Brazil was the other place where a large number of slaves arrived during the time of the slave trade.
It is estimated that there was a population of almost nine million black Africans at the end of the 18th Century.
Here too syncretic religions and cults such as
candomblé, makumba and umbanda developed.
Whites and Blacks both practice these religions,
which have developed at the same time as members of the highest social classes became followers.
Umbanda is based on the worship of the EGUN,
beings with great spiritual light, strength and wisdom.
Their objective is to attract these beneficial spirits so as to do good.
Here, drums and rhythm play a fundamental role.
Each spirit has its own beat and its own cadence.
Their altars are dedicated to the same deities as in voodoo and Regla de Ocha:
EXU, OGGUN, the warrior, LEMANYA, the siren,
OBATALA, the creator, XANGO,
and the rest of the African pantheon.
The "Pai de Santo" the Umbanda priest, draws the symbol of EXU on the ground.
This is the Lord of the ways, the ancestral "Pai"
the intermediary between men and spirits.
He is compared with St Peter in syncretism.
This is a joker of a spirit that drinks and smokes a lot, but who is beneficial and loves children.
Here the dark world of black magic exists too.
Vodum fetishes from Dahomey which may exercise a sinister influence in a secret place.
There are enormous umbanda temples, like this one in Rio de Janeiro,
with hundreds of thousands of worshippers.
Some of them have sports fields and other activities,
and perform an important social function with orphanages,
shelters and aid for poor districts.
This is the evolution of a religion as old as man himself,
which over time has been cleansed
and become more sophisticated
but which maintains its purest spiritual concepts.
Periodically, the followers meet and perform sessions
where our now familiar African deities descend to transmit their messages.
The trances are not as sharp as in other religions,
but they all encounter their friendly saint.
Everything started one night in Africa, when a black man sacrificed a hen
and he offered it to the spirits that he saw in the stars,
gods that travelled as slaves and helped their faithful followers to gain their freedom.
Perhaps everything that we have seen is not real.
Perhaps spirits do not exist and do not live so closely alongside the living.
In the West it is hard for us to believe in these religions,
but bearing in mind that millions of human beings can feel these forces
and are able to interpret them,
it is worth our while to ask ourselves the question
and allow ourselves to doubt.