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Singing pontos in the gringalands

One of the best parts of umbanda is the music. There’s a reason why so many queers love it, this is literally a skirt-spinning religion! (Also the padres would get them killed, so there was little competition)

Our music feels ~good~. It’s happy, catchy, powerful in the body. It’s the mother-rhythm that gave us samba and capoeira and rumba and so much else. And, of course, it’s trance inducing, that’s the whole (hihihi) point.

The words are simple and relatable and empowering—

Maria of Rags was crying~~~

it was’t out of regret / for murdering her own boss

her loud laugh so pretty / in Good Friday at night

—and call-response is the format of love, nobody has to memorise or learn anything to join in, that was the call and the next lines will be, always,

it was’t out of regret / for murdering her own boss

her loud laugh so pretty / it’s Good Friday tonight

Just by being there you feel how it works, when everybody responds no one has to teach you a thing, your body gets it. And you join in, because it’s all so happy and feels so good. And if you keep calling her, before you know it, ~she~ is riding ~you~ 💃🐎 You have no idea how common it is for curious kitties who didn’t even believe anything to find themselves possessed, dancing, chatting with a voice they can’t understand. We’re kinda famous for doing this lmao

One problem, tho.

All our pontos are in Portuguese.

Street Brazilian, rural, favelado, Black, poor. Very easy, if you born there, nothing to learn. The lines rhyme, have the same size, this too is a form of love, it makes them easy to re-call in your heart. But they don’t translate well, and if you sing them in the original without flowing in the language, they will become – ew – liturgies, sacred words, ~work~. Pun intend: that’s missing the point.

Remember all of this comes from Keto, from Angola, but in Brazil we don’t sing in Yorubá, we don’t sing in Kimbundu. Even the most traditional and proud Keto Candomblé will still use the language of the people around them. Umbanda in other countries will need its own words to sing.

but you don’t have to do it alone.

we are with you.

the spirits will happily, pun intended, inspire the translations~

we are already doing that. we will make the words sing.