Their London and their times - A yearning for faiths
Candomblé
Deni says that he misses the community of Candomblé. He talks nostalgically about the mixture of wealth from the city center and grand society ladies jostling with the local poor, all flaunting the sharp contrast of white garb on dark skin. “We have secrets,” Deni told him. “That’s what makes us powerful. It’s not like you Protestants, all sharing the same truths, or what you think is true, about your religion. We have to wrestle knowledge from the orixás, we have to fight for it. Some of us know more than others and we each know different things.”
Ogum, the fighter, is in a tunic of oddly delicate blue, holding his sword phallically upright.
extra.globo.com/blogs/pai-paulo-de-oxala
Oxalufã, the wisest of them all, is in white and is flaunting his tiered Opaxoro staff.
candombleargentina.wordpress.com
Xango is proud, erect, gorgeous, and defiant more than aggressive, despite his double-headed axe.
nmaahc.si.edu/latinx/hugo-canuto
Ossaim, the guide to medicinal plants, whose gender is more ambiguous, is smoking a pipe.
www.tiktok.com/@osagradoafrobrasi
Oxóssi, with his biceps to die for, is carrying his hunting spear.
aldeiaestrelaazuldooriente.com.br/oxossi
Oxumaré in his, or her, or their, rainbow tunic while carrying the contradictions of the world, good and evil, day and night, positive and negative, masculine and feminine, sweet and bitter.
www.tanzbrasil.de/eng/orixas/oxuma.html