An organization of poor black women, descendants of slaves,
overcomes formidable obstacles—including the
animosity of the Church—in order to carry on
the religious traditions of their ancestors.

Antonio Moraes Ribeiro and J. H. Kennedy

The festival of Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte (Portuguese for Our Lady of Good Death), one of the most significant religious traditions in Brazil, is nowadays considered a remarkable living document of the African experience in the New World. Begun approximately in the year 1821, this unique festival takes place in Cachoeira, a town located in the region known as the Recôncavo, a large fertile area on the coast of the country's northeastern state of Bahia.

Every August people from far and wide converge on Cachoeira to join in the commemorations and festivities of Our Lady of Good Death. At the center of nightlong vigils, masses, solemn processions, and lively samba performances, is a closed lay sisterhood of black women, the Irmandade de Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte, which translates as the Sisterhood of Our Lady of Good Death. "Good" in this context connotes the peaceful death of the Virgin Mary.

Through oral history, the origins of the sisterhood's activities can be traced back to slave quarters of the early nineteenth century where, at the end of a day's work, blacks often gathered to discuss abolition and pray for their fellow Africans who had died during the struggles for freedom. During these gatherings an appeal was commonly made to Nossa Senhora (the Virgin Mary) to put an end to slavery in Brazil. At these sessions, slaves vowed to commemorate annually the death and assumption of the Virgin. These gatherings gave birth to the Sisterhood of Our Lady of Good Death, frequently referred to nowadays simply as the Sisterhood of Good Death.

The sisterhood began as a loose association of freed black women who, among other activities, raised funds to purchase the freedom of slaves, carried out burials of their dead, and offered refuge to runaways. Since the abolition of slavery in 1888, generations of sisters have faithfully preserved the tradition of the annual religious commemorations in gratitude and reverence to their ancestors. Because of their faith, these women have kept alive ancient traditions along with elements of an African belief system despite adverse circumstances of slavery and impoverishment.

The sisterhood is made up exclusively of women who are recognized descendants of slaves. The criteria for acceptance into the group are very stringent, involving a three-year initiation and preparation phase during which candidates learn traditional ceremonies and rituals. Although in the past membership has included as many as 200, today the group numbers only about thirty women. Most are relatively poor and elderly; ages within the group range from fifty to ninety years. In spite of limited financial resources, the sisterhood always sees that each of its members is provided a proper and decent funeral.

Within the hierarchical structure of the sisterhood, the highest position, perpetual judge, is permanent and is reserved for the eldest sister. The general administration of the group is carried out by four sisters chosen annually to fill the positions of attorney general, purveyor, treasurer, and secretary. It is the attorney general, however, who is directly responsible for organizing the festival and coordinating all the rituals, religious and secular. Interestingly, it is believed that once every seven years the Virgin herself assumes the responsibility of directing the ceremonies and does so through the person of the perpetual judge.

The sisters, in addition to being Roman Catholic, are also active members of various centers of the Afro-Brazilian religion known as Candomblé. This belief system has its roots in the early days of colonialism, when Portuguese masters forbade African slaves to practice their ancestral religion. Forced to convert to Catholicism, the slaves did not abandon their deities, but secretly worshipped them in the guise of Catholic saints. The resulting religion, Candomblé, has transcended racial lines and is today widely practiced throughout Bahia as well as in other regions of Brazil.

Annual Festival

The Our Lady of Good Death Festival is held annually in mid-August and lasts five days. It almost always includes August 15th, the Catholic holy day of the Assumption. The commemorations are richly unique in all aspects, from the clothing and jewelry the women wear at each stage of the festival to the traditional meals offered at the headquarters of the sisterhood. Even the samba performance, which personalizes the non-religious part of the activities, involves an ancient form of the dance not often performed in other regions of the country.

Although the festival of Our Lady of Good Death is primarily a Catholic celebration, the knowledgeable observer will discern remarkable symbolism linked directly to Candomblé traditions. As in Candomblé, before the festival begins the participants carry out a purification ceremony, thus cleansing the body and the locale. Another important pre-festival activity takes place on the second Saturday of August: members of the sisterhood, dressed in the traditional, brightly colored Bahian attire (a full long print skirt, white blouse, and turban) and carrying red velvet sacks, go out into the streets to solicit donations for the festival. The following day, the group decides which members will form its new administration. Until the recent past, the decision was made by elections in which votes, following ancient tradition, were cast with kernels of corn and black beans. Nowadays, the selection of the administration is decided by consensus.

The festival itself officially begins on Thursday, the day when the members of the sisterhood make their confessions. On Friday evening the sisters, each carrying a candle on a five-foot long wooden staff, begin the first phase of the festival. This represents the death of the Virgin and symbolically the death of their ancestors during slavery. For this ceremony each participant is attired completely in white: a full, white lace-trimmed overblouse, a billowy white skirt, a lace shawl folded and draped over one shoulder, a cotton turban, and leather low-heeled mules.

A mass of thanksgiving in homage to deceased sisters is celebrated followed by a symbolic funeral procession in which the sisters carry an eighteenth-century replica of the Virgin lying peacefully in death and covered by a mantle of white lace. After a vigil in the manner of a symbolic wake, the sisters offer a late night repast called the White Supper.

This meal comprised of bread, wine, fish, rice, black-eyed peas, and salads, follows an African tradition of not eating meat on Friday, the day consecrated to the Afro-Brazilian deity, Oxalá, considered to be father of all deities and creator of the universe. Worthy of note here is the fact that each Afro-Brazilian deity is traditionally associated with a color, and that of Oxalá is reflected in his clothing, which is always white.

On Saturday evening, the next stage of the festival includes the celebration of a mass followed by a symbolic burial procession. This ceremony symbolizes not only the death of the Virgin but also the genocide of female victims of slavery, which began in Brazil in the middle of the 16th century. As a sign of mournful respect, the sisters at this juncture wear no jewelry, but do don elegant attire. Each wears a generous full black skirt, an embroidered overblouse of white lace, a black velvet shawl folded and draped over one shoulder, and a white sash.

The head is covered by a large white cotton scarf that, fastened under the chin and concealing both the hair and the neck, is quite similar to the head coverings worn by women in a number of Muslim countries. Again carrying their candlesticks, the sisters attend a solemn mass and receive communion. Afterwards the replica of the entombed Virgin is carried by the sisterhood through the streets in a funeral procession accompanied by a marching band and the townspeople.

The culminating events of the Boa Morte Festival take place on Sunday, beginning with a morning mass in commemoration of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Unlike the solemn events up to this point, the activities of Sunday and the following days are decidedly festive. The sisters wear the same elegant attire of the previous day, Saturday, though with certain significant differences.

Instead of the scarf, the white turban used on Friday is worn again. Also, the red satin lining of their black shawls, not visible on Saturday, is now turned outward, thus lending a joyful flair to the sisterhood's overall stately appearance. Here links to the Afro-Brazilian deities, the Orixás, are evident. Red, said to symbolize life and happiness, is also the color traditionally associated with the two Orixás: Omulu, who is the force of diseases, and Iansan, who controls wind and storms.

Moreover, in contrast to their lack of jewelry on the previous day, on Sunday the sisters wear special bangles and beaded necklaces honoring Oxum, the deity correlated with the Virgin. It is interesting to note here that the gala attire of this day is the same one in which each sister will eventually be buried.

At the end of the mass, the sisterhood leads a procession slowly through the major streets of Cachoeira. A nineteenth-century statue of the Virgin, known as Our Lady of Glory, standing atop a float, is hand carried along the procession route and is accompanied by the town's brass band and the general population.

As this statue representing the glory of the Assumption passes, spontaneous applause can be heard from onlookers while others light festive fireworks. When the sisters finally arrive at their headquarters, they offer a sumptuous luncheon to the public. It is at this point that the non-religious and very popular phase of the festival begins, and a contagious exuberance and joy pervade the atmosphere.

Shortly after changing into the traditional Bahian attire—a loose flowing white blouse over a voluminous colorful skirt, and a white cotton turban—the sisters dance the samba-de-roda, an ancient dance of African origin performed in a circle to the rhythm of hand-clapping. From this point until Tuesday morning, the population of Cachoeira together with many tourists enjoys lively outdoor festivities that include live music and a variety of typical savory Bahian fare sold by street vendors.

The final phase of the festival begins on Tuesday morning and draws the commemorations to a close. The street party ends, and the sisters proceed to carry out secret Afro-Brazilian religious ceremonies to pay homage to the ancestors and show gratitude to the Orixás for the success of the festival. On Wednesday, the day of Iansan, the members of the sisterhood bring the festival to an end. Following Candomblé tradition, they place offerings of flowers and the remaining foods of the festival in the nearby Paraguaçu River.

Conflict with the Church

Because their status as an official sisterhood within the Church was never formalized and because of their strong African-based religious beliefs, the sisters have had a rather bumpy relationship with Church hierarchy in recent years. Strained relations with the clergy came to a head toward the end of the millennium, when the sisterhood became engaged in an unpleasant legal struggle with the Catholic Church.

The litigation, begun in 1989, stemmed from the Church's confiscation of the sisterhood's jewelry and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century religious statues that had been stored for safekeeping in the Cathedral in Cachoeira. The sisterhood reacted by mobilizing politically and, together with the city's population, the Black Movement (an Afro-Brazilian activist group), artists, and Carnaval associations, proceeded to conduct protests in Cachoeira.

Protests were also carried out in the state capital of Salvador to demonstrate general outrage against the attitude and actions of the Church. As a result of the sisterhood's legal defense in Cachoeira, the city's court obliged the parish priest to return all of the group's property that had been seized by the Church. Dissatisfied with the court's decision, the priest entered an appeal in a higher court in the state capital. At this juncture, high church authorities put pressure on the sisterhood to withdraw its lawsuit, a move requested personally by one of Brazil's highest ranking cardinals—Dom Lucas Moreira Neves, the mulatto archbishop of Salvador—in a meeting with the sisters in Cachoeira.

Because they would not back down, on adjourning the meeting, the cardinal declared the doors of the Church closed to the sisterhood. The prelate apparently believed that this order, which deprived the sisters of both a church and a priest, would cause the festival to fall into disrepute in the eyes of the conservative parishioners. A number of years later, the State Supreme Court upheld the decision made in Cachoeira, thus supporting the sisterhood's case. Nevertheless, as a result of the cardinal's decision, from 1990 to 1998 the religious ceremonies of Our Lady of Good Death were carried out in a number of locations without the participation of Roman Catholic priests.

Seeing the deplorable situation of the sisterhood during the years of litigation, and moved by the group's lack of an appropriate venue to conduct its celebrations, a group of African American tourists purchased a large run-down building in Cachoeira and donated it to the group. Subsequently, the city government expropriated an adjacent dilapidated structure and donated it to the sisters. Later a third building was donated by a member of the community. It was during these years that the plight of the sisters was brought to national attention by the renowned novelist Jorge Amado, author of Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands and Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon. With an article published in two highly reputable newspapers, A Tarde, from Salvador, Bahia and Folha de São Paulo, which enjoys a nationwide readership, Amado stressed the cultural significance of the sisterhood and the need to provide the group with an appropriate facility for its activities.

The government of the State of Bahia soon underwrote the restoration of the sisterhood's three buildings, which comprise an entire city block. While their basic architectural designs were maintained, the structures were successfully adapted to serve as the group's chapel and headquarters. The grand opening of the refurbished buildings took place in 1995, and from that time until the festival of 1999 all religious ceremonies were conducted there by the sisters themselves because of the ban placed by the Catholic Church.

The arrival of Dom Geraldo Majella Agnelo, the new cardinal, in 1998 signaled the beginning of a more favorable attitude on the part of the Church towards the sisterhood. By the following year reconciliation was in effect, and during the festival of 1999, Roman Catholic priests celebrated masses in the sisterhood's chapel. The third day of the festival that year was marked by the presence of the auxiliary bishop of Salvador, who, on behalf of the Church, publicly asked the sisters' forgiveness for the unpleasant events of the previous ten years.

Thus, a major chapter came to a successful end in the arduous saga of a group of poor but very proud black women who, by standing firm in the face of formidable obstacles that included the animosity of church authorities, have successfully maintained their cultural legacy—the religious traditions of their ancestors.

Antonio Moraes Ribeiro is with Bahia's state travel authority Bahiatursa in Salvador, and divides his time between that city and his hometown of Cachoeira. Since the 1970s Moraes has been instrumental in promoting support for the Sisterhood of Our Lady of Good Death and the group's annual festival. He can be contacted at antmoraes@uol.com.br  

J. H. Kennedy, a former resident of São Paulo, currently works for the Office of Bilingual Education of the District of Columbia Public Schools. He can be reached at esl202@hotmail.com 

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