During the colonization process of Brazil, we noticed that the use of Africans as slave labor established a wide range of novelties in our religious scenario. When they arrived here, slaves from various regions of Africa brought with them various beliefs that were modified in the colonial space. Generally speaking, contact between different African nations has undertaken the exchange and diffusion of a large number of deities.
Through this situation, the Catholic Church was placed in a delicate dilemma when representing the official religion of the colonial space. In some situations, the clerics tried to repress the slaves' religious manifestations and impose the Christian paradigm on them. In other situations, they preferred to overlook the songs, drums, dances and prayers that took place in the slave quarters. Often, blacks purposely organized their demonstrations on holy days or during other Catholic festivities.
From the standpoint of representatives of the colonial elite, the liberation of African religious beliefs was interpreted positively. By maintaining their religious traditions, many African nations fueled longstanding rivalries against other groups of blacks affected by slavery. With the preservation of this hostility, the organization of escapes and uprisings on the farms could be significantly reduced.
Apparently, the participation of blacks in manifestations of Catholic origin could represent the religious conversion of these populations and the loss of their identity. However, many slaves, even recognizing themselves as Christians, did not abandon their faith in the orixás, voduns and inquices from their homeland. Over time, the coexistence of beliefs opened the way for new religious experiences – endowed with African, Christian and indigenous elements – to be structured in Brazil.
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It is from this situation that we can understand why several Catholic saints are equivalent to certain deities of African origin. Furthermore, we can understand how several of the African gods run through different religions. Nowadays, it is not very difficult to get to know someone who professes a certain religion, but who is sympathetic or also frequents others.
Thus, we observe that the development of Brazilian religious culture was evidently marked by a series of negotiations, exchanges and incorporations. In this sense, while we can see the presence of equivalences and proximity between African cults and the other religions established in Brazil, we also have a series of particularities that define several differences. Finally, religious syncretism ended up articulating its own cultural experience.
It cannot be said that the contact between them ended up designating a process of degrading the religions that appeared here. Both from a religious point of view, as in other aspects of our daily life, it is possible to observe that the dialogue between knowledge opens up space for several innovations. For this reason, it is impossible to believe that any religion would have been unfairly debased or corrupted.
By Rainer Sousa
Graduated in History
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SOUSA, Rainer Gonçalves. "Afro-Brazilian religions and syncretism"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/religiao/as-religioes-afrobrasileiras-sincretismo.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
