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BOA MORTE, THE SISTERHOOD THAT EXALTS LIFE!
AIYÊ ORUN
The history of the Irmandade da Boa Morte (Sisterhood
of the Good Death), a religious confraternity devoted to the Assumption
of the Virgin, is part of the history of mass importation of blacks from
the African coast to the cane-growing Recôncavo region
of Bahia. Iberian adventurers built beautiful towns in this area,
one of them being Cachoeira, which was the second most important economic
center in Bahia for three centuries. In a patriarchal society marked by
racial and ethnic differences, the confraternity is made up exclusively of
black women, which gives this Afro-Catholic manifestation - as some consider
it - a certain fame. It is known both as an expression of Brazilian baroque
Catholicism, with its distinctive street processions, and for its tendency
to include in religious festivals profane rituals punctuated by a lot
of samba and banqueting.
Besides the gender and race
of the confraternity’s members, their status as former slaves and descendents
of slaves is an important social characteristic without which it would be
difficult to understand many aspects of the confraternity’s religious commitments.
The former slaves have demonstrated enormous adroitness in worshipping
in the religion of those in power without letting go of their ancestral
beliefs, as well as in the ways they defend the interests of their followers
and represent them socially and politically.
Remote
Origins and an Ancient Struggle
During colonial times and after,
when the country was independent but still lived under the regime of slavery,
confraternities proliferated. For each profession, race and nation - because
the African slaves and their descendents came from different places with
different cultures - there was a separate irmandade. There were confraternities
for the rich, poor, musicians, blacks, whites, etc. There were almost none
for women and, in the male confraternities, women entered as dependents
to ensure they would receive benefits from the corporation after the death
of their husbands.
For the confraternity to operate,
says historian João José Reis, a church had to welcome it
and its statutes had to be approved by an ecclesiastical authority. Many
confraternities built their own churches. This was the case of the Church
of Rosário in Barroquinha, in Salvador. The Irmandade da Boa Morte
maintained close contact with this church and its confraternity. Joint religious
and social events became known to the followers of the candomblé Afro-Brazilian
religion. Luiz Cláudio Nascimento, an historian from Cachoeira, says
that the first liturgies of the black Irmandade da Boa Morte were held in
the Church of the Third Order of Carmo, traditionally used by the local elites.
Later the sisters moved to the Church of Santa Bárbara in the Santa
Casa de Misericórdia hospital, where there are images of Our Lady
of Glory and Our Lady of the Good Death. From there, they moved to the Church
of Amparo, which was, unfortunately, demolished in 1946; middle class housing
of doubtful taste has been built on the spot. They left that church for
the Igreja Matriz, or parish church, and then went to the Church of Ajuda.
No one really knows in what year the confraternity was founded. Odorico
speculates that the organized devotion began in 1820 in the church inBarroquinha
and that Gêges who moved from there to Cachoeira were responsible
for organizing it. Others speak of that period too, but disagree about the
nation of the pioneers, saying they were freed Ketus. It seems that the
membership of the confraternity had a variety of ethnic origins and that
they numbered more than a hundred in the first years.
Historically,
the year 1820 makes sense. Since early in the nineteenth century, progress
had been afoot in the Recôncavo and new agricultural and industrial
techniques were introduced there. While the sugar economy was experiencing
difficulties, tobacco gained new strength when it attracted the interest
of German capital following the political independence of Brazil. The opening
of motorized shipping lines strengthened the breeze of economic renewal,
stimulating the integration of the Recôncavo with the provincial capital
and increasing trade. This in turn encouraged the formation of strong links
between black slaves in many cities, especially Salvador and Cachoeira.
Jeferson Bacelar notes that
the 1820s, especially the first three years of the decade, were marked by
a process of agitation and excitement among the people of Bahia, many of
whom - regardless of social class - were involved in a struggle for Independence
that was marked, here, by astrong anti-Portuguese spirit and armed skirmishes.
The easing of tension between masters and slaves elicited by this momentary
“unity” contributed to the permanent removal of blacks to the cities of the
Recôncavo, where slaveowners were very interested in solving the conflict
and, to defend their interests, armed the slaves and used them against the
Portuguese. This exceptional state of affairs resulted in a large number of
religious and civil initiatives by the slaves, among them, perhaps, the Irmandade
da Boa Morte. Antônio Moraes Ribeiro’s research associates the confraternity’s
emergence from the slave quarters with the abolitionist atmosphere after
the brutally crushed revolt of Muslim slaves in Bahia in 1835. Perhaps that
is the origin of the clearly Islamic touch to theconfraternity’s very beautiful
traditional clothes. As Raul Lody notes,the costume’s impressiveness is heightened
by the use of a turban. Antônio Moraes believes that one of the probable
leaders of the Islamic Revolt, Luiza Mahim, was personally involved in the
founding of the confraternity after her flight from Salvador to the Recôncavo.
Conjecture aside, these religious
confraternities - like the secular ones such as the Society for the Protection
of the Handicapped, a case studied by the anthropologist Julio Braga - did
more than revere Catholic saints and the orixás, or Afro-Brazilian
divinities, of their members. While they outwardly met ecclesiastical and
legal requirements, they become exclusive guilds that worked behind the
scenes for the interests of their members. As respected organizations of solidarity,
they were at the same time living expressions of interethnicexchange and
an ambiguous instrument of social control, whose participants were creative
“managers”.
The confraternity always made
its members contribute. One-off membership and annual fees, alms collected
and other forms of income were used for a variety of purposes: purchases
of freedom from slavery, festivals, religious obligations, payments for
masses, charity, clothing. In the case of Boa Morte, whose members were relatively
poor and almost all elderly - from 50 to 70 years old - the funds raised
during members’ lifetimes were always meant to pay for a decent funeral, whose
preparations, given the dual religious activities of its members, required
both rigor and understanding, besides being a nest-egg for the burial.
Corporate
Obligations and the August Commemoration
The historiography of these
notable women from Cachoeira continues tochallenge the minds of young researchers.
The secret rites linked to the worship of the orixás have still not
been the object of an ethnographic interpretation that, of course, would
have to respect the need to keep secrets that are so important to this religion.
What has been studied is the appearance of the worship, which uses almost
entirely Catholic symbols, appropriated by Afro-Brazilian religion. At the
beginning of August, a long schedule of public events brings people from
everywhere to Cachoeira, to what Moraes Ribeiro considers the most representative
living document of Brazilian, baroque, Ibero-African religiosity. Suppers,
parades, masses, processions, samba-de-roda (a traditional form of playing
and dancing the samba in a circle) put the remaining thirty members of a confraternity
that was once 200 strong in the center of events in this provincial city
and, ultimately, in the main newspapers and news networks of the capital.
The festival’s calendar includes
the confession of members in the parish church; a cortege representing the
death of Our Lady; a vigil followed by a supper of bread, wines and seafood
in obedience to religious customs forbidding the consumption of palm oil
and meat on the day of Oxalá, the creator of the universe; and the
burial procession of Our Lady of the Good Death, during which the sisters
wear their cerimonial clothing.
The celebration of the Assumption
of Our Lady of Glory by a mass in the mother church, followed by a procession,
gives way to the contagious fun of the people of Cachoeira, which breaks
out in full color, food, music and dancing over as many days as the donations
and annual reserves allow.
Hierarchy
and Worship
Like all Bahian confraternities,the
Boa Morte has an internal hierarchy that administers the everyday devotions
of its members. The leadership is made up of four sisters, responsible for
organizing the public festival in August. They are replaced each year. At
the top, in the most prominent position of the Irmandade da Boa Morte, is
the Perpetual Judge, who is the eldest member. There follow the posts of
Attorney General, Provider, Treasurer and Scribe; the first is at the head
of religious and profane activities.
Novices must
be attached to a candomblé center in the area - usually Gêge,
Ketu or Nagô-Batá - and must profess religious syncretism.
They go through an initiation that has a preparatory phase of three years,
during which they are known as “sisters of the purse” and their vocation
is tested. Once they are accepted, they can take positions of leadership and
rise in the confraternity’s hierarchy every three years.
They all share the tasks of
cooking, collecting funds, organizing cerimonial suppers, processions and
the funerals of members according to religious precepts and unwritten statutory
regulations. Elections are held each year. Votes are cast with grains of
corn and beans; the former indicates a nay and the latter a favorable vote.
As application of hierarchical differences and the rules regarding each position,
all the sisters are on the same footing as servants of Our Lady. Besides
being sisters in their devotion to her, they are sometimes sisters in candomblé
and are almost always “relatives” - Africans and their descendents in Brazil
broadened the concept of kinship to include all those who are of the same
nation.
African ancestry is reworked
within Bahian religious institutions an the lay confraternities end up
serving this process of cultura intercourse. It is admirable how, as they
celebrate death, these black women from Cachoeira have survived with such
majesty and distinction. And most remarkable of all is how the belief system
has absorbed the values of the dominant culture in a functional and creative
way so that, in the name of life, complex processes of cultural appropriation
take place. One example is the descent of Our Lady herself to the confraternity
every seven years to direct the celebrations in person through the Attorney-General
and celebrate among the living the relativity of death. Other examples are
found in the symbols of clothing and food, where there is constant reference
to the links between this world (Aiyê) and the other (Orun).
Devotion to the Good Death
was just as common in colonial and imperial Brazil as the confraternities.
It has always been a popular cult. In the Church of Our Lady of Rosário
in Barroquinha it became stronger and more consistent. There was considerable
Gêge-Nagô presence there and the celebrations described by writers
like Silva Campos were similar to contemporary practices in Cachoeira. One
of the most respected candomblé centers in Bahia originated there;
founded in the 18th century, the Casa Branca center in Engenho Velho da Federação
in Salvador has been the object of a brilliant study by Renato da Silveira.
This is a
popular devotion with racial features, as the Irmandade gathered mainly
black and mixed-race women. The roots of the devotion are in the Eastern
Church, it was adopted by Rome in the 7th century and two centuries later
the festival of the Assumption of Our Lady had spread throughout the Catholic
world. Brought from Portugal to Brazil - where it was known as the festival
of Our Lady of August - it acquired a unique interpretation with its own
characteristics. For that reason, the cult has always caused conflict with
church authorities. Its spread throughout the Bahian community is due, among
other things, to the fact that the tradition of spiritual mediums in African
religions has always relativized the problem of death, as disciples of candomblé
believe in successive reincarnations. Candomblé lent elements of
its belief system to a practice that was originally Catholic, as well as
socio-historical components of the hard reality of slavery, of a captivity
that made martyrs of those in the diaspora.
Veneration of Our Lady of the
Good Death came to have social significance, as it allowed slaves to gather,
maintain their religiosity in a hostile environment and shape a corporate
instrument for defending and valuing of individuals. It became, for all
of these reasons, an unrivalled means of celebrating life.
GUSTAVO
FALCON
Professor
at the Federal University of Bahia, researcher attached to the Center for
Afro-Oriental Studies (CEAO)
Translation:
LIV SOVIK
Professor at the Federal
University of Bahia
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