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 religion of trance in which those adept enter an altered state and receive supernatural entities: voduns, orixás, and caboclos. It was brought by jeje and nagô slaves from what are today the countries of Benin, Nigeria, and other parts of West Africa; they came to Maranhão, mainly after the middle of the 18th century, to work in the cotton and sugarcane fields.

In São Luís, Maranhão, in the first half of the 19th century, two base houses of this religion were founded by slaves: the Casa das Minas (jeje) and the Casa de Nagô, which are still active today. The Casa jeje is unique, but other houses were born out of Casa de Nagô, some influenced by other African traditions (cambinda, tapa, cachéu, congo, angola, etc.) and also by Amerindian and European traditions.

The worshipped entities of Tambor de Mina are named voduns or encantados (enchanted); they are grouped in families and have African or Portuguese names. Many Mina songs are in African languages. The trance is quite discreet, and everyone uses the same clothes. The musical instruments used are drums, iron (agogô), and cabaças with strings of beads tied on; there are variations depending on the origins in Africa and the traditions of the worship center.

The participants of the religion are usually working-class women of African descent. The public rituals take place on the dates of the saints of the Catholic calendar. This syncretism is common with Catholicism, kardecism, and African traditions, and nowadays umbanda is largely found spread through the groups of Tambor de Mina.

Among the values associated with Tambor de Mina are respect for the objects in the religion, the description and preservation of the secrets of the ritual, submission to elders and valuing of the hierarchy, fulfillment of the obligations of worship, and tolerance for those who are different.