A Obrigação da Nelsa

Vila Prudente. Today, Nelsa started the first day of her obrigação (a ritual of commitment to the orixás). Nelsa has been a part of Augusta´s Candomblé for about four years. Her cargo (role) is to incorporate orixás and related spirits. She is considered to still be in her initiatory years, thus her offerings in the roncó (room of shrines to the orixás) were primarily white. One of her orixás is Oxum, like Augusta.

A small part of the ritual, Augusta told me, was similar to what Lucas did for Exu, but because her role and experience are different, so was this ritual. The activities started in the early evening with Augusta, Raul, Lucas and Nivaldo doing their parts. Like Lucas, Nelsa spent the days following the opening ritual removed from people physically - in what is academically called a liminal state. She couldn´t give hugs or kisses and she ate separately from us. She spent the first night sleeping in the roncó and after 24 hours, returned home for several more days of relative isolation.

Though I did not have the opportunity to witness the rituals directly, by staying in the house, I am learning about how all the rituals fit together and the ways in which people play roles in them.

Exu

Lapa. It is something like the season of Exu in Augusta's house of Candomblé right now. Exu is the orixá that is the guardian of houses and temples and the intermediary between humans and the orixás. Various individuals are visiting and going through rituals involving him.

One of the most interesting things about Exu, is that the yearly ritual is only for people who are initiated into Candomblé. The ceremony involves ridding yourself of bad energy, but to uninitiated eyes it apparently can lead people to make erroneous assumption like the Catholic church made centuries ago. Indeed, this issue of access to rituals is where the scholarly study of religion is challenged. We must resolve that it is not entirely neccessary to know the 'secrets' of a religion to complete a thorough academic study and that to divulge the secrets would be unethical as a researcher. But still I wonder what I am missing as a very curious human being.

Lucas and I saw an exhibit representing offerings to Exu. He is represented by red and black and was associated with the devil by the Catholic church. We took a few pictures. Lucas also recently performed the ritual.