The Almas e Angola ritual: From beginning to new paradigms

Abstract

This article aims to address the trajectory of the umbanda [African-Brazilian religion] in Florianopolis [Santa Catarina state], specially the kind that was most practiced in that city, the “Ritual Almas da Angola”, thus questioning the present tendency to associate Santa Catarina only to european heritage. Supported by works of the “umbanda intellectual” Giovani Martins (father Giovani), we present the recent changes through which the ritual has passed. By contextualizing the controversial history of umbanda in a national scope, our goal is to raise questions about the ritual's development, be it understood as a natural process or as the birth of a new kind of umbanda through ruptures.