Umbanda is one of Brazil’s most powerful spiritual traditions, yet it remains deeply misunderstood, especially outside Brazil and even within certain Christian communities that take prejudice abroad as if it were truth.
This is why I decided it was time to speak up. When oppressors take control of the narrative, they don’t describe reality — they project their own fears, ignorance, and prejudices. They talk about what Umbanda “is” or “is not” without ever understanding the culture, the people, or the history behind it.
So let me make this clear for English-speaking audiences. English is now a global language, and using it allows me to share a reality that is too often confined to Portuguese. If I want to use my voice with purpose, it begins with telling the truths that rarely reach beyond Brazil.
Umbanda is a spiritual tradition rooted in healing
Healing of the spirit.
Restauration of the emotions.
Sense of community.
It opens paths, restores balance, and cleanses the soul from negativity and harmful energies.
But Umbanda is also larger than any single definition:
It is a living archive of Brazil’s ancestral memory.
Its spiritual work emerges from Indigenous cosmologies and from the traditions carried by enslaved Africans, precisely the communities that colonial and elite narratives historically devalued. And those elite narratives still dominate today. When I searched for information about Umbanda in English, I was struck not only by how little existed, but by how often the available content echoed distorted, biased, and incomplete versions of our tradition.
Umbanda is rooted in the cultures that shaped Brazil
Umbanda was not invented in one moment, by one person, or from one influence. It came from the intersection of three fundamental pillars:
• Bantu culture
Bantu traditions come from Central and Southern Africa (regions like Angola and Congo).
They carry spiritual practices centered on community, ancestors, healing rituals, drumming, and the deep relationship between humans and the spirit world. Many of the rhythms, gestures, and ways of working with ancestors in Umbanda come from Bantu heritage.
• Yoruba culture
The Yoruba people originate from West Africa, mainly today’s Nigeria and Benin. Their spiritual system includes the veneration of Orishas, the use of ritual songs, divination, sacred offerings, and a rich cosmology that influenced Afro-Brazilian religions across the country. The ethical, energetic, and symbolic structure of Umbanda draws heavily from the Yoruba worldview.
• Indigenous Brazilian spirituality
Brazilian Indigenous nations hold some of the oldest spiritual traditions on the continent. Their cosmologies center around nature, forest spirits, healing plants, ancestral guidance, and a deep relationship with land and environment. Caboclo spirits, healing work, herbal knowledge, and many rituals in Umbanda are rooted in Indigenous ancestry.
These traditions carried their own cosmologies, their own ways of praying, singing, healing, and relating to the spiritual world. They blended not out of convenience, but out of survival, forming a syncretic tradition shaped directly by the people who practiced it.
Umbanda is the expression of those who kept their spirituality alive despite colonization, racism, and persecution.
Umbanda was alive on the bare floor long before anyone tried to define it
To understand Umbanda, we need to look at where it truly began:
A candle lit directly on the earth.
Bare feet touching the ground.
Drums echoing in honor of the ancestors.
The soft, steady voice of a Preto Velho filled with wisdom.
The presence of Caboclos, Exus, and the spirits of the Brazilian land.
A circle of people seeking healing, relief, and guidance.
Umbanda was born in lived practice, not in books, not in formal doctrine, not in elite spaces, and certainly not in the institutions that later attempted to sanitize or control it.
Umbanda was created and carried by people that society rejected
The earliest guardians of Umbanda were not wealthy, powerful, or socially accepted. They were the people who lived on the edges of society yet held immense spiritual wisdom:
- Black Brazilians
- Indigenous peoples
- Poor and marginalized communities
- Women
- Homosexual, trans, and gender-nonconforming people
- Anyone surviving racism, poverty, violence, and social exclusion
These communities shaped Umbanda’s rituals, its music, its aesthetics, its worldview, and its way of practicing charity and spiritual healing.
Umbanda exists today because they refused to abandon their ancestry, even when the world tried to silence it.
Umbanda is an ancestral truth, not superstition
Many Christian groups have historically misrepresented Umbanda as “dark,” “dangerous,” or “evil.” These narratives come from a long history of colonial fear, racism, and the mischaracterization of African and Indigenous religions.
But the truth is simple:
Umbanda is charity, healing, guidance, and community care.
It is a spiritual system built on compassion.
Its foundations are love, humility, and service.
To understand Umbanda, you must understand its people
Umbanda is not an abstract concept shaped by those who once tried to erase the very cultures it honors today.
It is a living tradition shaped by the people who carried it through hardship, resistance, and devotion.
When you speak of Umbanda, you speak of:
Ancestry — the roots that connect present-day practitioners to those who came before.
Cultural memory — the stories, knowledge, and practices preserved across generations.
Spiritual resilience — the ability to maintain faith and connection despite persecution.
The blending of worlds — the meeting of African, Indigenous, and Brazilian experiences in one spiritual path.
The strength of those who refused to let their faith be erased.
Umbanda is an essential part of Brazil’s spiritual landscape. It offers practitioners a way to reconnect with ancient forms of spirituality — forms that have been lost or silenced in many parts of the world, yet remain alive, vibrant, and deeply rooted here.