For a century, more than 519 sacred objects from the Umbanda and Candomblé — both spiritual African religions — were in the possession of Brazil police. 

This possession and the fight to return these relics to their rightful owners is the subject of the new documentary “Respect Our Sacred,” produced by Quiprocó Filmes. The documentary marks a landmark of emotion, faith and anti-racist struggle on Sept. 21, 2020, in devotion to the ancestors of the Candomblé and Umbanda.  

“They were all arrested by the police as if they had committed some crime,” said Maria do Nascimento, a religious leader. “Is it a crime for us to be Candomblé? Is it a crime for us to worship an orixá?" 

Nascimento, 80, is known as Mother Meninazinha de Oxum. She is a representative of the Free Our Sacred campaign. 

Both the Candomblé and Umbanda religions have their roots in Africa. In Candomblé, there is the belief in and worship of the orixás, gods that are usually revered through dances, songs and offerings, which represent the energy and power of nature. 

Umbanda also has its orixás. Worship services are guided by a saint mother or father. Believers emphasize the immortality of the soul, reincarnation and the existence of and interaction with spiritual entities. 

This criminalization imposed on Umbanda and Candomblé religions had its peak between 1889 and 1945. The New State political government in Brazil prioritized “improvement of the Brazilian race” with the construction of a national identity that was based in ethnic cleansing.

In the New State, these religions were persecuted and criminalized on the grounds that they were “highly dangerous against public order.” This was in part because of events in the 19th century, like the Malê Revolt, which demanded the end of slavery and complete religious freedom. 

It was only in 1946 that freedom of religious worship was decreed in Brazil. However, the roots of this history still impact the present and the future of those who believe in and worship these religions. 

The Free Our Sacred campaign had a long journey with the Brazilian judiciary to get access to the items in order to preserve them and study them so that the religious history would not be forgotten.

As soon as activists were granted access and documents were signed, the relics traveled from police headquarters for the Republic Museum.

In the documentary, campaign member Babá Adailton Moreira de Ogum said, “It was an ancestry. It was my mother who was signing it. We were there physically, but I believe she was there as an ancestor, holding my hand and seeing the result so good for all of us. ... It is the commitment I have with all these matriarchs, that they are not only of African descent — they are of African ‘descent.’”

Filmmakers say the documentary is fulfilling because it features such a celebratory event. 

"The transfer of the Nosso Sagrado Collection is a fundamental achievement for the terreiro communities and of enormous public interest,” Fernando Sousa, executive director of Quiprocó Filmes, said. “It is a process forged as an act of historical reparation, insofar as the transfer enables shared management with the terreiro communities, proper treatment and the carrying out of studies and research in the different fields of knowledge of the social sciences and humanities."

This process that Sousa referred to was also followed earlier in the film “The Sacred Within Us,” which shows the first attempts to recover the collection. A new film is in production now that will continue the record about the collection. 

“In particular, it allows us to realize an old desire, which consists of a film production that contributes to the memory and history of the Afro religions of Rio de Janeiro from the rich set of 519 sacred objects of Candomblé and Umbanda, considering the historical and museological research already underway at the Museum of the Republic,” Sousa said.

Camila da Silva is an intern for Religion Unplugged from Brazil. She is the 2022 Arne Fieldstead scholar at the John McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute at The King’s College in New York. You can find her on Instagram @silva.jornalismo.