Afro-Religious Archive / UFRNMembers of the Centro Espírita de Umbanda Caboclo Aracati spiritual center, founded in 1967Afro-Religious Archive / UFRN
Researchers from the federal and state universities of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN and UERN), working together with religious leaders, created a website to preserve historical records of Umbanda places of worship in the state. Work on the collection began in 2024 with documents about two babalorixás (Umbanda priests): José Clementino (1930–2021), founder of the Cabana Umbandista Pai Joaquim de Angola worship space, and José Barroso dos Santos (1920?–1992), better known as Lieutenant Barroso, of the Centro Humilde de Caridade São Lázaro charity center. The Afro-religious Archive website hosts biographies, photographs, videos, audio files, and songs. “Afro-religious archives, perhaps due to their private documentary nature, are little known to the world outside these communities,” said UFRN anthropologist Luiz Assunção, coordinator of the project, in an academic article published on the website. In the past, Umbanda places of worship in Rio Grande do Norte were invaded and their leaders and followers persecuted, including by a death squad known as Mão Branca (White Hand). At the same time, Museu da República in Rio de Janeiro recovered 523 religious items from the former Department of Political and Social Order that were seized by the police between 1889 and 1945 (UFRN, January).
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