What power is that?

By Sílvia Maria Silva Barbosa

The power that the people of the saint have been wielding in the course of socio-political development in Bahia is indisputable. This tradition of power is safeguarded by the mother-of-saints within Il As Ogum Omimkay , a Ketu Candombl terreiro located in an urban area in northeastern Brazil, in the neighbourhood of Fazenda Grande III - Cajazeiras, Salvador-BA, composed mostly of women, where men play a secondary role. It is a power inherited from the ancestors Iy -mi, which was incorporated into the multifaceted personalities of Ialod and Gueled and has been preserved in traditional religious communities, coming to inhabit the sphere of the sacred. This power, uniquely represented by the mother-of-saints, has a political connotation and basically designates the central figure of power, but in the singular it shatters into multiple fragments and is equivalent to influences where her daughters and sons-of-saints have their share. Power circulates between the spiritual and social worlds, dialoguing with the surrounding community and returning with legitimacy attributed by religious people, by the community where the terreiro is inserted in relationships inside and outside the terreiro.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3330037423
• ISBN13: 9783330037427
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: Our Knowledge Publishing
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"