Afro-Brazilian religions feel threatened

Credit: Campanha 'Liberte Nosso Sagrado'

By Martin Banks

Historic minority religions in Brazil are increasingly facing a form of religious scrutiny under the country’s President, Jair Bolsonaro, it is claimed.

Some 500,000 people in Brazil participate in religions brought to the Americas hundreds of years ago by African slaves but these religions are under attack from the growing presence of fundamentalist Evangelical Christians.

Among those allegedly being targeted are those who practice Umbanda and Candomblé, the country’s most prominent Afro-Brazilian religions. Though their members are said to represent less than 1% of the population, or about half a million people, they account for most cases of religious intolerance.

Out of 116 reports of discrimination recorded in the first half of 2018, 72 followers of Candomblé and Umbanda were targeted for their beliefs.

Note: During the 2018 Afro-Latino Festival NYC -Liberación Film Festival we screened a short addressing this exact issue called Nosso Sagrado. See the trailer below.

Catch the U.S. Premiere of Nosso Sagrado/The Sacred in Us (2018) @ Liberación Film Festival July 14 Showtime: 1:40PM Directors: Jorge Santana, Fernando Sousa and Gabriel Barbosa Run Time: 31 min Country: Brazil Language: Portuguese (English Subtitles) Synopsis: In the First Republic (1889-1930) as well as in the Vargas Era (1930-1945) the traditional terreiro communities were criminalized, their persecuted religious and their sacred objects were seized. In Rio de Janeiro, there are records that more than 200 objects were seized by the police, which after the end of the official criminalization became part of the collection in the Museum of Civil Police. The documentary Nosso Sagrado deals with the past of persecution of traditional terreiro communities, the "Black Magic" collection found in the Police Museum, the difficulty of access to the collection by religious, researchers and the population in general, as well as the struggle for to release the sacred objects that have been in the possession of the Civil Police of the State of Rio de Janeiro for 100 years. #AfrolatinoFestNYC #IdentityandBeyond #religion #persecution #discrimination #landrights #quilombo #umbanda #afrolatinx #afrolatino #film #filmphotography #newyork #festival #lowereastside #nyc #womeninfilm #culture #events #cuba #panama #colombia #brazil