The names of preto-velho usually combine three parts: a family title (Pai, Vovó, Tio), a Catholic saint name, and a place or origin (de Angola, de Aruanda). Two historians arrive at this rule through different paths, Lourival Andrade Júnior and Lívia Lima Rezende.
The chart that gives an orixá to each place circulates without a source, and in a studied house, the division by origin has no practical effect. Who the pretos-velhos are and what they do in the gira is in pretos-velhos in umbanda.
What the name of a preto-velho usually combines
The name of a preto-velho usually combines three parts. The first is the family title: Pai, Mãe, Vovô, Vovó, Tio, or Tia. The second is a Catholic saint name. The third is a designation of place, farm, region, or element that identifies the spirit.
Lourival Andrade Júnior describes the rule in a work from the 2013 National History Symposium:
“Normally they are names of Catholic saints, added to designations of place, farm, region, or the elements that identify them, such as Pai Joaquim de Angola, Pai João de Aruanda, Vovó Maria Conga, Pai André do Cruzeiro, Vovó Maria Bahiana, Tia Maria Calunga, Vovô Zé da Pemba, among many others.”
None of the researches cited here tell the life of any of these seven names. The verses that the researches cite, and the greeting, are in ponto de preto velho.
Pai, Vovó, and Tio: the family title
Pai, Mãe, Vovô, Vovó, Tio, and Tia are the way the pretos-velhos are known. According to Andrade Júnior, the title gives them a privileged place in the family of santo. This is how the umbandistas call the members of the house. The names themselves demonstrate experience and demand respect.
A field study in Goiânia confirms the use. The one by Lucas Brito speaks of "Pais Velhos, Vovôs and Vovós" and includes the "Titias".
Andrade explains the treatments through the senzala. Vovô and vovó were the most experienced, the wise ones, who knew the herbs. Tio and tia were those who raised the children separated from their parents, orphans of living parents.
This explanation is from only one author. Other research confirms the use in homes, and not the origin in the senzala.
Name of saint, place and origin: where the pattern comes from
The pattern has a parallel in the records of slavery. According to Lívia Lima Rezende, baptism with a Christian name could also occur in Brazil. The enslaved person would then be identified by the Christian name, by the origin (or "nation") and by the master. She cites Silvia Hunold Lara (1988) for this.
This custom appears, for Rezende, "in a quite clear manner" in the way the pretos velhos present themselves. The caveat is that the master's name disappears. What remains is the Christian name, the origin and the kinship: Pai José do Congo, Vovó Maria Conga, Pai Francisco de Aruanda. For her, this absence "can, in a way, represent the liberation" of the former enslaved. It is her interpretation, and not a recorded fact.
The baptism records of Recife show the same custom. In 1790, in the parish of Saint Anthony, Christian names evoked saints and figures of Christianity, such as Maria and José. In 1791, a woman was "designated by Angola when she was baptized".
This study is of social history and does not deal with Umbanda.
In the names of preto velho, "de Angola" and "do Congo" indicate origin. The nation of Candomblé is another matter, with its own rules.
Do "de Angola" and "de Aruanda" link the preto velho to an orixá?
None of the studies cited here state that the "de Angola" or the "de Aruanda" of a preto velho links him to an orixá. In a house in Ribeirão Preto, the Congo, Africana, Cabinda, and Guiné chains appear only in some prayers and as an adjective in the name. The division seems to "not have any empirically discernible effect".
Andrade says that the pretos velhos descend mainly under the vibration of Oxalá (Obatala) and Omulu. They can manifest under all orixás, except Exu (Eshu) and Ibeji. He does not link any name to an orixá. If the preto velho is also Exu, the answer is in preto velho is Exu.
A chart circulating on websites, including Wikipedia, assigns an orixá to each place. Congo would be from the line of Iansã (Oya), Aruanda from that of Oxalá, and d'Angola from that of Ogum (Ogun). The chart provides no source.
The only open record linking Congo to Iansã is a sung chant (ponto cantado) from a house. The annex of the Dias research brings "Hail the Congo, Iansã". It is the chant of one house, and not the rule for all.
Aruanda, furthermore, is a sacred and mythical place. Rezende puts "Pai Francisco de Aruanda" among the examples of names with origins, but Aruanda is not an African nation.
A name does not fix a statue or a biography
The name of a preto velho does not bring a single image. In the Ribeirão Preto house studied by Rafael de Nuzzi Dias, Mãe Maria Conga is an old black woman with a red headscarf and a white dress, smoking a pipe on a stump. Pai Joaquim is "an adult black man with a bare chest" sitting on a stump.
In Goiânia, in the house that Lucas Brito studied, a name stands for the group: the ponto (sacred song) of Pai Antônio "represents all the Pais Velhos and the Vovós". The house of Pai Joaquim de Angola, also in Goiânia, is the heir of the House of Pai Joaquim de Aruanda. The same first name, with two different "de"s, gives name to two houses.
The name Pai João requires care. The "Pai João myth" describes a character from black folklore. He would represent the enslaved person who was submissive, docile, and resigned to their condition, according to Dias and Bairrão. Therefore, "Pai João" has a history of stereotype and does not serve as the typical name of a preto velho.
Pai Benedito: a name with a home and altar
The spiritual patron of the National Sanctuary of Umbanda is a preto velho, Pai Benedito de Aruanda, according to the house website. He is the chief guide of the spiritual ritual works of a babalaô.
According to Rezende, statues of Catholic saints are very common on the altars of pretos velhos, with emphasis on Our Lady of the Rosary and Saint Benedito. She writes that the presence of Saint Benedito and other black saints "may be associated with an identification by color and by stories of suffering and devotion."
No research cited here links the name Pai Benedito to the saint. What exists is the saint on the altar. The life of the saint is in Saint Benedict, the Black saint, and the devotion to the Rosary is in Our Lady of the Rosary and the congado.
Frequently asked questions
What does "de Angola" mean in the name of the preto velho?
It indicates the origin that accompanies the name, as does "do Congo". Rezende reads this part as the equivalent of the origin, or "nation", noted on enslaved people. Baptism records from Recife show, in 1791, a woman "designated by Angola when being baptized".
What does "de Aruanda" mean in the name of the preto velho?
Aruanda is the sacred and mythical place from where spirits return to perform charity, according to the Ribeirão Preto house studied by Dias. It is not an African nation. The research cited here does not explain where the word comes from.
Is Vovô older than pai?
No research cited here establishes a hierarchy of rank between the treatments. Andrade describes vovô and vovó as the most experienced, the wise ones. The rule that whoever is called vovô or vó is older than the others circulates on sites without sources.
References
- Andrade Júnior, Lourival, ANPUH, 2013: "I adored the souls": Umbanda, preto-velho and slavery
- Rezende, Lívia Lima, UFSJ, 2017: African force, divine force
- Dias, Rafael de Nuzzi, USP, 2011: Ancestral chains
- Brito, Lucas Gonçalves, UFG, 2017: The veil of Pai Joaquim's congá
- Silva, Gian Carlo de Melo, História (São Paulo), 2018: baptisms in Recife
- Dias and Bairrão, Memorandum 20, 2011: Short of and beyond the captivity of concepts
- National Sanctuary of Umbanda: The House of the Pretos-Velhos
