Afro-Brazilian Altar-Poems:

The Textual Poetics of Pontos-Riscados

Isis Costa McElroy

Arizona State University

So on this ground
write
within the sound

of this white limestone vèvè

talk ...
the Word becomes

again a god and walks among us

—Kamau Brathwaite, "Vèvè", Islands/Arrivants

many years I have been studying, translating, and teaching Afro-Brazilian

literature and oral literature in North American universities. The topic of my
For research has led me to interactions within and beyond academic spaces as I
seek out meaning within the broader scopes of African diasporic philosophy and
arts of the Americas in general and the Caribbean in particular. In the literary
study of orature, the sung or recited word constitutes the major scaffold of
meaning, the central code which leads us to a system of mutual conversions.
Within that system, performance, music, gestures and space create a complex
whole of meta-linguistic interdependent meanings. Recently, I have begun to con
sider what might be defined as an Afro-Brazilian oral poetic genre: the ponto-risca
do. I do so along lines already demonstrated by Farris Thompson, who shows that
these cosmograms (along with the Haitian vèvès and the Cuban firmas) are ritualis
tic forms which developed in the Diaspora stemming mainly from the Kongo cos
mology (The Four Moments of the Sun, Flash of the Spirit, and "Translating the
World"). I then ask, how can we read the pontos-riscados as a literary form, as visu
al poems, as an aesthetic representation of a condensed text or a codified message?
In this brief communication, I establish points of contact with kindred poetic tra
ditions while attempting to launch an interpretative approach leading, in turn, to
an integrated assessment of this overlooked poetic genre of the Diaspora.
The title of this article, "Afro-Brazilian Altar-Poems," indicates the initial

parallel I had in mind when I began to conceive a form for analyzing the pontos
riscados. In the Western literary tradition, calligrams are poetic forms in which
structural layout and typography offer a figurative suggestion of the message (s) or

· Volume 1 · Spring 2007 ~ 103

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Isis Costa McElroy

essence addressed. Herbert, the seventeenth-century

George British metaphysic
poet, composed calligrams alluding to Western liturgical forms. His poem "The
Altar" became a reference to a specific configuration for calligrams known there
after as altar-poems.' Herbert's text follows the Western
literary genetic line of
poetic works from the Greek Anthology (written circa 325 AC-200 DC and pub
lished during the Middle Ages) whose metaphysical poems appear materialized as
altars, eggs, wings, etc. Addressing God, Herbert opens the poem "The Altar" with
an offering of a shattered altar. In the typographical composition and layout, the
brick-words lay upon each other re-building the object and place of veneration and

religious sacrifice: "each part / of my hard heart / Meets in this frame, / To praise
thy name" (9—12). Herbert concludes the poem with a plea directed to God: "sanc
tify this Altar to be thine" (16). The typographical format of "The Altar" is organ
ic to its meaning: at once a sanctuary of Greek antiquity and the letter/word "I,"

defining both the local and the object of ritually symbolic self-sacrifice. "The
Altar" is a poetic-offering which visually establishes the space where the poetic "I"
offers itself to God beseeching redemption and wholeness.
Altar-poems are part of a Western literary genre which extends the poetic
visual repertoire through the integration or juxtaposition of diverse semantic and
semiotic structures. With regard to integration, we observe an expansion through
which the abstract code of the text acquires a tri-dimensional body that is often
the very essence or soul of the poetic text. The mystic and religious nature of altar
poems circumscribe the content and form of these poetic texts; in a liturgical uni

verse, the poet and the reader seem to activate a ritualized process of magical evo
cation and metaphysical meditation. In an analogous dynamic, the pontos-riscados
can be interpreted as a poetic tradition that situates the reader and text in a

sacredly evocative aesthetic universe.

While
the altar-poems have primordially an artistic function and mode, the

pontos-riscados are mediums of expression whose function is essentially, and often

solely, understood as ritualistic magical activators. We are dealing here with liter
ary traditions that spring from distinctive genealogical trees. If we read the pontos
riscados as visual poems, the altar-poems might be seen as unsuspected distant rel
atives. They offer a mystical and visual analogy, and a direct suggestion to the pon
tos-riscados as a sacred poetic genre which simultaneously invests a mystic concrete

anatomy in the message, and in the space established by that message.

The primordially ritualistic character of the pontos-riscados distinguishes and

approximates this poetic form to others from distinct or interrelated traditions.

According to Cavalcanti Bandeira, in a manual whose translated title reads as
"What is Umbanda: A Historic and Doctrinal Essay:"

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 Afro-Brazilian Altar-Poems

The magical value attributed to the ponto-riscado is unquestionable. Laymen will gen
erally consider the ponto-nscado as a sort of mark, stamp or coat of arms designed to
identify a specific entity. The Umbanda follower, with his life experience in the terreiro
[the Umbanda ceremonial ground], would not hold such a simplistic concept of the
ponto-riscado. Even if there is no attempt to investigate its deeper real meaning, a fol
lower will usually recognize two values in the ponto-riscado. It is the identifying sign as
well as a working instrument used in the magic operations performed by a spiritual
entity. Some followers who exhibit a higher interest go beyond this understanding and
add to these concepts others such as the ponto-riscado as a polarizer of astral forces
which are manipulated by the entities through the magic of the pemba. They may go
even further, understanding it as all of the above and more, since they see in the draw
ings a whole story, a narration of the origins and connections of the entity with its kin
dred vibrating energies. (209)

In this definition we can detect four fundamental characteristics of the ponto-rìsca

do: 1) an identifying sign of an ancestral presence; 2) a working instrument or tool
to perform magic; 3) a polarizing field of magical energies; and 4) a pictographical
nucleus of either a testimonial or cosmologica! narrative.

An Identifying Sign of an Ancestral Presence

According to Olga Cacciatore, ponto-riscado is "the picture formed by a set of

cabalistic signs (magical-symbolic) which outlined with a pemba (chalk) in the color
associated to a specific entity, helps to invoke the entity to the earthly realm. When
the picture is drawn by the incorporated medium, it identifies the entity which rides
the medium" (214). In reference to a mediumnic text, Cavalcanti Bandeira defines
the ponto-riscado as the exteriorization of the thoughts of a spirit who presents the
living with its "letter of introduction endowed with all the powers that the spirit
brings forth."4 Another manual on pontos-riscados explains that "each guide has its
own ponto-riscado, which is modified according to the task to be performed"
(Molina 6).
With these definitions in mind we can
establish a primary distinction
between the two basic contextsand roles of the ponto-riscado: 1) identifying the
entity or ancestral energy; and 2) determining and activating the "job" or function
of the ancestral presence which is rendered present. A further distinctive feature
concerns the authorship of the ponto-riscado. Is it sketched or "written" by the
Umbanda practitioner as an evocation of the manifestation or protection from the
ancestors, or is it "written" by the ancestor itself? In the first instance we are deal
ing with a message which is being sent to the ancestors. In the second instance,
the message would have been sent by the ancestors themselves.
As an identifying sign of an ancestral presence, the ponto-riscado is the Afro
Brazilian cousin of the Afro-Cuban firma (signature). Miguel Barnet, analyzing the

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Isis Costa McElroy

firma sign of the Kongo based cosmology of Palo Mayombe explains: "It is not only
the supernatural forces that have a range of firmas-,every priest bears his firma as
means of identification, regardless of the rank or prestige of any member of a casa
de palo" (127).5

A Working Instrument or Tool

In Umbanda cosmology, pontos-viseados function as computer icons: encap

sulated operative commands capable of launching programs. The successive rhyth
mic motion on a peripheral object—such as the right button of a stationary
"mouse" located in the peripheral field of its connecting monitor and keyboard—
executes the icon of a graphic interface. Such rhythmic motion activates an open

ing, an access and revelation to another field of vision and information. Similarly,
the pontos-riscados work as operative commands. Through the kinesis of dance and
chants (pontos-cantados), the pontos-riscados open themselves up, transferring the

symbolic load of their geometrical visual tangibility to human beings, who as

"horses" are "ridden" and lend movement and corporeal presence to perform,

expand and, improvise the mystical text.

The pontos-riscados—in the same manner as the vèvès of Haitian Vodou and
the firmas of Cuban Palo Mayombe—are not objects for static mystic or aesthetic

contemplation. Rather, they are graphic commands invested with performative

energy and dynamic generators of verbivocovisual transmutation. In her study of
the structural analysis of the visual imagery of the vèvès, Karen Brown observes:
"Like a man adrift at sea will try to communicate his need for help in all means
available to him: semaphore, shouting, smoke signals and radio message, so a cul
ture involved in the very serious business of world construction will use all means
available to it to externalize (in order to internalize) its own view of itself" (139).
The umbandistas, paleiros, and voduisants use different mediums to communicate
their need for contact with their own subtelluric realms: Aruanda, Mayombe and
Vilokan (allegorical references to Angola, Kongo, and Guinea). The pontos-risca
dos, vèvès, and firmas are part of an extensive repertoire of the sacred languages of
the African Diaspora. Their mystic geometrical aesthetic finds parallels in other

cosmological traditions such as in the sand paintings of the Navajos and in the
Buddhist yantras and mandalas.

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 Afro-Brazilian Altar-Poems

18 The Church.

«aaaagMWMtgàagia^..·,:^
The Altar.
|
A brokenAlt απ. Lord, thy(crvant trJ
Μα-Je of a hc.irt,ami ccmcntcd withud
WholepirnarcntiKvh-nddidfhimyS
No workman* toolh»thtooch'd
the(irr. 9
Λ 111a Rι alone I
I* fitcha ilunc, |Τι
Ai nothing but
Thypovt'r dothcur. Mj
Wherefore cadipari
Of myhard hcirt
Meet«m tin*frante, ■
■ To j·ranethyname. ■
That if I chanceto bold mypeic<,
Th.-fc Honestopraitetheemaynote
O let thybkficijS gettile ι 1. .
: ΑχνΊfinflifiethis Λ χ τ a it to be I

J·

1. George Herbert. Τ he Temple: Sacred 2. Hrabanus Marus. "De adoratione crucis ab ...

Poems and Private Ejaculations. opifice." De Laudibus Sanctae Crucis. Augsburg,

Cambridge, 1663. ca. 845.

MARI A STELLA
Εl Ε ΒRΛΤA
t." LADYRI NT Η O
CON I I Ν t Ν TE ' i.»»·.,»/
*¡»*·»·
o>· "·» ~τ'»'.I «—**»»
ILuíúCv K-t-"fc~ RÎGÛLAÏUUH
UXiNSt.lCOKOP.CL1R
a^MpíoOTIOMARRACCIO
π1.1
Mktni Pauthiniarvu^Lavoum EKCOMIASTAEa»

3. Juan Caramuel de Lobkowitz. Primus calamus ob osculos

ponens metametricam. Rome, 1663.

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Isis Costa McElroy

i
PONTO DE EXU DOS RIO! PnmtSuwSkU
t»r

4. Ponto-riscado 5. Firma

Uw&wBoíj-cle«« up confusi.

ΠπmforPmtbtí (ToiSm«AI

6. Firma 7. Vèvè

_8. Vèvè 9. Nova

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 Afro-Brazilian Altar-Poems

10. Vodouisant tracing vèvè. 11. Medium drawing a ponto.

12. Ponto-riscado for Ogum Megê.

13. Gran plante de muerto.

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Isis Costa McElroy

A Polarizing Field of Magical Energies

The word mandala derives from the root manda (meaning essence) and the
suffix la (meaning recipient). The shaping of a mandala starts from its center, from
a point. It is from this center (think of a pebble hitting the surface of a lake) that
other geometric forms follow its development (Kumar). The circle around the final
creation frames and protects the essence, now fully developed in a mystical geo
metrical map, upon which is bestowed the sacred role of support and vehicle of
communication with the sacred world. The a
mandala
"image-point," is an

symmetric geometrical elaboration of a focal point with a spatial extent which

moves from out-of-focus (blurred perception) to in-focus (conversion of design
and observer in a central crux).
Like the liturgical shapes created in the layout of altar-poems, the mandalas

develop within a specific enclosed form: a circle, the Jungian archetype of whole
ness which delimits and restricts the perception field of the final product 0ung 78).
A visual poem requires the reader to chart a text within an objectified layout and
to reflect on the relationship between abstract words and concrete designs. The
theological (essentially abstract) content of altar-poems, achieve concreteness and
tangibility in the bordering layout, which steers the text and brings to focus the
metaphysical object which acquires an animate independence as if capable of leap

ing from the page. In the mandala the bordering circular line is a visual echo of its
essence. The circle contains the "point" and all that is associated with it. The cen
tral point (bindu) concentrates energy as a sun that irradiates different forms and

messages. Like window frames, the bordering external lines guide the communica
tion of the poetic or sacred message and seem to function as communicative fil
ters.

Both mandalas and pontos-viseados are contained in circular forms. Those

forms function as placentas, fabrics or borders whose porousness allow the essence
of what is circumscribed to be transferred to those who are bound to it. Pontos
riscados are also restrictive forms: as communicative filters they determine which
ancestors to pass though the invocatory lines and which selected
have clearance

magic process should be activated.

Like the bindu of the mandala, the ponto-riscado is also an energetic nucleus.

Just as a point in geometry is defined by its coordinates, so does a ponto, by itself,

determine only a position and define as well as designate, through its coordinates
the properties of a space. The bindu or mandala-point rules the inauguration of the
creative process of the visual message. In the ponto-riscado, the designation ponto

(point) refers to the final product, which is decoded and activated according to the

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 Afro-Brazilian Altar-Poems

coordinates of the ceremonial performance. It is revealing to observe that etymo

logically, punctu denotes a small orifice. In the Umbanda context, the ponto-risca
do is metaphorically a small orifice in the Kalunga line: a polarized field of energy
which dilates the pores of the fabric that divides the world of the living from the
world of the dead.6
The concept of ponto (point) is also prevalent in the Haitian vèvès. In a vèvè
a ponto is referred to as pwenPwen is a line of energy or a point of contact with
the world of the Iowas (Deren 335). According to Anna Wexler pwens are concen
trated points of spiritual power, signs that frame and stabilize the central design of
the vèvè and indicate precisely which Iowa is being invoked: "Taking various forms
such as Masonic signs, asterisk-like stars, and cross-hatched lines, they actually
name the spirit invoked by the vèvè so that he or she will recognize it and appear"
(375).
In a comparative aesthetic appraisal of vèvès and pontos-viseados, an initial
cursory impression could be that the vèvès are visually much richer and detailed
than the pontos-riscados. The vèvè Haitian tradition also displays central icono

graphie forms; those forms follow more consistent patterns. The artistic variation,
the hallmark of the creator of the vèvè lies specifically in the pwen, which allows
for improvisations. Roger Bastide, in communication with Robert Farris

Thompson, remarks that "interest in pontos-riscados precisely lies in the fact that
each priest is constantly inventing new ideographic formulations within the
ancient shapes and forms" (Thompson and Cornet 153).
The creative freedom of the pontos-riscados allows constantly protean per

ceptions, adaptations and artistic expressions. More than the vèvè as a whole, as
codes for expression the métonymie pwens escape the rather unyielding ritual

designs, opening space to transformations

and individual expressions. As

palimpsest literary compositions both the pwens and the pontos-riscados are open to
infinite possibilities of allusions to the human complexity and readings of the world
(Thompson and Cornet 153).
Haitian pwens exhibit such kindred characteristics to the Afro-Brazilian pon
tos that both can be either riscados (drawn, outlined) or cantados (sung). No d'

pwen or voye pwen, literally means "to throw" or "to send a point." According to
Karen Brown:

In Vodou temples, virtually all songs

sung in the course of a ceremony function as
thrown points. They describe, or caricature
praise, a spirit, and they simultaneously
send suggestive messages ricocheting through the community, messages that can
interact with the lives of those present in myriad ways. (Tracing the Spirit 31)

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I sis Costa M cElroy

The pwen as "thrown-point" can occur either in the sacred space of the peris
tile (the Vodou ceremonial ground) or in the secular spheres of daily life. In sacral use
the puiens are not only visual and musical forms but also magic objects and names.
Brown explains: "vèvè, in certain ritual contexts, are called pwen. The secret names

given to new initiates into Vodou are called 'point names' and some types of
healing charms are also referred to as pwen" (32). As a name is a polarizing, defining
sound holding the power to designate and summon individuals, objects and ideas,
the pontos-riscados, pwens and firmas are pictorial names which express a

quality or essence of beings, objects, and magical procedures.

It seems revealing that when used in secular contexts, the pwen becomes less

of a vehicle for utterances and other words of praise, and more exclusively a ludic
mode of expressing criticism regarding a person, situation or, institution. As
proverbs, pwens are charged with highly metaphorical condensation, and thus ren
der themselves open to suggestive expressions of indirect challenges and provoca
tions. This use of pwen (which can occur both in sacred and secular realms) makes
me question the "officially unquestioned" choice of the adjective riscado in ponto
riscadoFor some reason and consensus, a ponto is not desenliado (drawn) but risca
do (basically meaning traced, outlined or scribed). The choice of the term is not
casual. While a Palo practitioner who undergoes ritual initiation is said to be raya
do (scratched)a Cuban firma is trazada (traced, outlined, designed) the same des
ignation used for in the creation of a vèvè. But as Brown points out, vèvès in secu
lar contexts are the challenging pwen. The verb riscar includes two significant con
notations which are carried to the adjective riscado: 1) to halt a saddled animal,'0
"
and 2) to launch a challenge or provocation. The meaning of "halting a saddled
animal" alludes to the control exerted by the horseman or rider. An Umbanda
practitioner who incorporates an ancestral spirit, is said to be its "horse" (cavalo).
Riscado in this case (akin to rayado) refers to the divinized ancestor who has con
trol, who pulls the reins of its "horse," halting or transforming the saddled body
from human into divinized. But it is the latter meaning that I find most appealing.
In the connotation of "challenge or provocation" the ponto-riscado as an evocative

identifying sign can be understood as an agent provocateur which stimulates and

instigates the manifestation of the divine; and as a "working instrument" for con
testing and resisting the causes of physical and emotional unbalance.

A Pictographical Nucleus of either a Testimonial or Cosmologica! Narrative

Thompson tells us that in the Kongo there are ritual experts who engrave sym
bolic messages on the bodies of living fish and turtles before releasing them back into
the water: "Banganga nkodi and nsibi are specialists in using words and sending inten

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 Afro-Brazilian Altar-Poems

sive messages to the dead"(Bockie 43-71).' These animals marked with signs equiv
alent to pontos-Triscados (bidimbu) bear messages from the earthly world (ntoto) to the
ancestor underwater world (mpemba) where the ancestors receive these coded mes

sages and may act in favor of their descendente (Four Moments 151). The terms
ponto-nscado and ponto-cantado are a development of iyimbila ye sona, the practice of
simultaneously drawing and singing a polarizing visual and sonorous field of a spiri
tual force. According to Thompson:

Drawing a "point," invoking God and the ancestors, formed only a part of this most
important Kongo ritual of mediation (between both halves of the cosmogram). The
ritual also included "singing the point." In fact, the Bakongo summarize the full context
of mediation with the phrase "singing and drawing (a point)," yimbila ye sona. They
believe that the combined force of singing Ki-kongo words and tracing in the appropri
ate media the ritually designed "point" or "mark" of contact between the worlds will
result in the descent of God's power upon that very point. (Flash of the Spirit 110)

The zanga Nzambi ("tracing God") presents itself in the traditional display of the
dikenga cross (Four Moments 151), which represents the processes of transforma
tion of life and the cosmos, and symbolizes a cosmogramic altar (Fu-Kiau). The
pontos-Triscados are also cosmogramic altars. They define the properties of a sacred
microcosm and are in turn defined via their extension and reverberation, accord
ing to their related coordinates and corresponding to the cosmological signifying
repertoire of Umbanda. But it is as bidimbu, as coded sacred messages that they
assume their most compliantly permeable poetic expression. This is accomplished
not as fixed symbols of direct denotative meaning, but as communicative codes,
abridged scripts, in constant creation and interpretation, challenging its producers
and receivers to decode, narrate and perform these highly métonymie poetic texts
according to human and divine semiotic interactions.

Conclusion

It has not been my purpose in this article to perform individual analysis of pon
tos-riscados, but rather to suggest an analytical approach through which given
instances of this genre can be read as visual poems. Altar-poems and pontos-riscados
are poetic traditions which, despite their specific and diverse cultural and function
al characteristics, suggest points of contact in their visual poetics. Cosmograms and

calligrams are etymologically both forms of inscription, one representing the cosmos,
the other beauty or harmonic proportions. While calligrams are figurative represen
tations or extensionsof poetic content by way of their constituitive typographical

layout, the cosmogram gravitates towards an abstract codification of an essence that

is metonymically inscribed as its layout. While altar-poems are allusions to the

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Isis Costa McElroy

sacred, pontos-riscados define sacred spaces and processes and are characterized by
their higher symbolic condensation and ideographic aesthetics.

14. Yowa

15. Kongo pontos _5>

"Ν 16. Dikenga

ζ'

Φ
\ S

To read the pontos-viseados as a genre of visual poetry may appear a form of cul

tural conversion.
Such would be the case if we had admiringly isolated a ponto-risca
do, and framed it as an aesthetically pleasing, even picturesque, work of art in a
gallery, as so frequently occurs with the vèuès. The pontos-viseados are rarely ever

noted or recorded in their sacred public expressions (sacred offerings on streets, signs
of identification on the façade of Umbanda temples), or in their secular manifesta
tions (graffitis,tattoos, logos). The public display of these codified texts, especially in
an increasingly evangelized country which deems such expressions as demoniac,
affirms as tangible interventions the expression of codified messages, values and

iconographie poetry. Here, I propose neither the conversion of a multi-referential

popular into a decontextualized
aesthetic academic subject, nor a systematic
decoding of the "message" or symbology of the ponto-riscado. Rather, I have sought
to identify and study the sacred and secular development of this diasporic poetic tra
dition amid its contemporary register of its contexts, usages and readings, drawing on
the understanding proposed by Thompson and others, of how these sacred cosmo

grams are palimpsests leading us further along paths which we have yet to explore.

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 Afro-Brazilian Altar-Poems

This article has already gone through many dingo-dingo cycles. Its formation
process has counted with many members of my extended family. And credit is due.
The southern sun of this text is Kamau Brathwaite (Mocamau Mor). The eastern sun
is Danny Dawson em Nova Iorque, que me perguntou já faz tempo: "e os
(Malungo
pontos riscados?"). The
northern suns are many: The participants of the "Afro
Descendências" symposium of the 2006 ABRALIC (especially Eduardo de Assis
Duarte, Maria Nazareth Fonseca, Florentina da Silva Souza, and Moema Parente
Augel), and later Edimilson de Almeida Pereira and José Manuel Valenzuela Arce—
who supported and stimulated me to prepare myself for the still further develop
ments of this project—as well as Elizabeth Rosa Floran (Swami from Nueva
InglaTierra), Teresa Costa, and Eugene McElroy who helped me with this always

foreign language. Finally, the western suns of this article are: Myrna Bain
(1939-2007), daughter of Aganju who by now must be dancing in the aquatic ku
mpèmba, and Eduardo Muslip (Marimbeiro Malungo) who was born today some years
ago and who has just completed his phoenix cycle.

Notes

A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant reares,

Made of a heart, and cemented with teares:

Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;

No workmans tool hath touch'd the same.

A HEART alone

Is such a stone,

As nothing but

Thy pow'r doth cut.

Wherefore each part

Of my hard heart

Meets in this frame,

To praise thy Name;

That, if I chance to hold my peace,

These stones to praise thee may not cease.

O let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,

And sanctifie this ALTAR to be thine. (15)

Valdina Oliveira Pinto (Makota of the Candomblé Angola Tanuri Juncara) explains:

Pemba is a substance well-known among members of Afrobrasil's religious communities—mem

bers of the Yoruba cult use it in place of efun. The term pemba, like many others associated with

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Isis Costa McElroy

Candomblé, is thought to be of Yoruba origin; however the word is derived from the Bantu
(Kikongo)mpeemba, meaning both "chalk," and in its religious significance, "sacred powder."
During various, primarily secret, rituals, pemba's purifying properties are used to repel negative
influences from physical surroundings and persons.... The "Angolan" community in Bahia does
not use pemba as it is acquired in the market. A ritual of preparation and consecration—which
happens only once a year—is conducted between the 23rd and the first moments of the 24th of
June.... The older members of the "Angolan" Candomblé consider pemba to be the soul of
Angola. (3)

Original text:

E inegável o valor mágico atribuido ao ponto-riscado. O leigo em geral, encara o ponto-riscado

como urna espécie de marca, ou selo, ou brasäo que identifica esta ou aquela entidade; o adep
to umbandista, na sua vivência dentro do Terreiro, já näo faz um conceito täo simplista a respeito
do ponto-riscado e, ainda que näo procure aprofundar-se no verdadeiro significado, normal
mente ele reconhece no ponto dois valores: é o sinal identificador e é, também, um instrumen
to de trabalho para as operaçôes de magia levadas a efeito pela entidade; alguns praticantes mais
interessados vâo além, ajuntando a esses conceitos outros mais, tais como o de ser o ponto um
campo polarizador de forças astrais, que säo manejadas pela entidade por meio da magia da
pemba, ou de ser tudo isso e mais ainda, pois vêem nos riscos toda urna estória, narrando as ori
gens e as vinculaçôes da entidade com as faixas vibratorias afins. (Bandeira 209)

4
Excerpt of a text supposedly dictated by a spirit (named "Yamatan") entitled A Umbanda através da

magia (Umbanda through magic). I have not encountered any further information on the original text,

author/medium, or spirit. Complete quote: "The pemba is thus to the Spiritual Guide what you may

call a pencil or a pen. It externalizes the guide's thoughts, for whom the marks of the pemba are his

writing, with which he composes his letter of introduction endowed with all the powers that he brings

forth." Original text: "É, portanto, a pemba, para o Guia Espiritual, como aquilo que chamais làpis,
ou cañeta, para vos outros. Eia exterioriza o pensamento do Guia, que tem nos riscos da pemba a sua

escrita, para com eia oferecer aos homens a sua carta de apresentaçâo, revestida de todos os poderes

que ele traz consigo" (Bandeira 214).

Remembering that the Spanish word firma means signature or seal. Original text: "No sólo la fuerzas

sobrenaturales poseen una gama de firmas. Cada sacerdote, no importa la jerarquía o el prestigio que

tenga cada miembro de una casa de palo, porta su firma como medio de identificación." (Barnet 127)

Kalunga stands for Nzambi's home, ancestral realm, God, ocean, afterlife. According to Fu-Kiau,

"literally, it is the one-who-is-complete-by-self in the all-in-all," and can also be used as "a synonym

and epithet of Nzâmbi, God." Kalunga is "the invisible line or wall, between the physical and spiritu

al world," and "the balancing plan-line of all energies" (Self-Healing 114). The word Nzambi is a com

pound made up of -nza, (world), and -mbi (extremely wonderful). Jacques Theuws states that for the

Luba there are two worlds below. One is kalunga nyembo, the home of the ancestors, of the good dead,

"the tutelary spirits of the homestead." The other world is kalunga ka musono or kalunga kalala masi

ka, a realm "split by coldness," home or jail of bad spirits which are to "disappear from man's memo

ry," and should never return (31). According to Cyril Claridge:

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 Afro'Brazilian Altar-Poems

Nzambi is Creator. There is a peculiar wasp they call God's transforming or creating wasp; mfin
gi a Nzambi ankitula. It is so called because it is thought that instead of producing young in the
ordinary way, it "creates" them.... It builds for itself a house of mud, layer upon layer, a cluster of
cylindrical cells.... These cells are cemented together.... An egg is deposited in each cell, and, to
feed the young when hatched, the mother wasp carries grubs, flies, small spiders, etc., which she
pushes inside with the egg. When the cell is properly furnished with food she seals it apparently
hermetically. It is a remarkable piece of work.... This is creation on a small scale. (270)

The word in French is "point" pronounced by Haitians as pu/en.

According to the Portuguese-English Michaelis dictionary: (A) riscado (s.m.) striped linen or cot

ton fabric/ (adj.) striped, streaked (B) riscar (v.) 1. to scratch out, to rub out. 2. to expunge, to delete.

3. to blot out. 4. to cross or strike out. 5. to line, trace, mark with lines. 6. to expel, cut off from mem

bership. 7. to erase. 8. to eliminate from. 9. to scribe, scratch. 10. to stripe, streak, striate. 11. to can

cel, obliterate. 12. to lose someone's friendship, be excluded from. 13. to engage in conflict with,

quarrel with. 14· to provoke. 15. to delineate, outline. 16. to draw up, plan. 17. to try a knife before

cutting or stabbing.
9
Noting that rayar also has the meaning of "tachar lo manuscrito o impreso, con una o varias rayas"

(Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española) ; in this case the "manuscript" would

refer to body of the initiate.

Example from Aurelio dictionary: "Se tem coragem risque; o verdadeiro forte nâo risca, age." ("If

you got courage, challenge. The real hero doesn't challenge, he acts.")

Example from Aurelio dictionary: "Chegando à casa de Maria, / riscava o cavalo, saltava no chäo"

("Arriving at Maria's / he would halt the horse, and leap to the ground") Ascenso Ferreira, Catimbó

e outros poemas (1963).

The prefix ba- denotes the plural form. Nganga and Ndoki (this would be a variant) refer to priests.

Simon Bockie distinguishes the Nganga from the Ndoki according to the types of energy they dwell

on. Nganga works with nkisi (benevolent spirit) while Ndoki works with destructive spirits (also called

ndoki) (43-71). There is a possibility that nsibi might refer to those who have the power to return;

Nei Lopes defines the Kikongo verb simbila as to come back, return, or get up (204).

Photo Captions

ι. 2. .nd 3 ^¡¡ scans from original texts, available at UbuWeb. (Greene)

<http://www.ubu.com/_historical/_early/_index.html>. All right for materials presented on UbuWeb

belong to the artists. All materials are for non-commercial and/or educational use only.
4
Ponto-riscado for Exu dos Rios (Eshu of the Rivers) (Molina 295).

Firma for Nsasi or Siete Rayos (Seven Rays) (Thompson, Dancing 4).

Firma for Prueba Fuerza (Test Strength) (Barnet 92).

Vèvè for talisman to clear up confusion (Gandolfo 38).

Vèvès. In the center Legba; from the center towards the right: Agoue and Erzili; following counter

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Isis Costa McElroy

clockwise: Zaka, Ogou, and Damballah (Simbi) (Desmangles 106).

9
Nova Online. Public Broadcasting Service Online. 6 jun. 2006. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/

_teachers/_activities/_images/3006_tibet_mandala.gif>.

Vodouisant tracing vèvè for Simbi, Kongo spirit of the water. Carrefour, Haiti, 1968 (Thompson and

Cornet 155).

Medium ridden by a Caboch (Indian ancestors, who are "guiding" or "tutelary" spirit, emissaries of

the Orishas in Umbanda) draws a ponto, "with the intent of attracting cosmic vibrations and manipu

late them according to his wishes" (Freitas 95).

Ponto-riscado for Ogum Megê—Guarulhos, Sâo Paulo, Brazil, 1974 (Negrâo 243).

"Gran plante de muerto"

(Cabrera 443).
14 _
Yowa: The Four Moments of the Sun: the cyclical Kongo cosmogram. As explained by Fu-Kiau: on

the south—the initial point where a motion of time starts—the yellow sun of Musoni (midnight, the

world of the dead, deepest mysteries, state of perfection, purity); on the east the black sun of Kala (the

rising of a living sun from the depths of the spiritual world of the ancestors, vitality, fertilized land, ger

minal state, birth stage, cooler season which feeds the vegetable realm); on the north the red sun of

Tukula (the zenith of the sun, highest possible level of any growing life, creation, activity, passion, fire,

maturity, season in which trees loose their leaves in preparation for a new cycle) ; and on the west the

gray/white sun of Luvèmba (sunset, death stage, transformation, the setting of a living sun in the lower

world of the ancestors, point of completion of the circle of cosmic time, season in which "the vegetable

realm rediscovers its green blanket, when nature's green cover or bush dries up, that is, dies to yield a

new cover." ("Ntangu-Tadu-Kolo" 17-34; Flash of the Spirit 109).

Kongo Pontos (Ligiéro 136).

Dikenga: According to Fu-Kiau, everything follows the Dikenga, the cyclical Kongo cosmogram, in

its circular/cyclical movement, the Dingo-Dingo. People, animals, nations, social systems, inventions etc.

are at stage 1) conceived; at stage 2) born; at stage 3) they mature, and at stage 4) they die. As they

die, they cross the Kalunga line (the invisible line between the physical and spiritual world from which

all things emerge and to which all things submerge) undergoing a transformation, a period of regener

ation: "When events (dunga) take place 'things' move and the time line path clears itself. A new cycle

of time goes in motion and another collision stops it for a new beginning, a new motion of time to start"

("Ntangu-Tadu-Kolo" 30; F lash of the Spirit 109).

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