Luiz Xavier

 

Centennial of Umbanda Seminar

Luiza Erundina: end of religious prejudice depends on democratic media

In the seminary “Centennial of Umbanda: Religious Brazilian Matrix”, which was held on Tuesday (9) at the Chamber of Deputies, representatives of Umbanda movements criticized its discrimination and asked for a treatment that would equal the one of other religions by the State and by the media.

The seminary was promoted by the Committees on Human Rights and Minorities and on Participative Legislation, in a partnership with the Special Secretary of Human Rights of the Presidency of the Republic, and with the National Council of Umbanda of Brazil (Conub). Congresspeople, Umbanda adepts, representatives of African-Brazilian movements and of other religions, such as Islam and Buddhism, also took part in the seminary.

Umbanda
Umbanda is a syncretic religion which is typically Brazilian, formed by various elements from the national religious culture, such as Catholicism, Spiritism and African cults. The syncretism resulted from the prohibition imposed by the slave owners to the practice of cults that were typically African.

The Umbanda movement appeared officially in Brazil on November 15th 1908, when the young Zélio de Moraes incorporated the entity Caboclo das Sete Encruzilhadas in a Spiritist session in Niterói (RJ), and announced the bases of a cult in which spirits of Indians and slaves would accomplish determinations of the astral world. The new philosophy should preach equality, union and social inclusion.

Discrimination
African-Brazilian cults have been denouncing the existence of defamatory campaigns targeting them, especially in the media controlled by sectors of other religions.

Some speakers at the seminary affirmed that no television chain should broadcast only one specific religion. “The broadcasts are operated by means of concessions. If the State is secular, there should be no praise to any specific religion. We cannot continue with that process of demonization of Umbanda in our country”, said the President of the National Council of Umbanda in Brazil (Conub), Silvio Luiz Ramos Gargez, known as Father Ramos.

As an example of the discrimination against religions of African matrix, Sílvio Ramos denounced that advertising signs about the Chamber’s Seminary were “systematically and aggressively ripped off”. It is not enough only to speak, it is necessary to act, to enforce what the Constitution preaches” he defended.

Economic Effects
According to the opinion of the President of the Cultural Foundation Palmares, Zulu Araújo, the prejudice against Umbanda surpasses the religious borders and gets to economic activity. As an example, he mentioned an event which had happened three years before in Salvador (BA), when a Pentecostal group renamed Acarajé as Christ’s ball, because it considered Acarajé as a name belonging to the devil. “Well, religions of African matrix are in all Brazilian society, and Acarajé – a dish from the orixá – nowadays belongs to Brazil. Several people take their living from the sale of Acarajé”, said Zulu.

Media monopoly
The representative of the Committee pro National Communication Conference, Deputy Luiza Erundina (PSB-SP), affirmed that the combat to religious discrimination will only be effective after the democratization of the media. “When the media is democratized, we will have the strength to make all other reforms the country needs”, she affirmed.

Deputy Carlos Santana (PT-RJ), and adept of Umbandism, also called for an equal approach of all religions by the media.

The former deputy Orlando Fantazzini, representative of the campaign “Who finances cussing is against citizenship”, reminded that fewer than 10 families detain the communications media in Brazil. “These very few people decide how Brazilian society should be, if African-Brazilians should be discriminated, is they should grow socially or not, what kind of music we should like”, he said.

Fantazzini also highlighted that the only public concession that the conceding power is not able to revoke is the one of the communications media, which can only be revoked by means of a judicial decision or voting by the Congress. “We have that absurd domination by those same families, which traditionally had the monopoly of land, and which today have the one of the media", he highlighted.

Pasteurization
According to Erundina, the communications media in Brazil promote the pasteurization of Brazilian culture. “Nowadays, only those who detain racial, economic, cultural and religious hegemony have room. It’s a denial of diversity, of our vocation as a country”, she denounced.

The deputy also highlighted that dozens of national conferences to discuss policies for culture, children’s and teenagers’ rights, education have been held. Only in the area of health there were 12 meetings. “The only area which hasn’t had a national forum to discuss its policies was the one of communication” said Erundina.

Minority religions defend common agenda
For the Islamic representative of the World Assembly of Islamic Youth, sheikh Jihad Hassan Hamadeh, the only way to combat religious prejudice is the union of all minority religions. “Knowledge is necessary for all pacific societies to exist. I need to open my temple for my neighbor to know who I am. Human being is the enemy of what he/she does not know. When he gets to know it, he/she becomes its friend”, he preached.

Hassan Hamadeh also defended that religions work together around common values and ideas. The representative of the National Ecumenical Committee on the Fight Against Racism (Cenacora), Reverend Antônio Olímpio de Sant'Ana, agreed that one of the main weak points of religious interaction is the lack of a common agenda. In order to supply this lack, he suggested the creation of an inter-religious forum. “If we take into account the influence we have upon our people, history will be different”, he affirmed.

The representative of the Faculty of Umbanda Theology of São Paulo, Roger Soares, highlighted the need of all religions to be faithful to their teachings.
“The main strength of all religions lies in the fact that one assumes a determined lifestyle and ethics. If we exert the values taught by our religion, we will promote peace in the world.”

Cultural diversity
According to Roger Soares, Umbanda and other minority religions can be quite hampered in the current context of globalization, in which economic interests prevail.

Soares said that he expects though, that the Universal Declaration about Cultural Diversity, elaborated by Unesco in 2002, be enforced by the government in Brazil. He reminded that that document delegates to the governments the task to guarantee cultural diversity, which includes religiosity. He affirmed that Umbanda is a religion that melts elements from several other religions and is inherently diverse, since each Umbandism cult is different from the other.

Equality for cults
Deputy Carlos Santana offered a favorable opinion regarding the implementation in Brazil of a religious education, which would comprehend all religions, without prejudice. He still expects to make, from next year on, regular Umbandism cults at the Chamber.

The Deputy Chico Alencar (Psol-RJ), who suggested the seminary, admitted that an Umbandism Cult at the chamber would be quite challenged by society. On the other hand, he reminded that the House allows room to evangelical religions and to Catholicism. "We are still very far from acknowledging our neighbor’s diversity”.

Report - Noéli Nobre / Maria Neves
Editing – Rejane Xavier
Translation - Positive Idiomas Ltda