Baianos in umbanda: learn about history, actions, common names and more!

Umbanda is an Afro-Brazilian religion that brings in its beautiful entities that help in healing, in divine evolution and with the terrestrial purpose of the consultants. Entities are divided into lines and the Baianos line is one of the most requested within religion when it comes to justice and hearing truths that need to be heard.

Bahians are very patient and understanding entities with their consultants and mediums, because they bring with them a challenging history of life on Earth and understand the path that needs to be taken for spiritual evolution.

For these reasons, the Bahians have a legion of followers in the Umbanda centers of Brazil. Learn more about the history, lines of Baianos and more!

The Baianos line is one of the most beloved lines within the Umbanda religion, being synonymous with strength, love, joy and hard work. Baiano’s line arrives dancing, and it’s hard not to find this characteristic in his work, bringing a force into the terreiro where it causes the feeling that the whole environment is changing.

The vibration and strength of the Baianos line brings a new energy into the terreiro, with a lot of affection when serving and listening to people. Affection that can be understood by its history of struggle, suffering and resilience, of the spirits that incarnate in this line.

The line of Baianos in Umbanda is well known by various entities such as Seu Zé Baiano, Zé do Coco, Baiano Mandingueiro and others. The first researches dating back to the 1940s, 1944 and 1945 state that the first Baianos and Baianas emerged in Umbanda in the 40s. This is due to the migration of people from the Northeast to the Southeast.

However, there are some sung spots that date back to the late 1920s, such as the spot by Vó Joana da Bahia. If you observe more closely, some Pretos Velhos already brought the history of Bahia into the terreiros, thus preparing the ground for this form of presentation of the happy and blessed people that are the Baianos and Baianas.

At a sung point inside Tenda de São Jorge (one of the 7 terreiros founded by Caboclo das 7 Encruzilhadas, who in 1908 announced Umbanda on the terrestrial plane), they sang: “If he is from Bahia, he is from a terreiro from Bahia”, this This point dates back to the beginning of the 1930s, that is, even before the Baiano line manifested itself in Umbanda, other lines were already preparing the material plan for its arrival.

Some branches of Umbanda believe that the Linha dos Baianos was created for the manifestation of ancestral fathers and mothers of saints, who, without a sufficient evolutionary degree to become a Caboclo or a Preto Velho, did not have space to manifest themselves within the terreiro to continue your journey on the spiritual plane.

Thus, in view of the need to accommodate these spirits and in honor of the great migration that the people of the Northeast made to the Southeast, being extremely poorly treated, the line of Baianos in Umbanda was born.

The line of Baianos in Umbanda is a line that does not tolerate injustice. If a Baiano assists a consultant who is suffering injustice, he takes the pain upon himself and insists on not leaving that person’s side until the problem is resolved.

Despite having a paternalistic instinct of great affection and joy, this entity does not usually have “mouths” and will speak the truths that the consultant needs to hear. If he sees that the problem in the consultant’s life is being caused by himself, he will not hesitate to give a shake so that he takes responsibility and directs his path.

You shouldn’t lie to any spiritual entity, but Bahians have no tolerance for lies. When seeing that a consultant or a medium is lying, he always asks “Are you sure my son?”, and when confirming the lie, he pulls the ear necessary for the person to wake up.

Baiano doesn’t like lazy people either. If he sees that he deserves it, he will try to awaken all the feelings of desire, making the consultant roll up his sleeves and go to battle, but if he sees that the person is lazy, he will let him follow his path as he wishes.

Despite the provocation and jokes that are said about Bahians who don’t like to work, these entities work a lot. They are spirits that enjoy battle, as if they were honey and bees. These spirits spare no efforts to help their mediums and consultants by breaking negative demands and energies.

The profile of this entity is cheerful, hardworking, which does not refuse to enter into a battle to defend those who deserve it and almost always comes out victorious. This is the characteristic of works by the line of Baianos in Umbanda.

Being one of the lines that brings regionality more present within its manifestations, it will be difficult not to see a Baiano in umbanda who speaks with a marked accent, who does not use regional elements such as coconut or who does not appeal to saints like Nosso Senhor do Bonfim or even even the figure of Padim Ciço. All these elements are in homage and representation of the Northeastern people.

Umbanda has the characteristic of bringing the culture of regional peoples who have long been oppressed and marginalized, and this homage and empowerment is easy to see inside the terreiro, with the spirit of the Indians, black slaves, subjugated women, gypsy culture and several others who had the margin of society.

Umbanda is a plural religion, free from a vertical command structure, which is why each region or even each terreiro has a particularity in its cults. When Baiano’s line began to be based on the earthly plane, some interpretations and ways of worshiping it emerged and were divided into two main ones, based on the form of worship in each region, in this case the axis Rio – São Paulo.

In essence, the entities’ way of working does not change, the only difference is in the understanding of the line of work. An understanding that, over the years, was based on the spiritual plane, thus removing doubts and making the understanding of this line more homogeneous today. Discover some of these lines below.

The line of thought presents the Baianos as a tribute to the immigrants coming from the northeast to the Rio – São Paulo axis, in the 60s. At that time, all immigrants from that region were called baianos, sometimes even in a pejorative way .

In the midst of the growth of the metropolis, these immigrants represented the workforce, in civil construction, cleaning, earning little and working a lot. In the 70s, when Brazil entered an economic crisis, these immigrants began to suffer a lot of prejudice, being attributed to them the lack of job openings and the overcrowding of cities, in addition to being related to things in bad taste.

Those who had this understanding of homage to the immigrant people, already established the Linha de Baianos as a new line within Umbanda works, with its own and independent structure and foundations.

There are two main lines of thought about the formation of the lineage of the Baianos, that of Rio de Janeiro and that of São Paulo.

The first line, very widespread in Rio de Janeiro’s terreiros, says that the Baianos line is composed of black spirits, great sorcerers, fathers and mothers of saints from the antiquity of candomblé, great people who had contact with African rites and who developed a knowledge of mandingas and demands.

Today all these people, who understand the need to give charity and help other people, focus on the Baianos line.

Nowadays, the Baianos line is already well founded and rooted within the religion and its cult and foundation is almost universal throughout the country, just different from the currents of thought at the beginning, thanks to time and spirituality the understanding of the mystery of this line it was unveiled.

The structured line in umbanda is unique and it is not possible to see it in another religion, but that does not mean that we cannot see these entities manifesting themselves in other cults or even coming from other cults to umbanda.

For example, an entity that for a long time manifested itself within the lineage of the Baianos and today has its own line of work, Seu Zé Pilintra. Origin of the cult of masters of Jurema called catimbó.

The catimbó is a cult of northeastern origin, the result of the encounter between the European with the Brazilian Indian and the African. Considered a national shamanic cult, catimbó uses the incorporation of spirits that they call master.

Some of these spirits, little by little, were performing in umbanda and the main one is Seu Zé Pilintra, who incorporated in the tours of Baiano and today has his own line called Linha dos Malandros.

By becoming umbanda guides, the spirits join a hierarchy called the phalanx. The phalanges are governed by one or more orixás and can work within the strength of the other orixás. When we talk about the names of entities, we are not referring to an individual, a specific entity, but to the phalanx to which that entity belongs.

Therefore, it is normal to have two or more entities in the same terreiro with the same name. This does not mean that an entity embodies 3 persons at the same time. It means that those 3 mediums embody different spirits, but that they are part of the same phalanx.

These spirits join a phalanx, by affinity and energy compatible with the work method, below we will see some names of Baianos and within which mystery they work.

The spirits that manifest themselves in this line are governed by the orixá Xangô and act within the line of Oxalá. This entity manifests itself in different ways, but its action is in justice linked to faith, that is, if something or someone has attacked your faith, causing injustice to you, this phalanx of Baianos can help.

They usually receive their offerings in quarries and open fields, and their candles can vary beyond the yellow color that is from the Baianos lineage, and can be brown or white, linked to Xangô and Oxalá.

Zé Baiano has in his work performance the dismantling of negative works, opening the paths and protection of consultants and their mediums. It is an entity governed by the orisha Ogum, which is why its performance is carried out a lot on the battlefields.

The offerings made to them can be carried out on the “paths”, on a road, on a train line. Ideally, it should be a long path that connects point A to point B. The candle offered to that entity can also be dark blue.

The mediums of this entity tend to be loyal and…