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The Macumba religion (also known as Spiritism, Candomblé, and Umbanda) is practiced by a large number of Brazilians who cherish the age-old relationship between a shaman and his or her people. In its outward appearances and in some of its practices, Macumba resembles Voodoo. Trance states among the practitioners are encouraged by dancing and drumming, and the evening ceremony is climaxed with an animal sacrifice.

Macumba was born in the 1550s when the West African tribal priests who sought to serve their people with their old religion were forced to give token obeisance to an array of Christian saints and the God of their masters. As in the cases of Santeria, Voodoo, and other adaptations of original religious expression, the native priests soon realized how complementary the two faiths could be. The African god, Exu, became St. Anthony; Iemanja became Our Lady of the Glory; Oba became St. Joan of Arc; Oxala became Jesus Christ; Oxum became Our Lady of the Conception; and so on. The Africans summoned their the Orishas with the sound of their drums and the rhythm of their dancing. In that regard, the West Africans were more fortunate than those slaves in the States, whose masters forbade them to keep their drums.

During this same period, Roman Catholic missionaries were attempting to convince the aboriginal tribes in Brazil to forsake their old religion and embrace Christianity. In many instances, Macumba provided the same kind of bridge between faiths for the native people as it had for the Africans imported to the country by the slave trade. While they gave lip service to the religious practices of the Europeans, they found that they also could worship their nature spirits and totems in the guise of paying homage to the Christian saints.

The ancient role of the shaman remains central to Macumba. The priest enters into a trancelike state and talks to the spirits in order to gain advice or aid for the supplicant. Before anyone can participate in a Macumba ceremony, he or she must undergo an initiation. The aspirants themselves must enter a trance during the dancing and the drumming and allow a god to possess them. As in Haitian and New Orleans Vodou and Santeria, once the dancer has been taken by the spirit, he or she often dances to a state of exhaustion.

Once the possession has taken place, the shaman must determine which gods are in which initiate so the correct rituals may be performed. The process is empowered by the sacrifice of an animal, whose blood is then smeared over the initiates by the shaman. Once the initiates have been blooded, they take an oath of loyalty to the cult. Later, when the trance state and the possessing god has left them, the initiates, now members of the Macumba cult, usually have no memory of the ritual proceedings.

From the melding of the two religious faiths and the Africans’ passion for drumming and dancing, the samba, the rhythm of the saints, was created. The samba became a popular dance, and even today is recognized in Brazil as a symbol of national identity. The dance, synonymous to many as a symbol of Brazil and Carnival, has also become widely accepted throughout the world. One of the samba’s derivations is the Bossa Nova.