CANDOMBLE

Candomble Religion 101

In order to understand Candomble I have defined a few of the terms that are extremely crucial if you wish to gain knowledge of and or fully comprehend this Afro Brazilian culture. I welcome you to this website and encourage you to bookmark it since much of the content will most likely take you a few hours and or days to take in. Please feel free to visit the forum for active discussions and definitely tune into our blog - where you can comment and leave your input on the articles that are published related to this afro Brazilian tradition.

Candomble is a word that is used to describe an African traditional religion which evolved in the lands of Brazil during the slave trade periods. The tradition was cultivated and maintained by the Afro-Brazilian slaves and their descendants and developed strength in the the city of Bahia.

You will find that in modern times the term Candomble is used loosely to identify many of the African traditional religions that have emerged in the country of Brazil such as Umbanda, Quimbanda and Caboclo, in addition you will also note that similar to Santeria/Lucumi there is a branch of Candomble that focuses its practice on the worship of the Orisha Deities and this branch is known as Candomble-Ketu.

Brazil has the biggest population of Blacks in any country in the globe outside of Africa and its home to the largest number of Orisha worshippers in the globe. It may also be good to note that Candomble-Ketu is the probably most popular lineage of this African Derived tradition in the country of Brazil.

Define Yoruba:  Yoruba's are members of a West African Community based in the region of southwest Nigeria.

Defining Orisa/Orixa/Orisha: Orishas are deities that is interpreted as one of the manifestations of GOD (Olofi) within the Candomble faith.

Define Babalao/Iyanifa: A Babalao or Iyanifais a Yorùbá title that denotes a Priest of Orunmila, the Yoruba god.

Candomble is one of the younger traditions of Orisha worship and its probably going to be somewhat of a challenge to find initiated priest within this practice. In comparison to Santeria/Lucumi, In Candomble not all who are initiated move on to become Babalaos or Iyas. There are actually very different initiations done in Candomble and the normal standard is that priest who wish to move on to becoming Babalaos or iyas must at least have seven years of training or practice under their belt and these priest must go through with various oblications before granted permission by their Babalaos or Iyas to open their own HOUSE OF INITIATION.

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