Stefania Capone is a Professor at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Paris Ouest Nanterre (France). She is the author of Les Yoruba du Nouveau Monde: Religion, ethnicitÉ et nationalisme noir aux Etats-Unis.

SEARCHING FOR AFRICA IN BRAZIL

Power and Tradition in CandomblBy Stefania Capone

Duke University Press

Copyright © 2010 Duke University Press
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8223-4625-8

Contents

List of Illustrations…………………………………………………….viiPreface to the American Edition……………………………………………ixAcknowledgments………………………………………………………….xiSome Notes on Orthography and Pronunciation…………………………………xiiiIntroduction…………………………………………………………….11. The Messenger of the Gods: Exu in Afro-Brazilian Religions…………………352. The Spirits of Darkness: Exu and Pombagira in Umbanda……………………..693. The Religious Continuum………………………………………………..954. Reorganizing Sacred Space………………………………………………1215. Contesting Power………………………………………………………1436. Exu and the Anthropologists…………………………………………….1737. In Search of Lost Origins………………………………………………2038. Which Africa? Which Tradition?………………………………………….233Conclusion………………………………………………………………255Glossary………………………………………………………………..263Notes…………………………………………………………………..269Bibliography…………………………………………………………….297Index…………………………………………………………………..311

Chapter One

THE MESSENGER OF THE GODS

Exu in Afro-Brazilian Religions

The figure of Exu attains a complexity in Afro-Brazilian religions that is rarely seen in other divinities. Exu, the emblematic representation of the trickster, is the most human of the gods, neither completely good nor completely evil. Although the ritual role of this divinity has been shaped in an original manner in Brazil by the creation and internal organization of Candombl, the constant reference to Africa, present since the religion’s origins and particularly accentuated by the current re-Africanization and desyncretization movement in Brazil, makes it necessary to define the role of s in the Yoruba pantheon. In fact, information about Africa available in anthropological writing, limited to Benin and Nigeria in “traditional” Candombl serves as a model to religious members in their quest for an original purity. Thus, myths lost in Brazil are frequently rediscovered in the texts of Africanists.

To define this divinity and his ritual role in an African context is, then, an indispensable comparison for those who defend a “return to roots.” Likewise, the discussion about the existence of a female s in Africa plays a central role in the legitimation process of the figure of Pombagira, the “wife of Exu,” in Brazil. Thus, the constant dialogue between Afro-Brazilian and African religions makes it necessary to introduce the Yoruba figure of s-Elegbera and his Fon counterpart Legba, in order to better understand how the figure of Exu is currently constituted and articulated in Brazil.

The African Trickster: s and Legba in Africa

The Yoruba god s Elegbera, called Legba by the Fon of Benin, plays a multiple role, rich in contradictions and often openly paradoxical. He is the great communicator, the intermediary between gods and men, restorer of order to the world. However, at the same time, as master of chance in human destiny, he casts doubt upon conformist approaches to the universe by introducing disorder and the possibility for change. As the personification of challenge, will, and irreverence, s allows men to change their destiny thanks to the magic practices he controls. His irascible, violent and cunning character, however, has also caused the figures of s and Legba to be identified with the Christian devil. This identification, perhaps due to the most startling aspects of the effigies of these divinities, such as the large phallus that characterizes them, has existed since the first writings on West African religions.

According to the abbot Pierre Bouche (1885, 120-21), s Elegbera incarnated the spirit of evil: “the Belphgor of the Moabites, the Prapo of the Latins, Deus turpitudinis, as Orgenes said … Moreover, is he not given the name of chou, in other words, excrement or waste matter?” In the same way, the Reverend Samuel Johnson, a native of Nigeria and a convert to Christianity, attributed the demonic characteristics of Judeo-Christian mythology to s, calling him “Satan, the malign, the author of all evil” (1957, 28).

Legba is frequently associated with the notion of aovi (misfortune). In the Christianization process, Legba became the source of all evil: “Legba or Aovi is the worst of the evil fetishes. He is responsible for all the disputes, all the accidents, the wars and the catastrophes. He seeks only to hurt men and must be placated constantly with sacrifices and presents” (Kiti 1926, 2).

s’s identification with Satan became the norm in dictionaries edited by missionaries. Thus, in Bishop Samuel Crowther’s 1852 Yoruba dictionary, s is the “god of evil,” misfortune, error, and damage. In Dahomey, where the missionaries’ influence was very strong, “every black who knows some words of French thinks he must translate Legba by ‘the devil,’ just as he translates Bokono [the priest dedicated to the god of divination] by ‘charlatan'” (Maupoil 1988, 76). Currently, the most important Yoruba-English dictionary translates s (or Stn) as devil, “the supreme power of evil” (Abraham 1958, 166).

The identification of s with absolute evil clearly implies his opposition to a positive principle identifiable in the Judeo-Christian God. However, the supreme divinity of the Yoruba pantheon, Oldmar, a kind of deus otiosus, does not act directly in the world, but through intermediaries. The opposition between good and evil, order and disorder, is therefore sought by missionaries in the relationship linking If (Fa in Benin) to s Legba. The If divinatory system, of Arabic origin, was probably introduced to Yorubaland by the Hausa, an Islamicized people of northern Nigeria. From the beginning of the eighteenth century, the If system (which became Fa among the Fon) spread through Dahomey, having been introduced by Yoruba merchants (Maupoil 1988, 49-50). In this system, A Ornml the god of divination, often designated by the name of If is defined as the mouthpiece of the supreme god (Oldmar or A Olorun for the Yoruba and Mawu-Lisa for the Fon) and is associated with the divine trickster. This relationship was interpreted by the missionaries as a struggle between two opposing principles. Thus, the missionary Richard Dennett (1910, 95) identified s with the negative principle of the universe, “the Being of Darkness,” opposed to the principle of goodness, embodied by If, “Being of Light and Revelation.”

In reality, the relationship between If-Fa and s-Legba is far more complex. It cannot be reduced merely to an opposition between two principles: good and evil, order and disorder. Various myths reveal the interdependence that exists between the two gods, in which If (Ornml) is the representative on earth of A Olorun, the supreme god, and s is responsible for transmitting the supplications and offerings of men to the gods. This trinity, as William Bascom (1969a, 118) defines it, guarantees and protects men in accordance with the destiny attributed to each individual before birth. s assists A Olorun and A Ornml, translating the language of gods into the language of men and punishing all those who do not perform the sacrifices demanded by the If divination, men as well as gods. In addition, he rewards those who scrupulously perform the sacrifices, therefore assuming the role of an “impartial police officer” who punishes those who disturb the order of the universe (Abimbola 1976a, 186).

The diabolical role of s is also closely connected with the order sanctioned by If. If s Legba tricks men, forcing them to offend the gods, it is to guarantee the survival of the latter, who feed off the sacrifices made by those who are obliged to atone for their errors and invoke divine protection. The Yoruba and the Fon say that s-Legba is the anger of gods. He is If-Fa’s executor, his chief commander. It is he who sets in motion the If system, establishing the necessary bond between men and gods. According to the words of a diviner recorded by Maupoil: “Fa is like a judge: one cannot be both judge and executioner, this does not exist anywhere. Agbanukwe, one of Legba’s aspects, is the anger of Fa. Each of Legba’s aspects is an anger, and the great Legba is the wrath of God” (1988, 83). In the human body, Legba resides in the navel (hon), from where he breathes in anger. For this reason in Benin he is called houdan (the agitator of the navel) or homesingan (chief of anger), “because anger comes from the womb like happiness, pain and compassion” (Le Hriss 1911, 138).

s-Legba is, therefore, simultaneously “police officer,” “executioner,” and “agent provocateur.” Without him, communication between men and gods would be lost forever. The order established by If cannot survive without the “diabolical” intervention of s-Legba.

As well as being a translator, messenger, and mediator, s-Legba is the master of magic. A Fon myth tells how Legba was the first to prepare the gbo. At that time, the gods were starving because no offerings were made to them, so Legba decided to place snakes, which he created by magic, in the path that led to the market. When a snake bit someone, Legba was there, ready to save him in exchange for payment. One day a man called Aw asked Legba to explain how he had prepared the snake magic, and Legba, after having been suitably rewarded, revealed the secret of his gbo to the man. This is how Aw became the first man to know how to prepare a gbo, and he became the great chief of the fetishists (Herskovits 1938, 257). Legba is the master of magic because he has the power of transformation, but he and s are also masters of paradox: they reorder the world by causing chaos; they delude in order to reveal and lie in order to tell the truth. While s is considered the firstborn of the universe, he is also the youngest son. In his form of s Yangi, the red laterite stone, he personifies the first form created, made from the same mud with which Ik (death) created human beings. Yangi, then, becomes humankind’s firstborn; he is simultaneously the ancestral father (the s-gb and the first descendant.

Various myths related to the birth of s are mutually contradictory, describing him both as an old man and a mischievous boy. This apparent contradiction, however, expresses paradox as a cognitive possibility of the universe. Thus, one of the ritual names of s is Tw (t-aiy-w, or the “taster of the world”), and it is given by the Yoruba to the firstborn of twins. But s is never considered the elder-on the contrary, he is considered the younger twin, for among the Yoruba the younger one must always go before the older to “test the path before him,” to the degree that the firstborn is called the explorer (Wescott 1962, 341). The identification with the younger reveals s’s paradoxical nature.

Master of paradox, s is equally the master of multiplicity, assuming various forms, each one of them named according to its characteristics. The exact number of these forms is not known, but the quantity recorded clearly indicates the elusive nature of this divinity. Thus, s is called Elbo, the master or regulator of ebo (the ritual offering), or Elr, the master of er (or carrego, religious obligation). The myth of Osetua, linked to the If system, tells how s was able to bring all the offerings to the feet of Oldmar and how he became jse-ebo, the bearer of offerings. In this myth, s is the only one able to cross the gates to the spiritual world and be heard by Oldmar. Through the restitution of the vital energies symbolized by the ebo, the offering, s reestablishes harmony on earth.

In the same way, the power of s and Legba to reorganize the universe is linked to their highly sexual nature. Travelers in ancient times and early missionaries always emphasized the obscene side of these two divinities. Pruneau de Pommegorge, who lived in Ouidah from 1743 to 1765, described Legba as “a Priapic god, crudely made from earth, with his principal attribute, which is enormous and exaggerated in proportion to the rest of his body” (quoted by Verger 1957, 120). This picturesque description of s A Elegbera is from Bouche:

The phallic cult is exhibited without shame. One sees everywhere the horrible instrument that Liber invented to serve the abominable maneuvers of his passion: in the houses, in the streets, in the public squares. The phallus is found in isolation; at times the priests carry them with great pomp. In certain processions, they are shaken with great ostentation and pointed at young girls, amid the dancing and laughter of a population without shame. The blacks are very inspired when they make this instrument the attribute of Elegbara, the personification of the demon. (Bouche 1885, 121)

Nevertheless, s-Legba’s relation to sexuality is not limited to the obvious symbol of the disproportionate phallus, as shown in statuettes of him. s is always represented with a cap, the long point of which falls over his shoulder, or with his hair combed in a long braid, sometimes sculpted in the form of a phallus (Wescott 1962, 348). Most often, s is whistling or sucking his thumb. According to Wescott (ibid., 347), whistling is taboo around the royal palace because of its sexual symbolism, and the same is true of thumb sucking. s carries on his back various calabashes with long necks, called calabashes of power (d irn), and holds in his hand a club called ogo, a euphemism for penis (ibid.).

s’s sexual connotations, however, are not directly linked to reproduction. His phallus represents potentiality, boundless energy, sex as a creative force and the possibility of realization. s is also responsible for erotic dreams, adultery, and all illicit sexual relations. At the end of the nineteenth century, Ellis established an interesting parallel between the cult of Legba and the sorcery of the Middle Ages: “As in the case in the western half of the Slave Coast, erotic dreams are attributed to Elegba, who, either as a female or male, consorts sexually with men and women during their sleep, and so fulfils in his own person the functions of the incubi and succubae of mediaeval Europe” (Ellis 1894, 67).

Legba, like s, is closely linked to the beginning and end of an individual’s life. Every rite of passage is marked by the revelation of the fa (individual destiny) and of the “personal Legba.” When a man dies, his personal Legba should be destroyed, as well as the representation of his fa (destiny). That is because, the Fon say, during death a door closes, and if Legba cannot accompany the deceased, the door to the world will remain open forever (Pelton 1980, 126). The same occurs with Bara, the existential representation of s shaped during the Candombl initiation ritual. s, in his individualized form of Bara, also accompanies men until their death.

The existential s is represented by a mound of clay or red laterite (in the form of Yangi) in a vaguely human shape, his eyes and mouth sometimes accentuated by cowries, with nails driven into the top of his head to symbolize that he “bears no weight”-meaning that he is not subject to any of the obligations to which men are subject. Legba’s representations are more markedly characterized by sexual attributes-an enormous phallus, or a pipe in his mouth. The association of s and Legba with all the places linked to exchange and transaction (market squares, crossroads, front doors) clearly shows that they occupy a position of mediation. Piles of earth moistened with palm oil or covered with yams or cola nuts constitute their sanctuaries at crossroads, called srta (s of the crossroads). The representations of s found on the roadside are called s-n (s of the road), and those in the market, soj (Pemberton 1975, 20). There is also a shrine dedicated to Legba or s in each Fon or Yoruba market square.

Authors do not agree about the existence of an organized cult and priesthood for s and Legba. Melville Herskovits (1938, 229) and Geoffrey Parrinder (1950, 82) deny its existence, while Honorat Aguessy (1992, 95), having claimed the absence of priests devoted to the cult of Legba, contradicts himself when quoting the discourse of Akpowena, “high priest of Legba” (ibid., 307). Le Hiss (1911, 100) writes of the “Vodun Legbanon,” the priest that embodies Legba. In the same way, Pemberton (1975, 22) quotes songs dedicated to s chanted by the elemoso (s priestess of the first rank), just as Bascom (1969b, 79) quotes s priests “who are identified by a string of small opaque maroon or black beads worn around the neck.”

Verger (1957, 114-15), meanwhile, writes as much about initiates and priests dedicated to s as he does about Legba’s adepts, the legbasi. The latter dress in purple straw skirts, wearing hats decorated with various objects, also purple, and numerous cowrie necklaces slung over their shoulders. The legbasi dance with enormous wooden phalluses concealed under their skirts, showing the audience the phalluses, raising them, and simulating the sexual act. Others carry in their hands a purple fly swatter which hides a club in the form of a phallus.

Annual festivals in honor of s are organized at Oy (Wescott 1962, 344) and Il-Oluji (Idowu 1962, 84), during which women dedicated to s parade in procession. They carry different insignias, the most common of which are a pair of statues representing a man and a woman with their hair styled in a crest. s is often symbolized by a couple. According to Robert Farris Thompson (1984, 24), among the Egbado Yoruba, these two statues represent s-Elegb and his wife. Wande Abimbola (1976a, 36) also writes of s’s mythical wife, called Agbr (she who receives sacrifices), and Abraham (1958, 167) confirms the existence of male and female images of s. Legba also has feminine representations, according to Herskovits (1938, 222), who cites Richard Burton’s description of 1864: “Legba is of either sex, but rarely female. Of the latter I have seen a few, which are even more horrid than the male; the breasts project like halves of a German sausage, and the rest is to match.” Herskovits (ibid., 225), like Maupoil (1988, 82), notes the presence of statues representing Legba’s wives next to the central figure of Legba in shrines dedicated to him.

(Continues…)

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