Today we visited the Afro Brazilian Museum to learn more about the African culture that is alive and well in Brazil. Our guide, Marcos, explained the Candomble (Can dom BLAY) beliefs to us, with its 24 orixa (or eh SHA) spirits that each control a different aspect of your body and your life. (In Africa there are over 400 orixa, but here they thought 24 were enough.) The spirits have the power to cure, and also to kill… During the time when Candomble was outlawed in Brazil, the people continued to practice their beliefs covertly by giving each orixa the name of a Christian saint. We were taken to a village where we visited several Candomble houses (there is a different house for each spirit), and asked questions of the people, who were all dressed in white. These folks speak of the spirits in a very concrete way – they hear them, see them, are possessed by them and listen to their advice when making decisions every day….
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