – a dangerous and polluting presence. The liberty of freed slaves to perform religious ceremonies involving drumming, sacrifice, and possession dance was an obvious site of contestation since it was in such ritual performances that difference – the “non‐Brazilian” identity – was most radically marked.

Candomblé's expansion beyond ethnic markers and beyond the bounds of the traditional sites of ritual practice is described and analyzed under the rubric of public Candomblé. The chapter interprets the shift from the traditional form of secrecy, the initiation of contained bodies within the inner chamber, to secretism, the circulation of discourse on the street about secrets. Public Candomblé is under construction through bureaucratic institutionalizing efforts, published information about Candomblé, television broadcasts, film representations, and sites devoted to Candomblé on the Web.

The second half of the chapter assesses the feedback loop between public Candomblé and traditional practice within the terreiros, schematized as a “protestant” effect – the condensation of ritual practice and concomitant elaboration of discourse.

Explains the rise of secretism by summarizing three related arguments: First, Candomblé had no option to remain silent about the religion, only to either be represented or to take part in the control and production of those representations. Here, secretism follows the pattern of the incitement to discourse theorized by Foucault, as part and parcel of the creation and required administration of the public sphere. Second, claims to secrets are now circulated as a system of intrareligious prestige, a competition for limited rewards. In this competitive context, claims to deep secrets (secretism) are stimulated, compared to their former relative stability in traditional ritual practice. Third, secretism attempts to resecure the locative identity of Candomblé by discursively constructing boundaries for the experience of place, the ritual ideal of acquiring “foundation.” Secretism has therefore grown in direct proportion to Candomblé's publicization.

The ritual aesthetics of Afrobrazilian religions such as Umbanda and Candomblé exhibit a great range of diversity. This chapter explores the possibility that the diverse aesthetics of Afrobrazilian religion reflect and express divergent stances toward contested issues of race and identity in Brazil, while constituting markedly different experiences of spirituality and the sacred. The chapter suggests that we approach Afrobrazilian religious aesthetics through a “politics of the senses.”

This chapter discusses Candomblé, Afro-Brazilian culture and anti-racism within the context of the several diverse African-derived religions in Salvador and other Afro-Brazilian communities. This chapter focuses on Salvador which is home to the oldest and most famous Candomblé terreiros in Bahia wherein several of these terrieros date back to the nineteenth century and were favored by some of Bahia's most prominent politicians and entertainers. The chapter also discusses the changes that have catapulted the Salvador Candomblé terreiros into less legitimate, less authentic, commercialized and folklorized version of Candomblé. The chapter also closely examines the concept of syncretism versus re-Africanization and anti-syncretism. Re-Africanization is the movement that aims to return to authentic African traditions to establish Candomblé as a religion of its own right. Anti-syncretism on the other hand aims to eliminate Catholic elements from Candomblé practices including the negative effects of the commercialization of the African-derived religion. The chapter also tackles the political involvement of the members of the African-derived religion on the issues of racism. This chapter illustrates the rather individualistic stance on anti-racism and anti-syncretism rather than the presumed collective political opinion represented by the terreiros.

This chapter examines Candomblé musical performance, the role of drummers in Candomblé, and the influence of Candomblé musicians as popular music icons in their communities. It explains that the role and significance assigned to the drum in the African and African diasporic experience reflects various types of beliefs, social and cultural practices, and religions within diverse historical contexts. The chapter also suggests that Candomblé musicians have “performative power,” are catalysts for axé music, and can be considered as major players in a dramatization of the spiritual world.

This book focuses on Brazilians of African descent. Focus is particularly directed on their Catholicism and their influences from African-derived religions in constructing their racial identities. This book examines the Recôncavo region of Brazil which is home to Afro-Brazilian cultural traditions and to racial consciousness in the country. It examines how the religions of Evangelical Protestantism, Candomblé, and Catholicism have shaped and influenced the discursive struggles on racism and Afro-Brazilian identity. By revealing the multiplicity and sometimes contradictory features of the Afro-Brazilian religious practices and racial identity, the book aims to bring equilibrium to an otherwise polarized and opposing stand on Brazilian racial politics.

Brazil is often cited as the world's most Catholic country however in reality Brazil is a plethora of religions. While Catholicism is still the primary religion of the majority of Brazilians, there are significant numbers of Brazilians who frequent Protestant Churches, African-derived religions and Buddhist temples. This chapter discusses how the people of African descent involved in Catholic, Evangelical Christian, and Candomblé organizations have engaged in issues concerning Afro-Brazilian identity and struggled against racism in Brazil. Brazil is hailed as a racial democratic country devoid of de jure segregation and racial hostility due to its widespread racial mixture and cultural syncretism however, since the 1970s, there was an increasing recognition of the existence of racial discrimination in the life chances of white and black Brazilians. Racial discrimination was especially prevalent in the state of Bahia where Afro-Brazilian descent involved in the black movement used religious symbols to strengthen their Afro-Brazilian identity and to mobilize people to stand up against racism. This chapter focuses on the poor state of Bahia where the most concentrated Afro-Brazilian community can be found, the Recôncavo.

Much of the discourse on Afro-Brazilian identity is pegged on Candomblé although the religion is not evenly practiced in Afro-Brazilian communities. Debates on syncretism, double belonging, and anti-syncretism all pinpoint the existing relationship between Candomblé and Catholicism. Furthermore, emphasis on Candomblé shows a rather religious pluralism within African communities. This chapter discusses the political underpinnings that can be found in the relationship between Candomblé and Catholicism. More than just a religious rivalry, the constrained relationship between these two relationships exhibits a politics of race relations and racism. This chapter focuses on the distinctive ways in which evangelicals of African-descent engage religious discourses and practices as they construct their identities and struggle against racism. Through the black progressive evangelicals' emphasis on electoral politics and cultural approaches to mobilization, they have given much contribution to the debate and discourse about existing racism in Brazil. The chapter also discusses the increasingly blurred lines between Christians and the condomblecistas wherein although evangelical Christian communities generally are conservative and eschew the African-derived religion, a significant number of these evangelicals are reaching religious lines as they mobilize and forward a movement against racism.

This chapter discusses the complex and contested ways in which religion is enmeshed with the politics of Afro-Brazilian identity. As shown in the previous chapters of the book, religion and Afro-Brazilian identity shared a complex relationship. Although Candomblé served as an emblem of Afro-Brazilian identity, the relationship between the religion and blackness is more than a simple and straightforward type of connectedness. This chapter attempts to address the issues surrounding the multiplicity and complexity of Afro-Brazilian identity and racial politics wherein a shared common identity and a shared political agenda were foreign concepts to people of African descent. Three major themes are discussed in this chapter that aim to address the issues of the rather varied stand on Afro-Brazilian identity and the approaches to racial politics. This chapter begins with a discussion on the relationship between religion and identity. The succeeding discussion draws on theoretical approaches to provide a better understanding of the connections between collective identities and power relations. The chapter concludes with the macropolitical questions concerning the politics of identity and the black movement in Brazil.

Based on encounters with leaders in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, this chapter launches an exploration of how to translate foreign political and spiritual innovations—without distorting them—to familiar terms to garner lessons for countering United States gender-based violence. For antiracist strategizing, Brazil’s prominence as a transatlantic slave trade port of entry provides a relevant racial and religious legacy, especially Candomblé, an African-based religion practiced by some activists. Concern about how racial and class stigmas increase poor black women’s vulnerability to domestic and sexual violence surfaces in conversations about implementing Brazil’s 2006 Maria da Penha gender violence law (including women’s police stations) and organizing domestic workers subject to workplace sexual harassment and assault. Their ideas evoke comparisons of such vulnerability for poor U.S. black women, such as New York hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo.