Tambor De Mina

Tambor de Mina is the most common name for the religion of African origin in Maranhão and the Brazilian Amazon region. From the 1950s, due to the migration of African descendants, it spread to other areas, mainly Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasília, and Paraná. The name tambor (drum) derives from the importance of this instrument in the rituals and Mina, from the former Portuguese fort of São Jorge da Mina, a warehouse for slaves established in the region where Ghana is located today, that is, West Africa. Mina is also the name of an African ethnic group, and many slaves brought to Brazil were known as Mina Negroes.

It is an iniciatic religion, meaning that one enters via rituals of initiation, and it is a ...