Cited by Jorge Amado, sung by Caymmi, portrayed by Carybé, Terreiro do Gantois, or Ilê Axé Iyá Omin Iyamassê, is the most famous and one of the most important terreiros (yards) in the country. Along with Terreiro da Casa Branca and Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá, whose origins are common, it forms a trio of Afro-Brazilian cult diffusers in Brazil.
Founded in the first half of the nineteenth century, probably as a result of a process of dissent from Ilê Axé Iyá Nassô Oká (Terreiro da Casa Branca) – it is known that Gantois’ first Ialorixá was initiated in Casa Branca – its African name, Ilê Axé Iyá Omin Iyamassê, alludes to a female deity: the lady of the waters. But its Portuguese name refers to the former owner of the land where the yard is: a European called Gantois.
The yard is located at Mãe Menininha do Gantois St, (formerly 23 Alto do Gantois), in the Federação neighbourhood of Salvador, Bahia, and occupies an area of about 3600m2, between the ridge of the hill and the valley. Its spaces are divided into public access, semi-public and restricted areas.
At the top, the main temple, or shed, consists of a public festival hall, an enclosure, the sacred kitchen, dining hall, dressing room and residential rooms. An annex to the temple is the Mãe Menininha do Gantois Memorial. Also in this area are the shrines (ilê orixá) of Omolu, Ogun and Exu, a sacred fig tree associated with Iroko and a sacred jackfruit tree dedicated to Ogun.
On the slope is dense vegetation, or Oxossi “forest” (abô), representing nature, the origin of all things. In the “forest” are the plants used in rituals, so that the vegetation is essential for the operations of the yard. On the lower part of the land is a shrine to Oxum, a fountain and the residences of members of the religious community. As the terreiro formerly occupied a much larger area that was being lost by urban growth, there are sacred trees that are worshiped by the Gantois community in Largo da Pulqueria, which is a public square. All the terreiro’s space is marked by symbolic references and the realization of “cyclical liturgies around the terreiro’s monuments indicates its total area as a temple” (SERRA, p.10).
From the Ketu religious tradition, Ilê Axé Iyá Omin Iyamassê is controlled by an Ialorixá (priestess), the highest position occupied only by initiated women who have family ties with the founders. It is therefore a hereditary position, whose successor is chosen after the death of the mãe (mother) through a rite of consultation with the deities called jogo de búzios (shell casting). Among the Ialorixás from Gantois, standing out is Mãe Menininha do Gantois, who presided over the house for sixty years and gained recognition and prominence as a religious leader in the country.
According to Serra (p.6-8), the chronological order of those who occupied the position of priestess in the terreiro is as follows:
• Maria Júlia da Conceição Nazaré;
• Pulqueria Maria da Conceição Nazaré, or Iyá Pulqueria;
• Maria da Glória Nazareth;
• Maria Escolástica da Conceição Nazaré (Glória’s daughter), known as Mãe Menininha do Gantois;
• Cleusa Millet (Mãe Menininha’s daughter);
• Carmen Oliveira.
Although the presence of black people and low-income workers is predominant, Terreiro do Gantois has children from different backgrounds and social classes. To join the religious community, individuals are initiated through specific rites, and thus contract a parental relationship with the Nagô ancestors, the founders. For those initiated there, the terreiro is regarded as “a place of origin: the site where they are reborn” (SERRA, p.9).
Candomblé, the result of exchanges and adaptation between different religions from different African nations brought to Brazil for slave labour, is therefore an Afro-Brazilian cult, born of the historical and social conformations of our country. The terreiros, like Gantois, are sacred spaces,
urban and landscape landmarks and important historical evidence of the cultural resistance of the African people and their struggle, in the adverse conditions of slavery, to construct the religious space and cultural transmission that was denied to them.
Candomblé terreiros are also privileged places for the passing down of traditional religious and medicinal knowledge, cultural production, preservation of ancestral memories and, as already mentioned, preservation of African languages that are no longer in everyday use (SANT'ANNA, 2012, p.28).
To escape police repression and prejudice, but also to have privacy in certain rituals, the religious community set itself up in place that was once isolated and away from urban density. Over the years, Terreiro do Gantois gradually decreased in size, as the region became more populated and also because of the creation of public roads.
With intense real-estate pressure threatening their stay, in 1982 Mãe Menininha drew up a contract with the owner of the land, acquiring the right to use it. Studies by the Black Religious Sites and Monuments in Bahia Mapping Project, carried out by the then National Pro-memory Foundation, Salvador City Council and Bahia State Cultural Foundation, led the City to declare the terreiro by law, in 1985, as Cultural and Landscape Preservation Area, which is official recognition of its importance and a way to ensure its permanence. In 2000, protection at the federal level was requested for the area designated by the Municipal Act to ensure its integrity, which was threatened by territorial invasions incompatible with the practice, as shown on the application signed by Mônica Millet, granddaughter of Mãe Menininha do Gantois:
We remember that all this knowledge is transmitted only through oral communication. Our only book is the ground we walk on and the signs inscribed in it are the things and the people who move on it. The survival of this sophisticated symbolic system therefore depends on a concrete sanctuary, this sacred place which concentrates and reproduces the collective cultural practice that is Candomblé of Bahia (IPHAN, 2000, p.2).
In 2002, the registration of the Terreiro was approved for recording in the Books of Historical and Archaeological, Ethnographic and Landscape Heritage of the National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) in recognition of its importance for the country and a as means of safeguarding its physical, and consequently symbolic, space.
Recife, 22 April 2014.
Translated by Peter Leamy, April 2015.
sources consulted
IPHAN. Processo de tombamento n. 1.471-T-00. Terreiro de Candomblé Ilê Axé Iyá Omin Iyamassê. 2000.
_____. Parecer Técnico n. 383/02 – 7ª SR/IPHAN, de 2 de setembro de 2002. Terreiro do Gantois, Ilê Axé Iá Omin Iamassê, em Salvador/BA. In: IPHAN. Processo n. 1.471-T-00 – Terreiro de Candomblé Ilê Axé Iyá Omin Iyamassê. Salvador, 2002. f. 085-099.
SANT’ANNA, Márcia. O tombamento de terreiros de candomblé no âmbito do IPHAN: critérios de seleção e de intervenção. In: IPHAN. Políticas de Acautelamento do IPHAN para Templos de Culto Afro-Brasileiros. Salvador, 2012. p. 25-33.
SERRA, Ordep. Laudo antropológico: exposição de motivos para a instrução de pedido de tombamento do Terreiro do Gantois/Ilê Axé Iá Omin Iamassê como Patrimônio Histórico e Etnográfico do Brasil. Available at: <http://ordepserra.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/laudo-gantois.pdf>. Accessed: 10 mar. 2014.
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Source: MORIM, Júlia. Gantois Yard/Ilê Axé Iyá Omin Iyamassê. Pesquisa Escolar Online, Joaquim Nabuco Foundation, Recife. Available at: <https://pesquisaescolar.fundaj.gov.br/en/>. Accessed: day month year. Ex: 6 ago. 2009.