We were very lucky in Montevideo as we arrived on the 2nd February, the day when followers of the Templo de la hermandad celebrate the Goddess Iemanja. For me this was mainly fascinating from an Ethnographic perspective as I always say my favourite thing about Latin America is the amazing mixture of different cultures, languages and religions that influence these parts.
Templo de la hermandad is a religious movement (I won’t put it in speech marks not to offend but you get the message) that originated in Nigeria and made its way to Brazil during the times of slave trade. From Brazil it spread across South America and from what we saw on the beach in Montevideo it has a significant amount of followers in Uruguay as well. The religion adapted itself to its surroundings and during the times of enforced Catholicism it merged the image of Iemanja with the Virgin Mary in order to be able to continue worshipping. As a large proportion of the population in the South East lives on the coast and relies on the ocean to make a living, they also adopted a strong focus on fisherman, sailors and other images related to the sea.
During the festival on the 2nd February everyone brings something they offer to the Goddess. This could be anything from flowers, a watermelon or even a whole feast (this was difficult for two travelling gypsies to swallow as both Monika and I would have happily helped Iemanja consume it). After hanging around on the beach for a bit the offerings are put into handmade little boats and pushed into the ocean. It was a bit unusual to see all these fully clothed people walking into the ocean in a trance almost.
There was also Afro influenced music being played on the beach, people relaxing and there were mile long queues of people waiting to see one of the healers and get the negative energy removed from their bodies. It was fascinating for us to see and I really felt like I was in Brasil already, but it’s just another example of how varied, surprising and incredible this continent is!
