Umbanda

Umbanda is a Brazilian syncretic religion that emerged in the Rio de Janeiro area in the early 20th century and spread rapidly to become one of the country’s most widely practiced spiritual traditions. It draws from Afro-Brazilian religious practice, the European Spiritism of Allan Kardec, Indigenous Brazilian spiritual traditions, and popular Catholicism, synthesizing these streams into a distinct and originally Brazilian whole. At its center is spirit mediumship: the practice of allowing elevated spirits to speak and heal through the bodies of trained practitioners.

Umbanda is genuinely modern in a way that distinguishes it from the older African diaspora religions. It did not develop gradually over centuries of enslaved adaptation but emerged deliberately in a specific historical moment, shaped by the particular social and spiritual conditions of early 20th century urban Brazil. This modernity is not a deficiency; Umbanda has developed rich traditions, distinct spiritual entities, effective healing practices, and millions of devoted practitioners over its century of existence.

History and origins

The founding of Umbanda is associated with an event in 1908 in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, when Zélio Fernandino de Moraes, a young Brazilian man from a Catholic family, reportedly received communication from a spirit who identified himself as the Caboclo das Sete Encruzilhadas (the Caboclo of the Seven Crossroads). This spirit rejected the Brazilian Spiritist tradition’s tendency to dismiss African and Indigenous spiritual communications as inferior to those of European spirits, and declared that a new religion would be established that welcomed all these traditions.

Whether this founding narrative is historically precise or has been shaped by retrospective community formation, it captures something real about Umbanda’s defining impulse: the integration of African and Indigenous spiritual presences as honored, elevated entities alongside the European Spiritist framework.

Umbanda spread through urban Brazil during the 20th century, particularly among working-class and mixed-heritage communities who found in it a spiritual home that honored the full complexity of Brazilian ancestry. The Vargas government in the 1930s initially suppressed Umbanda practices as it did other African-derived religions, but the tradition’s urban spread and the political organization of its communities eventually led to tolerance and then recognition.

Brazilian social scientist Renato Ortiz’s study “A Morte Branca do Feiticeiro Negro” (The White Death of the Black Sorcerer) argued that Umbanda represented a process of “whitening” African-derived spirituality for urban Brazilian contexts, a thesis that has been debated and complicated by subsequent scholarship. More recent work has emphasized Umbanda’s creativity and the genuine synthesis it achieved.

Spiritual entities

Umbanda is distinguished by its rich system of spiritual entities who work through mediums to offer healing, guidance, and protection.

The Orixás are present in Umbanda as elevated divine beings, associated as in Candomblé with natural forces and with Catholic saints. In Umbanda, however, the Orixás tend to be understood as more elevated and distant than in Candomblé, with most day-to-day interaction occurring through the Guias (spirit guides) who work under their authority.

The Preto Velho (plural: Pretos Velhos) are ancestral spirits of enslaved Africans, depicted as elderly grandmothers and grandfathers who offer wisdom, herbal remedies, and compassionate counsel. When a Preto Velho manifests through a medium, the medium will typically adopt the posture of an old person, speak slowly and gently, and often smoke a clay pipe. The Preto Velho entities are among the most beloved in Umbanda.

The Caboclo is the spirit of indigenous Brazilian ancestry: a forest dweller, hunter, and warrior who brings strength, courage, and knowledge of the land. Caboclos manifest through mediums with vigor and directness; they are often called upon for protection and clearing of obstacles.

The Exu and Pombagira are complex entities associated with crossroads, sexuality, the marketplace, and the resolution of difficult earthly matters. They are not evil; they operate at the edges of social life, know the underside of human experience, and can be powerful allies for those who approach them respectfully. They are worked with in Umbanda’s Quimbanda wing and require experienced practitioners.

Crianças (children spirits) are light-hearted entities associated with joy, play, and the simplicity of childhood innocence.

Practice

Umbanda practice centers on public sessions called giras or sessões, held in centers called tendas or centros. During a gira, initiated mediums (known as cavalos, “horses,” or médiuns) allow specific spirit entities to incorporate into them while fellow practitioners sing specific songs (pontos cantados) that call and honor each entity. The incorporated spirits then interact with visitors, offering consultations, prescribing remedies, and performing spiritual cleansing.

Access to Umbanda sessions is generally open; members of the public may attend and request attention from the spirits. This openness distinguishes Umbanda from more initiatorily exclusive traditions. Becoming an active medium within a center involves training over time, but receiving the spirits’ services as a visitor is accessible to all.

In myth and popular culture

Umbanda’s founding narrative contains its own mythological dimension: Zélio Fernandino de Moraes receiving communications from the Caboclo das Sete Encruzilhadas is understood within the tradition not merely as a historical event but as a moment of spiritual revelation, the founding spirit announcing through a human medium that a new synthesis was to be created. This foundational narrative positions Umbanda’s origin in the same register as other religiously significant revelations, grounded in a specific historical moment but carrying theological weight for practitioners.

The figure of Preto Velho, the ancestral spirit of enslaved Africans who returns as a gentle, wise elder offering healing and counsel, is one of the most powerful spiritual archetypes in Brazilian religious culture. The Preto Velho’s combination of historical suffering and present compassion carries a moral and spiritual weight that extends well beyond Umbanda centers: these figures have become icons in Brazilian popular culture more broadly, appearing in folk art, literature, and the cultural memory of what slavery cost and what survived it.

Umbanda has attracted scholarly attention from Brazilian sociologists, anthropologists, and religious studies scholars since the mid-twentieth century. Diana Brown’s “Umbanda: Religion and Politics in Urban Brazil” (1994) and other academic works have examined Umbanda as both a spiritual system and a social phenomenon, particularly its role in giving urban working-class communities of mixed racial heritage a spiritual home that honored the full complexity of Brazilian ancestry.

In Brazilian television, cinema, and popular literature, Umbanda imagery, including the white-clad figures in the gira, the smoking Preto Velho, and the vigorous Caboclo, appears frequently and is widely recognized by Brazilians regardless of their own religious practice.

Myths and facts

Several significant misunderstandings follow Umbanda in Western popular awareness.

• A common assumption conflates Umbanda with Candomble as a single Afro-Brazilian religion. They are distinct traditions with different histories, cosmologies, ritual practices, and relationships to their African sources. Candomble prioritizes preservation of Yoruba ritual forms; Umbanda is a 20th century synthesis that incorporates Spiritism and Indigenous elements alongside African traditions.
• Some outside observers describe Umbanda as a form of devil worship or associate it with dark magic because of the presence of Exu and Pombagira figures. Exu and Pombagira in Umbanda are complex entities associated with crossroads and earthly matters, not evil beings. Conflating them with the Christian devil reflects religious imperialism rather than understanding of the tradition.
• Many Western accounts describe Umbanda as primitive or superstitious, overlooking that it explicitly incorporates the rationalist European Spiritism of Allan Kardec, which was itself influenced by 19th century scientific discourse. The tradition is a genuine synthesis, not a survival of pre-rational belief.
• A persistent misreading describes Umbanda as primarily a magical or spell-casting tradition. While practical healing and guidance are central to what Umbanda spirits offer through mediums, the tradition encompasses cosmology, theology, ethics, and devotional practice rather than being primarily oriented toward spell-casting.
• Some sources describe Umbanda as declining in contemporary Brazil. The picture is more complex: while the tradition faces competition from evangelical Christianity and from the growth of other Afro-Brazilian religions, it continues to have millions of practitioners and maintains an active presence in Brazilian religious life.