A place, a concept and a way of living

By Mãe Maria de Oxalá


To most people of Candomblé the Terreiro is so much part of our lives that we do not think too much about it, nor about its origins or the concept that it holds. Until you meet other traditions in the Diaspora who do not have Terreiros, we just take it for granted as part of our Orisha life.

Many authors have written on the origin of Terreiros in Brasil with different theories (Verger says it is a reproduction of an African village). I do not want to become academic on this issue, just give my own personal experience and thoughts on this. I believe that the Terreiro was born out of necessity of keeping the Orisha community together and hidden from persecution. All of them as far as I know where started by free-slaves and supported by their own people.


Great open area

Terreiro (or roça as many of us called it), is a word that means the great open area in the old plantations where the coffee was dried... it was probably also the space where the slaves could do their own parties. Roça means an agricultural area , outside of the cities... so both terms have a special meaning of outskirts, outside and of a place where the slaves met. The old Terreiros of Bahia were in the outskirts of the city of Salvador, but as the city grew it enclosed them. Many new Terreiros are continuing to be opened always far from the cities, mainly due to price and availability of land. So the Terreiros are specific areas, sacralized, where the people of Candomblé meet and do their ritual functions. There are big, old Terreiros or small ones, sometimes just a room, depending on the financial situation of the Baba/Iya.There are Terreiros that belong to the community, there are rented places, there are places that were just appropriated (settlers), there are some who are just a separate room in the Baba/Iya's house.. To imagine that all our Terreiros are like the Ile Asè Opo Afonjá in Salvador is irrealistic. Most of the Terreiros I have known in the North and South of Brasil are simple, add-on constructions as they spread, but still have the Asè and the same function.


Division between sacred and profane

The people of Candomblé have a keen concept of the sacred and profane space. Their personal house, their mundane world of work, the streets, the roads are all considered profane... the Terreiro is the sacred space per se, which we consider clean of all the bad that goes on in the world. So to an Olorisha as he/she enters a Terreiro there are several things he should do to cleanse himself of the negative things that are on the outside. At the entrance of the Terreiro there is always water in a pot or a container. This water should be splattered in the outside as you enter, as to cool whatever you have brought from the streets. The same is done as you leave, before you leave...
Within the Terreiro there are spaces that are more public then others. A visitor can go to certain areas, like the Barracão (Barracks) where the Xires (Shires-Bembes) are held. The Orishas themselves are not for public viewing, except the outside ones usually at the gateway (entrance) such as Eshu, Ogun, Ossayin, Osossi . They are in their own rooms, where the Igbas (Orisha pots) of all the Olorishas of that Terreiro stay (except the ones of elders who have opened their own Terreiro after the seven-year obligation and so took their Igba Orishas with them). These rooms are not public. Unless invited to salute (which is not commonly done) you don't ask nor expect to do it.


Preparations on entering

The first thing as a visitor to a Terreiro that is important to us is that you "rest your body". To get there you've crossed streets, bars, hospitals, other people, and we expect you to let the negativity you brought from the outside to cool down. So you sit, chat and wait. The time within a Terreiro is not the time from the outside world...Then at the appropriate time (at the discretion of the Baba/Iya), you will be attended to whatever you came for... reading, ebo, talk, whatever.
Now let's say that this is your Iya/Baba's Terreiro... you know the specific rules which usually are:
As you enter you say Motumbá (or whatever salute your Nation uses), not good morning or good afternoon, to whoever you see and go rest your body (our favorite place is always the kitchen where there is always something going on...). If you are a woman, you should not go in pants to your Terreiro. You brought with you (or you have it there in the Terreiro), your roupa de ração (special clothes for working, based on the slave clothes, very simple, usually white), bath towel etc.You go to the bathroom and take a cold bath usually with black soap, from a bucket, kneeling on the floor. Then from another bucket you take a herb bath (omiero) that can be your own or the one of the house.
Cleaned from the outside, you go salute the different places... the gateway, entrance of the Terreiro, Eshu, the Axé (special place where sacred items are buried), the drums, the Orishas and then your elders , always starting with the Baba/Iya. Then you are there to do whatever you are told to... no idleness is appropriate for Olorishas in the Terreiro. So as a place it is a community; many times several people live there constantly, and during the big feasts or ritual obligations many of us stay for days, sleeping on mats in the Barracão and using only roupa de ração. It entails the problems and the good parts of a community... all types of people with their human traits is not easy at times. The word of the Iya/Baba of the house is absolute law inside the Terreiro though.


Collective energies

But more than a physical place, the Terreiro carries a concept of collective Asè. The Orisha owner of that Terreiro is your actual Host, and has the last word on everything that happens within. When a Terreiro is founded it is usually of the Orisha owner of the head of the Baba/Iya founding it. But in old Terreiros where have been several sucessions this is not necessarily so. For instance in the Asè Opo Afonjá , Shango is the Orisha owner of the house , and Mãe Stella, the Iyalorisha, is a priestess of Osossi. So whatever ritual you undergo in a certain house: you are receiving the collective Ashe of that Terreiro and the main Orisha of the house and the Terreiros that preceded and gave birth to that specific Terreiro. So the Ashe you receive in your initiation is of a lineage of Terreiros, not necessarily of a lineage of particular individuals. When we ask someone who are they in the religion,they usually answer with the Nation they belong to (Ketu, Efon, Ijesa, Jeje) and the Axé (Terreiro) that they descend from, such as Axé Gantois, Casabranca, Bogun, etc... which are matrix of lineages of several Terreiros.


No smoking...

The protocol within this sacred space (and this includes the personal house of the Iya/Baba or any elder) is strict. We do not smoke in front of elders, we do not drink alcohool in front of elders, we do not seat (ever again) in the same level as our elders... but this is direct elders or respected elders. All this protocol can be broken when in a profane party or with permission from the elder himself.
Outside of rituals and of sacred spaces we do not prostrate ourselves to other Olorishas, we do not wear our beads, we lead a regular life in the world outside, we go back to our worldly manners... Whatever we do is not important unless we are breaking our own taboos. We have a saying that the moment you cross the gateway of a Terreiro whatever your life is outside is no one’s business but your own, as long as you behave appropriately within the Terreiro and with your Orisha. Even in the Terreiro we only prostrate to direct elders and Orishas... brothers and sisters have different ways of saluting depending on their age.


Different from practice in the USA

So differently from the Lucumi and other practices in the US, we usually do not have any of our Orishas in our own house. We only do Orisha rituals at the Terreiro (even if that is the house of the Baba/Iya). We do not divine for ourselves nor do any ritual by ourselves until we get permission to do it. Not all of us have a path to become a Iya/Baba, and many of us upon initiation or at our seven-year obligation receive Oyes (titles) that give us specific functions within the Terreiro. So there are different functions ( Iya Jibonan, Iyabasé, Iya Moro, Axogun, Baba Efun, Pejigan, Alabe, besides other Ogans, Ekedis and Egbomis)… and the bigger the house, the more complex it can become. All these people are necessary and important for the smooth functioning of a Terreiro, especially during annual feasts and initiations.


Extreme difficulty

With all these customs one of the things that are extremely difficult for me (in my tradition it would be an absolute lack of respect) is to arrive from the street and salute the Orisha in someone's house without cooling my body (and preferably taking an omiero bath and changing into whites)... We do not salute Orishas either if we just had sex... so there is a concept too of a clean body in every sense. Although I respect and try to do what is the protocol of the houses here in the US, it goes against everything I've learned... so in this encountering of different traditions we really have to review our own protocols and understand each other so as not to appear disrespectful, when in reality we are being extremelly respectful... and so we go on learning more and sharing more about our own ways.

The only way I see for accomplishing this, is letting each other (different traditions) know who we are, how we are, what we do, and what are our concepts and expectations. And perhaps knowning more about each other we will be more respectful, more tolerant and more caring about our brothers and sisters of different traditions