The Bountiful Collective Genius of the Monstrously Dispossessed
It’s night in Salvador and you hear drumming. It may be coming from one of the numerous terreiros de candomblé scattered throughout the city.
Most terreiros will permit visitors to attend their ceremonies. Should you go, dress respectfully. Trousers for men, and women should wear longer skirts. White is best because it is respectful to all the orixás (o-ree-SHAHS).
“Orixá” is commonly translated as “god”. A more accurate representation would perhaps be “saint”. Candomblé posits a monotheistic supreme being — usually referred to as Olodumaré or Olorum (in candomblé ketu) — with the orixás being called upon as intermediaries between earthbound humans and the all-powerful, much as a Christian will pray for a saint’s intercession on someone’s behalf. (Orixá is by far the most common term in Bahia for these entities (the ketu term), although they are also referred to as Nkisi in candomblé angola and Voduns in candomblé jêje.)
It’s said that Salvador has a (Catholic) church for every day of the year, they’re all over the place. But this number — or whatever the true number is — pales in comparison to the number of terreiros de candomblé in Salvador. An amazing project, the Mapeamento dos Terreiros de Salvador truly and literally puts this into perspective, detailing 1,155 terreiros (and this doesn’t include Itaparica!), with maps, satellite and other photos, leaders’ names, addresses and contact and other information.
Here’s a short list for those looking for candomblé in central (enough) Salvador (Bate Folha is not central, but it is a rare house of candomblé angola in the Salvador area):
Ilê Iyá Omi Axé Iyamassê (Terreiro do Gantois)
Address: Alto do Gantois, 33, Federação
Telephone: (71) 3331-9231
Ilê Axé Opó Afonjá (Terreiro de Mãe Stella)
Address: Rua Direta de São Gonçalo do Retiro, 557, Cabula
Telephone: (71) 3384-5229
Ilê Axé Iyá Nassô Oká (Terreiro da Casa Branca)
Address: Avenida Vasco da Gama, 463, Engenho Velho da Federação Telephone: (71) 3335-3100
Ilê Maroiá Lájié (Terreiro de Alaketu ou Olga de Alaketu)
Address: Rua Luis Anselmo 67 – Matatu de Brotas
Telephone: ( 71) 3244-2285
Ilé Òsùmàrè Aràká Àse Ògòdó (Casa de Oxumaré)
Address: Avenida Vasco da Gama, 343, Federação
Telephone: (71) 3237-2859
Mansu Bandu Kenkê (Terreiro do Bate Folha)
Address: Travessa de São Jorge 65, Mata Escura
Telephone: (71) 3261-2354
After a personal appeal by Mãe Stella of Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá to the governor of Bahia (Roberto Santos, in office from 1975 to 1979), this requirement was lifted, and new terreiros sprouted — for the most part among the more humble neighborhoods — like singing flowers weaving to the lovely melodies and gloriously complicated rhythms calling down to Salvador Iansã and Yemanjá, Dandalunda, Oxossi and Xangô…
Without the resources to build cathedrals, their temples of worship simple houses within the means of runaway or freed enslaved, African-Brazilians reached inward for what they could project out, and the result of their soul-searching was soul-lifting & stirring music and dance.
And this soul-lifting & stirring music and dance wasn’t limited to houses of candomblé. Samba came straight out of candomblé angola, a rhythm called “cabila” or “cabula”, or “samba de caboclo”. This and ijexá and a panoply of other rhythms power Brazilian popular music, making it live and move and polyrhythmically groove like only the bountiful collective genius of the monstrously dispossessed could.
I want to tell you of the suffering I endured for nothing
My lament was created in slavery
I suffered the deep pain of humiliation
But I won Because I carried Nanã within my heart
Above find a song of Mateus Aleluia’s taken straight from candomblé (and elaborated upon). The first singer is Thalma de Freitas, accompanied on piano by her father, Maestro Laércio de Freitas. Second voice is Mateus’ daughter Fabiana, and Mateus himself plays guitar.
The deities which are the subjects of the song are both mother figures, the first being Yemanjá, and the second Nanã. Saravá!
As for Mateus himself, he was brought up in the terreiro Roça do Ventura, a Jêje candomblé in Cachoeira. The Jêje house in Salvador is Bogum, in the neighborhood of Engenho Velho de Federação.
Mas Que Nada was sung and written by Jorge Ben, Rio-born son of a Brazilian father and an Ethiopian mother. This is, along with The Girl from Ipanema, probably the best known Brazilian song outside of The Musical Country. Less known is that the opening lyrics, Ô ária raiô! Obá! Obá! Obá! Ô ária raiô! Obá! Obá! Obá!, are from candomblé, Obá being an orixá and Xangô’s first wife (there’s a beautiful carving of Obá, and other orixás, by Carybé in the Museu Afro-Brasileiro in the Terreiro de Jesus). Below is the penultimate source of the famous opening to Jorge Ben’s song, itself a reworking of traditional candomblé music by José Prates:
And below is a clip of Jorge Ben (left) singing his Mas Que Nada with Sérgio Mendes center and Gilberto Gil right.
The pandeiro (tambourine) player, briefly glimpsed above (3:02), is none other than Carlinhos Pandeiro de Ouro! Below a much younger Carlinhos dances (guitar in hands) in what has to be one of the greatest final scenes of cinema ever (from Orfeu Negro, Black Orpheus; the song is Samba de Orfeu, by Luiz Bonfá):
Fascinatin’ Rhythms
Unknown to most is that it is the rhythms of candomblé which power the mighty concatentation of the samba schools of Rio de Janeiro. The toques (literally touches, but in this sense signifying rhythms) of the caixas — snare drums — of Salgueiro are based in Oxossi, deity of the hunt. Império Serrano plays a toque for Ogum on the caixas. Portela plays Xangô, deity of thunder and war, and Oxossi…