On the Myth of Luso-Afro-Brazilian Unity: Candomblé and Umbanda in Portugal.

This article proposes to analyse ideological discourses in places of Afro-Brazilian worship (terreiros) in Portugal. Largely inspired as they are by lusotropicalism, they see Portugal, Africa and Brazil as a united religious and cultural community. In this view, Portugal takes on a special role for many Portuguese initiates, and the birth of Afro-Brazilian religions is seen as being a positive result of colonisation. In the terreiros, claims are heard to Portugal's “African heritage” derived from longstanding contact between Africans and Portuguese and which could give rise to the “Portuguese africanity” of Candomblé and Umbanda. Underlying this re-writing of history are the political issues of the transnationalisation of the Afro-Brazilian religions in Portugal, a country which must legitimise the great expansion in practices from its main former colony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]