Patricia de Sousa
Why do we wear those [Macumba] clothes? Because everybody who participates in
Macumba should wear these types of clothes.
Why do people fall down?
They fall down because [at first] they’re not really part of the ceremony but when they
fall down they’re on the way to becoming part of the ceremony.
Why did you make the sign of the cross on top of the girl’s head?
When people make the sign of the cross, this is a sign that things are going to get better.
[They do it] to become well, because something is bothering them, something bad, so to
take that bad thing out of them they pray to God to come and help them. They call God,
they call the saints to come and help, and that’s normal.
The girl—she had a problem. She was feeling ill. It’s like this: there’s a cure where we go
to the doctor and then we’ve got the cure of the Macumba religion. There are many
things the doctor can resolve but there are other things that only the Macumba can
resolve. But the problem with the girl, half of it was with the Macumba because she’s a
Macumba person too. She was having a problem when she came to us. The people feel
the problem and they come to us for the service, to work. We call on the saints, the
orishas, the Gods to help and so the person will feel better.
How?
Well, praying for that person; [we] put the hand on the head, pray, call on the gods
because before anything we have to call on the saints, we have to call on God, because
God is for everything. For us, if you don’t have faith in God you don’t have anything.
You’ve got to have faith in God, you've got to believe.
A person, when he goes to Macumba, when the people start to train, to go into it, then we
call ourselves the invisible ones, we come [and] the person doesn’t know that they’re
doing this, because the person doesn’t remember afterwards, we need someone to tell us
what happened because the person has to then go out of themselves. There are many
things that are unbelievable.
Blacks like it but there are some white people who don’t like it. This was in the past but
today everybody likes it. Because there was a lot of racism, there were a lot of people
who were against this, they thought it was a terrible thing, a dog-like thing. They didn't
believe it. But it's about God, it’s a thing of God. And Jesus is asking us to be here, and
God too.
Macumba for us is a religion. It’s God’s religion. Everything that’s on the land is about
God. We call on God, it’s by God because we don’t go to the evil side. There are two
types of Macumba, which are the dark side and the part with God. We have Yemanja
who helps us to go through the sea safely. She is known as the Queen of the Sea. We
work with this, we don’t do the dark side, we only work with the good side.
In the past it was very, very difficult. Even the police were called. We would go to
prison. They called it a devil’s thing. But today people say they like it, that Macumba is
good.
The people come here to resolve problems with a stone in the kidney, people who are hit
in the head with a bottle, we bless them, we help them.
I was born with this problem of Macumba, ever since I was a little thing. When I became
18 years old then I really felt it more. When I was 22 I began to dance.
Nobody really put me in there, I started all by myself, I was already born with this. To
become a macumbero, it’s not for everybody, some people yes and some people not.
Do I have a school? The school of Macumba is Joao Batista. He is my patron, he teaches
us and is our guide. He comes in, he shows us the way, orients us. If there's a pregnant
woman, he helps that person out. Because there is a midwife too, so we do it here right at
home.
We begin at 8 o’clock and we go to 8am. I dance all the way through.
You don’t get tired?
I don’t feel anything.
Before the person goes into the Macumba we pray, the person prays, and we call on the
gods to help. After the person prays, then the person will sing to open up. Then you begin
to twirl. Anybody who knows how to sing can start. It could be Batista, sometimes Zeze,
sometimes Em, sometimes others, and then we begin to sing. We call the orishas, we call
the spirits of the forest.
It helps us because we feel strong, we feel courageous. And it helps the people too.
Who does the singing?
Different people. Sometimes it’s the person who’s just there, the servant, sometimes the
manera who’s part of this. Sometimes it’s the Pae de Santo [spiritual father], Joao
Batista. We take out the bad things.
We do the thing with gunpowder: We put this person inside and then we pray, and then
we put the [gunpowder on] fire and the wind will take it far away from the person, to be
free and get healthy and stop bad things happening.
We do the Dance Of The Coco, Bumba Me Boi, all the dances. It’s a religion. There is a
mass, which is our religion, which is Catholic, because we are, because I am a Catholic in
my own way because I pray and I call on God. Because there are Catholics and there are
Protestants. We’re not Protestants because Protestants don't like Macumba and they don’t
like the Catholic Church and the Macumberos like the Catholic Church because the priest
celebrates the mass in the Macumba room.
More people are now involved in this than there were 40 years ago. Then there were very
few people. Now half the people around here like Macumba because it’s a religion of
judgment. God will know who’s going to win, who’s a protestant, what is the Catholic
Church. This is what will happen when it comes to the last judgment: Who’s this? Who
belongs to whom? Because when we arrive in the world we have already come across
Macumba.