Pai Caetano Angola, Afro-Brazilian Magico-Religious Practices, and Cultural Resistance in Minas Gerais in the Late Eighteenth Century

Abstract

West Central Africans held a prominent place in the slave society of Minas Gerais, making significant contributions to the cultural development of mineiro society during the second half of the eighteenth century. This article traces the lengthy career of the Central African healer-diviner, Caetano Angola, known to his clients initially as Francisco, and ultimately as Pai Caetano. The magico-religious activities of this religious specialist were denounced to the authorities three times, first to the Inquisition in 1758 and 1759, and then to a civil judge in 1791. The documentation reveals details of Caetano’s ritual practice, his arsenal of remedies, and his personal networks, including his clientele. It also reveals that he was literate. Pai Caetano’s ritual practice was influenced by Catholicism and thus was highly syncretistic. It is likely that this confluence of ancestral ritual and Catholic beliefs had already begun to develop on African soil before Caetano’s arrival in Brazil. Comparing his career to the practices of other African healers and diviners in colonial Brazil sheds new light on the formation of early Afro-Brazilian religious culture in the southern Atlantic-African diaspora.