5. MARCO TEÓRICO Y CONCEPTUAL
5.3. MARCO CONTEXTUAL
5.3.8. QUE ES LA ENTREVISTA
readily available. See especially the publications on
Urnbanda by Editora Eco, Rio de Janeiro. 9 See ;.'aite 191 1:286,
The authorship of t'iis Grimoire is obscure - see Suimners
1 9 4 5: 133; Butler 1949:89, ft is attributed to Pope
(iii) Marketed varieties of nemba in powdered for.ii
The other type of marketed uemba is always in powdered form and is sold in small packets measuring on average
1*3"x *73” % "23 ". Eacii packet states tlie purpose for which
the contents sliould be used in the title: e.g. Dominio
(Dominion) : Ck.aiua Dinheiro (honey Caller); Vencedora de
Batalha (battle winner); Aj'iarra Mari do (husband wringer);
Pe;-;a komem (i-^an Getter); Pega Huilier (V/ife Getter);
Aman sa So ra (ho tlier-in-law sweetener). Some packets just
bear the names of certain herbs tliat supposedly have gone towards their manufacture; e,g, Vence Tudo (Overcome
Everything); Abre Criminlios ( Open-the-hays ) , However
analysis of such yieinbas revealed that their herbal content was minimal and that they were made up principally of
kaolin with 0 , 6 7 per cent carbon and 0,l4 per cent nitrogen,
A number of the paclcets are decorated with woodcuts (e,g, a dancing couple on Pega Homem, an angel on Po da Felicidade [happiness Powder]), but some of tliem are very curious and bear little relation to the function of the pemba in question. A:r.ansa S o 'ra, for example, displays a picture of wliat appears to be a prostitute, while .Do de Seoarapao (Separation Powder) shows a wise owl with a mortar board on its head.
Powdered forms of marketed pemba differ only very slightly in colour, the predominant colour being i/liite. They also all iiave the same basic smell wliicVi is very
most commonly used as talcum powder, tlie idea being that the function inherent in the title will be sympathetical1y
passed on to the wearer. Some varieties, however, require
to come into physical contact witli two or more people, Kence a man wanting to attract a woman must put some Pega Touiller on his hands and then endeavour to touch the
woman he is interested in, A person w tin ting to increase
his circle of friends does likewise with iimizade (Friendship),
and so on (C,8),
Waite ( 1 9 1 1 :30l) mentions a similar idea found in the
Book of True Blacl: Magic which advises the sorcerer who wants to conjure up a certain person at a given moment into his presence that ',,a powder must be made and cast upon tlie person, or given them with their ii.eat or drink*. Instructions given by the Grand Grimoire to make people appear naked and dance in one's presence involve the
collection of cert£iin herbs at midnight on the eve of the
feast of St, John, These herbs are pounded into a powder
which must then be sprinkled in the air of the room where the desired people are^^,
(iv) The r.ianufacture of marketed varieties of :lemba
Marketed varieties of yiemba of bo tli forms all come from Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo or Porto Alegre, despite assurances
on the packet that tliey are Af ri carto ti ..o (Legitimate
African) imported especially from Africa. The instruction
leaflet for solid pemba shows pictures of peu,ba being made
in a largo cauldron by a nui.ibor of Africans and another
pictui’e of tlio finished product being delivered to tlie jaarket in Lagos, Afri ca < 1 o Sul (South Africa) (sic), and it ends with the following warning;
Co.nprar ur;ia -,emba falsa é alem de perder o dinheiro corror o risco de atraer maos elementos ao usa-lo,
CuidadoJ I.uito cuidadoj Unico exportador para o
niundo inteiro é Ali —he.ri—1 tab, da Tribu Urnbanda, descendente directo do Soba L-b-Thab,
(buying a false pemba involves, besides losing your money, running tiie risk of attracting evil influences
on using it, Garei Great care j The only exporter
for t]j0 entire world is Ali—Bei.i—Itah of tlie Urnbanda
Tribe, a direct descendent of Scba L—U —Thab.) On the packet, however, is stated quite clearly;
Pabricapao esi>ecicil da Livrarin e Flora. Olimpia Ltda, -
Porto Alegre — iiio Grande do Gul.
(specially made by the Livraria e Flora Olimpia Ltda, - Porto Alegre — iiio Grande do Sul,)
The packet also gives the number of the Brazilian patent. The powdered pemba called Separacao says on one side -chat it is Le. timo Africano, and on the other L , E . U . U , (the accepted Brazilian abbreviation f oz' Es tad os U n i d o — United States),
Generally, uiarlceted pemba of the powdered variety is used by private individuals without previous reoommenda.tion from higher authority, but they are also used a great deal
B.
(i ) Tlie prepara tion of lioiap-üiade neinba
Home-made iiemba^ however, is always considered to be much sutlerior to the marketed varieties in that all the ingredients are known and tlie quantities of each substance
can be adjusted to suit the m a k e r ’s i:ishes. To make
pernba in the home, however, requires painstaking work on the part of the pai or rnae de santo who must devote long hours to reducing the ingredients to as fine a powder as
the average talcum. This is one reason why marketed
pembas are so popular and looked upon witli considerably less suspicion than marketed fumigators or baths, the main reason perhaps being t)iat the majority of mai^lteted nembas, especially those of the solid varieties are believed to
have co.iie direct fro/ii Africa, It is significant in tliis
respect that a number of recipes for home-z^ade pomba include
marketed white nemba of the solid variety among the ingredients, Pemba that is made in the home is called p e ; ■ b o la n a r ad a
to distinguish it from marketed varieties. Its main
ingredients are herbs and seeds, but someti^nes sugar,
myrrh, incense and solid white marketed pemba are included. Complete individual recipes are jealously guarded since each person considers his recipe to be tlie most powerful and is
very loath to part i.'it i any informiation concerning it, I
(1.2) 1
solid wliite oeniba (marketed) sugar angelica do sertao capianga dandd murici
■ J12.G jo
quitoco tira teii’Tia vencetudo (C.5) 2 acoco agua de Levante dand^—preferably picked on the first Friday of Lent- (C.2)
3
incense rayrrli
white talcum powder/solid peniba alf azeina
dan da
noz iiioscada cinnamon
1 clove
The herbs employed must be dried in the sun although they may be dried artificially (i,e, in an oven) if the
pemba is required urgently^ ^, When dry, all the
ingredients must be crushed together in a mortar and passed repeatedly tlirough a muslin cloth in order to acquire a fine powder.
Sometimes the white pemba (which belongs to Oxald)
can be exchanged for other solid pembas of different colours that belong to different orixds depending on the orixd \dio 1 1 See above, ?'6.
liappens to hold trie most sway over* the person in onesti.on. Tills is tiie only instance in tlie case of r)epiba where
feelings for an individual's ori::a laay be taken into
consideration, the normal course being to distribute precisely thie same pemba to anyone in need of it.
The principal herbs among those in Appendix 1 that may be used for the manufacture of pemba oreparada show a fairly even spread among all the orixas as the following table shows, with emphasis on Yemanja and Cxun,
Orixa No. of herbs controlled
Yemanja 7 Oxun 6 Ogun 4 Yansan 4 Oxossi 2 Omolu 2 Nana 2 Oxald 1 Xan.'o 1
This is a reflection of the notion that pemba summons the assistance of all the gods at the same time, it being upi to the individual concerned to increase the reliance on one particular orixa if he so desires by the addition of the relevant solid pemba.
( ii ) Tjio ri tur..''., nravers and chrmts a c c o m an y i n y the manufr;.cture of borne—,iiade pernba
During the manufacture of pemba the person concerned must be ritually clean otherwise it will turn out to have no
of its manufacture witti prayers and incantations. Tlie prayers; are often of a si^ontaneous kind and follow no rigid outlines, and they take the for.ji of an invocation to the gods (who are either the orixd; s oi" the three different members of the Catholic Trinity) to impart some of their
power to the oei’iba currently being made, Tv;o such prayers
are as follows :
(
1.
2)
1Com o.s forpas de Deus e de todos os orixils, com to das as for pas que Deus deixou no ceu, terra, mar e astro, eu pepo a vos e;u
coro que fapai t des ta pemba que estou preparando um beneficio para laini e para todos que se servirern co n ela,
( C, 6 )
2
Pemba, eu te prepare em nome
Nith tliG forces of God and of all
the orixas, w'it.i all the forces
which (tod left in heaven, earth,
sea and star, 1 ask you all
that you make this pRiiiba whi ch 1 am
preparing of benefit to me and to all who may make use of it.
Pei.ibgi, 1 prepare you in
the name of
the Father, the Son and
the holy
Gliost to do good , do Pai e do Filho e do Fspirito
Santo para fazer o bem.
The incantations ac c ompany in g tlie manufacture of ponba.
should number at least tliree (according to 1.2) and should
be repeated over and over again together with the prayer
until the wn tba is complete. Incantations are either of the
type thi^t are specifically designed to be used i/ith pemba or they are borrowed from ano tjier ri tual called iu: colosi.
The former varieties are transcribed below. The 1anguage
is a mixture of Portuguese and a very corrupt u/ui unidentificPole form of the language usually employed in traditional Angola
(1.2)
3
0 pemba ^ ^ 0 pemlia
pemba de lei pemba de lei
pemba pemba
0 que peaib(^ 0 i) e mb a
and a ca saaiba corne bere samba
samba d'Angola Angola samba
0 que per.:b6 0 iieiuba
manda nemba send nemba
Pemba era de lel Pemba. was d a 3.e 1
p e rn b é pembc
pemba pernba
Ingolosl ( 1:no\/n in i'ortuguese as rezas - prayers) is
tlie name given to a session of formal sung prayer that takes place on specific days of the week in traditional cult
houses in the presence of all the members of the priestly jiierarchy and fill:as de santo tliat live in the cult house.
It is rather akin to the office said daily by Catholic
1 3
priests and nuns , The incantations sunj are extremely
secret and only one informant was prepared to let me have a
sample of tlie ones she knew^^. These are transcribed here
and at least tliree of these may be sung during tlie preparation
o f o e m b a ;