By SOLENI BISCOUTO FRESSATO*

Considerations on the play by Dias Gomes and the film by Anselmo Duarte

“Action: Salvador, Time: current.”

so it begins The Promise Payer, a play by Dias Gomes, first performed in 1960, in São Paulo, by the Teatro Brasileiro de Comédia. Two years later, Anselmo Duarte would take the anguish of Zé do Burro (the protagonist of the narrative) to the big screen.

By using the term “current,” Dias Gomes was most likely referring to the time when he conceived and wrote the play. In the film, no date is given either. When rereading the play and watching the film again, the current situation is still impressive. The narrative leads us to reflect on the adversities faced by the people of Santo.[I], not only in Bahia, but in other Brazilian states, where religions of African origin are present. Currently, the Catholic Church opens its doors and coexists harmoniously, at least apparently, with the practices of Candomblé. Thus, what makes the play/film current is not exactly the conflict between Catholicism and Candomblé, but the prejudice and intolerance against religions of African origin that are still present in Brazilian society.

Discrimination and hatred against the people of Santo

The first expressions of Candomblé emerged in Brazil at the beginning of the 19th century, from the cultural adaptation of African cults brought by enslaved peoples. The first Candomblé terreiros emerged in Bahia, and the Ile Axé Iya Nassô Oká (Terreiro da Casa Branca), governed by the orishas Xangô and Oxóssi, located in the popular neighborhood of Engenho Velho da Federação, in Salvador, is considered one of the oldest in the country, founded around 1820. In 1984, it was listed by IPHAN and considered a Historical Heritage of Brazil. In 2016, the Center for Afro-Oriental Studies (CEAO) of the Federal University of Bahia mapped more than 1.100 Candomblé terreiros located in Salvador and the metropolitan region, the vast majority of them led by black women and consecrated to female orishas, ​​especially Oxum and Iansã.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, after being violently punished and persecuted, Candomblecists created religious syncretism, associating each orisha with a Catholic saint. Under the guise of worshiping Catholic saints, the people of the saint continued to pay homage to their protective orishas. From then on, syncretism became an intelligent form of resistance.

Since the end of the 20th century, many Catholic churches, particularly in Bahia, have been opening their doors to the people of the saint, even performing rituals together. However, Candomblé and its practitioners are still victims of hate speech, attacks on the terreiros (with destruction and defamation of their sacred objects), and physical and verbal aggression, which can culminate in murder. Often, this violence is also associated with the fact that Candomblé is widely practiced by black people, that is, people are victims of both religious and color-based racism.

In an attempt to crack down on religious racism, in early 2023, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed into law a law that equates the crime of racial abuse with the crime of racism and protects religious freedom. The new law was expected to contribute to more severe punishment for those who commit the crime of religious racism and, on the other hand, better protect victims. However, in 2024, 100 reports of religious intolerance were recorded (through the Disque 2.472 hotline), an increase of 66,8% compared to the previous year (1.481 cases). Most of the victims were black women who practiced African-origin beliefs.

According to the survey “Respect my terreiro” (coordinated by the National Network of Afro-Brazilian Religions), which interviewed representatives of 255 terreiros across the country, almost half of the interviewees reported having suffered around five attacks between 2020 and 2021. In the same period, 78% of the interviewees revealed that they were attacked on the street, in stores, at school, in public offices, and even at police stations where they went to file complaints. According to the victims, it is enough for the person to be identified as a follower of some Afro-Brazilian religion to suffer prejudice.

Although only 2,1% of the Brazilian population declared themselves to practice some form of religion of African origin, according to data from the 2020 census, this group suffers the most discrimination and violence (verbal and physical), compared to other religious groups in the country. This very low percentage may also be associated with the fear that people have of suffering some type of violence when they reveal their Afro-descendant religion.

In Salvador, in 2019, due to the numerous attacks in several Candomblé terreiros, councilor Edvaldo Brito (PSD) formalized the request for the creation of a Specialized Police Station to Combat Racism and Religious Intolerance, which took place on January 21, 2024, recognized as the National Day to Combat Religious Intolerance. The day was chosen in honor of Mother Gilda de Ogum, founder of the terreiro Ilê Axé Abassá of Ogum, in Salvador, murdered in 2000 due to her religiosity.

In parallel with the creation of the police station, the Ronda de Defesa da Liberdade Religiosa (Round for the Defense of Religious Freedom) – Omnira (a word of Yoruba origin meaning freedom) was established, a Military Police operation to combat religious intolerance and crimes linked to African-origin temples in the capital of Bahia. In this sense, it is important to note that, although the police station works extensively to combat religious intolerance, welcoming victims of various beliefs, those of African origin are the most persecuted and those who seek out the police station the most.

The acts of disrespect, physical and verbal aggression, attacks on places of worship and demonization of the deities worshipped in Candomblé, as well as its practitioners, are examples of religious racism that persist, revealing the current relevance of the problem raised in The Promise Payer.

The play, the film

The Promise Payer marked Dias Gomes' return to theater after a 16-year stint on the radio. The play was a resounding success, both in Brazil and in other countries, making its author the best-known and most-performed playwright. The text was translated into English, French, Russian, Polish, Spanish, Italian, Vietnamese, Hebrew and Greek, and the play was performed in the United States (six productions), Poland (four productions), the Soviet Union, Cuba, Spain, Italy, Greece, Israel, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, what was then North Vietnam and Morocco (Gomes, 2008, p. 4).

The film, even after the big awards and box office successes of I'm still here (2024) and Central do Brasil (1998), both by Walter Salles, by City of God (Fernando Meireles and Katia Lund, 2002) and Tropa de Elite (José Padilha, 207), is the only film, to date, to have won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, in 1962. It was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (1963) and received awards at the Festivals of Cartagena (Special Jury Prize, 1962), San Francisco (Golden Gate Award for Best Film and Best Soundtrack, 1962), Edinburgh (Critics Award, 1962) and the 1962st Prize at the Venezuela Festival (1962), and was also awarded at the Acapulco Festival (1962). In Brazil, Leonardo Villar received the Saci Award for Best Actor (XNUMX) and the film was widely awarded at the Brasília Festival, consolidating its status as a landmark in national cinema and influencing generations of filmmakers.

In the “List of the 100 best Brazilian films”, released in 2016 by the Brazilian Association of Film Critics – ABRACCINE, the film came in ninth place, even more than 50 years after its release, revealing not only its aesthetic quality, but the importance of the theme addressed.

Based on a simple story, a country man's attempt to fulfill his promise to save his faithful companion, the donkey Nicolau, Dias Gomes and Anselmo Duarte problematize the complexity of a sociocultural issue that is still widely debated in Brazil: racism and violence in the face of popular practices associated with religions of African origin.

In the film, the vast majority of scenes, with the exception of a short introduction during the credits, take place on the steps of the Church of the Holy Sacrament of Passo, located in the Old Town of Salvador, which has been transformed into the steps of the Church of Santa Bárbara. There, Zé do Burro (Leonardo Villar), the protagonist, will experience his moments of greatest joy (for having almost fulfilled his promise and saved his donkey Nicolau) and greatest agony (for not understanding and not being understood by the priest, for not recognizing his wife and for not understanding the moral and conduct codes of the big city). There, on those steps, Zé do Burro will meet his end, which will symbolize a beginning for the people of the saint.

The first scenes of the film reveal what will trigger the plot's conflict: religious syncretism. In a Candomblé temple, we see several people embodying orishas, ​​dancing and singing, among them we can recognize: Oxum, Iemanjá, Omolú and Iansã. In a corner, Zé do Burro is kneeling, looking devoutly at the image of Saint Barbara. When he finishes his prayer, he makes the sign of the cross and stands up. Zé do Burro is Catholic, but he attends and is a sympathizer of Candomblé.

Throughout the story, we discover that it was at the Iansã temple, which is a religious syncretism with Saint Barbara, that Zé do Burro made his promise: if Nicolau managed to survive the accident he suffered, when a tree branch fell on his head during a thunderstorm, he would carry a cross as heavy as Jesus Christ's to the Church of Saint Barbara in the city of Salvador, on the day of the saint's feast. According to the guidance of the mother of the Iansã temple, the promise had to be very big, after all, her faithful companion was also very important. Iansã/Bárbara was chosen by Zé do Burro because she is the orisha/saint of rain and storms.

Having been helped, Zé do Burro had no choice but to walk the seven leagues that separated his farm from the Church of Santa Bárbara, carrying the cross. There is no explanation as to how many days it took Zé do Burro, followed by his wife Rosa (Glória Menezes), to cover the distance. We only know that it was an arduous walk: he faced the scorching sun and the drought of the backlands, storms and mud, and suffered hunger, thirst and cold. During his walk, he aroused the compassion of the backlands people, who respectfully took off their hats to let him pass. In the city, near the church, the reaction of the bohemian population was different: disregard and mockery, no one understood his act; someone, in a pejorative way, said that Zé do Burro “is a clown”.

Upon reaching the staircase, Zé do Burro is happy. In a few hours, the church would open and he would fulfill his promise. He would be even with the saint, return home and continue his simple life. However, not everything works out the way Zé do Burro thinks. Father Olavo (Dionisio Azevedo) does not accept that he made his promise to a Catholic saint in a Candomblé temple. He also does not accept the religious syncretism between the saint and the orisha. Believing that Zé do Burro “fell into the devil’s temptation,” the priest forbids him from entering the church, preventing him from fulfilling his promise.

In the narrative, Zé do Burro is a representative of popular culture, with strong rural traits. The relationship he establishes with the saints is practically personal. His wife even says that Saint Barbara is a great friend of hers. The saints participate in rural life, inhabiting the outbuildings of houses, in the form of images placed in oratories or chapels. Reciprocity dominates the relationship between the saints and their followers: by offering them novenas and candles, the peasants expect the saints to help them in difficult situations and protect them, and to always be ready to help and intervene in everyday and even mundane situations (Queiroz, 1973).

It is this relationship of reciprocity that Zé do Burro maintains with Saint Barbara: she saved his best friend in exchange for the promise to carry a cross and place it inside a church built in her honor. Until he places the cross in the place he promised, Zé do Burro refuses to leave the church door. The fear of returning without fulfilling his promise and finding Nicholas dead is greater than his hunger, thirst, and fatigue. He is also afraid of “getting dirty” with the saint. He explains to his wife with conviction: “No, in this business of miracles, you have to be honest. If we embarrass the saint, we lose credibility.

Another time the saint looks, consults his records and says: – Ah, you are Zé do Burro, the one who already cheated me! And now you come to make me a new promise. Well, go make a promise to the devil, you deadbeat! And what's more: a saint is like a foreigner, he cheated one of them, and everyone else finds out.”

Zé do Burro's wisdom is popular, attributing human behaviors and thoughts to saints. But he does not believe only in Catholic saints. In his first conversation with Father Olavo, he explains how Nicolau's accident happened and the attempts to save him. He was badly injured and the only way to stop the bleeding was to put cow dung on the wound. Once the bleeding was stopped, Nicolau began to shake with fever.

Zé do Burro turned to the black man Zeferino who “cures everything with two prayers and three scribbles on the ground”, but it was no use. It was then that he decided to make a very big promise at the Candomblé temple of Iansã, mistress of lightning and thunderstorms. And since for Zé do Burro, Iansã and Saint Bárbara “are the same thing”, he promised to fulfill his promise at the saint’s church.

For Zé do Burro, there is no conflict in his attitude. He understands the prayers and magic of Zeferino, the dances and songs of Iansã's Candomblé and the prayers to Saint Barbara as legitimate and associable practices. However, despite mixing these practices, Zé do Burro is Catholic, after all he promises to carry a cross to the Church of Saint Barbara and refuses to fulfill his promise in a Candomblé temple, as proposed by My Aunt (Maria Conceição), who sells acarajés in front of the church and frequents the temple of Mãe Menininha. If he were more of a follower of Candomblé, he would have promised a caruru[ii] in honor of the orisha.

The thoughts and beliefs of Zé do Burro and Father Olavo are divergent. As a legitimate representative of the official culture of the Catholic Church, Father Olavo does not accept any expression of popular culture and Zé do Burro's act is interpreted as an exaggeration. He considers it “backward and rubbish” to use cow dung to stop bleeding and disdainfully states that he is “not interested in this medicine”, because Zeferino is a sorcerer and his prayers are “prayers of the devil” and are made “to tempt”.

The terreiros are “dens of witchcraft,” have “false deities,” and promote “fetishistic rituals.” He also does not accept the syncretism between Saint Barbara and Iansã: “this confusion comes from the time of slavery. African slaves thus deceived their white masters, pretending to worship Catholic saints when in fact they were worshiping their own gods. Not only Saint Barbara, many saints were victims of this farce.” Totally committed to the ideals of the ruling class, Father Olavo forbids Zé do Burro from entering the “house of God,” because if he allowed it, it would become a place of “false pagan idols, it would be the end of religion.”

Father Olavo's speech is ideological, legitimizing the established order of a certain group in power. However, he acts this way because he truly believes in the existence of only one god and one religion: Catholicism. In the film, in the scenes where the popular festival in honor of Iansã is organized, we see a tormented priest, with a strong feeling of loss and incapacity, in a great existential crisis.

On the church steps, those who are not allowed to enter because they practice or are sympathizers of Candomblé play drums and sing songs to Iansã. Father Olavo tries to drown out the sounds of the celebration by loudly ringing the bell. Believing in what he preaches, he lost those people to Candomblé; he was unable to prevent them from straying, becoming easy targets for a false religion. His beliefs and his fervent dedication to Catholicism prevent him from being supportive and empathetic towards Zé do Burro and all those people who only want to pay homage to Iansã and Saint Barbara.

Zé do Burro and Father Olavo represent two different sacrednesses. While the innocent and humble country man respects the most diverse religious practices, the priest only believes, respects and accepts the Catholic cult of which he is a representative. In the narrative, the popular culture of religious syncretism appears in conflict with the official culture of the Catholic Church.

In his study of popular culture in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, based on the works of François Rabelais, Bakhtin (1999) found that popular expressions, marked by their comic, parodic and festive nature, were of great importance in people's lives and very different from the official and serious ceremonies of the Church and the State. For Bakhtin (1999), this differentiation reveals that these people had a worldview and behavior that was external to the Church and the State, creating a parallel, unofficial world, to which they belonged to a greater or lesser extent and in which they lived in specific situations.

It is precisely this festive character of popular culture, in conflict with official Catholic culture, that is expressed in The Promise Payer. Conflict that arises in joy, in dances and songs, in capoeira games and dances, in caruru offerings, all in homage to the orisha Iansã. A festive homage that takes place on the steps of the Church of Santa Bárbara, revealing the syncretic nature of Candomblé practices. The festival, which is also a cult and a ritual, was entirely organized by the people, who live this celebration intensely. Popular culture is represented, in the play and in the film, as a space of resistance, resilience and contestation against the established power.

It is worth remembering that the tributes to Iansã take place in Salvador on December 4th, which is also Saint Barbara's day, and which opens the cycle of popular festivities that ends on Ash Wednesday. On that day, the hills of the city's Old Town are taken over by the saint's people and covered in red petals, with a scent of lavender in the air. Among the celebrations, a mass is held at the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of the Blacks, from where a procession sets off through several streets until it reaches the Bahia Military Fire Department, where Iansã's caruru is distributed. At the same time, a large popular festival with drums, dancing and caruru is held at the Santa Bárbara Market. The festival, strongly marked by religious syncretism, is considered Intangible Heritage of Bahia.

In addition to religious syncretism, The Promise Payer allows reflection on another important issue about religiosity, the delimitation between the sacred and the profane. When they arrive at the church door, still very early, Rosa insists that Zé do Burro leave the cross right there, after all they have already traveled seven leagues, the church door is closed and they are hungry, sleepy and tired, the saint would understand. But, for Zé do Burro the staircase “is not the Church of Saint Barbara. The church is from the door inwards”. According to Mircea Eliade (1992, p. 29), the door is the threshold that separates the two spaces, indicating at the same time the distance between the two ways of being, profane and religious. The threshold is at the same time the limit, the beacon, the frontier that distinguishes and opposes two worlds – and the paradoxical place where these two worlds communicate, where one can make the passage from the profane world to the sacred world. (…) The threshold, the door, shows in an immediate and concrete way the solution of continuity of space; hence its great religious importance, because it is a symbol and, at the same time, a vehicle of passage.

Mircea Eliade's (1992, p. 20) proposal is to clarify the opposition between the sacred and the profane, revealing their different natures, since they constitute two ways of being in the world, “two existential situations assumed by man throughout his history”. According to the author, the man of modern societies, called “non-religious”, experiences a process of desacralization of spaces and behaviors, very different from the religious man of archaic societies. This difference in religious experience is explained by economic, social and cultural differences, in short, by history itself.

Mircea Eliade's considerations are interesting and pertinent and probably fit into a large number of studies on religiosity. However, his analysis in contrasting sacred and profane spaces does not allow him to perceive the relationship between the environments in a more dialectical and sometimes more integrated way, since this delimitation does not, in fact, exist in such a rigid way. Furthermore, Eliade's conception does not encompass a specificity of popular religiosity in Bahia, strongly marked by the sacralization of profane spaces, as we see in The Promise Payer.

Zé do Burro is not the only one who cannot enter the church. When the procession of Saint Barbara arrives, if there is a group of people, notably women with veils covering their hair, who can enter, there is a much larger number who cannot: the baianas de acarajé, the capoeiristas, the sambadeiras and sambadores de roda, the atabaque drummers, the street vendors, the cordelista, in short, all those who, in the eyes of Father Olavo, are not worthy of entering the sacred place and paying homage to Saint Barbara.

If the church is closed to them, the staircase is not. Profane by nature, the staircase undergoes a process of sacralization, it becomes the ideal place for followers and sympathizers of Candomblé and, even so, devotees of Saint Barbara, to practice their religion. The Bahian women perform the “washing”,[iii] purifying the environment. Red and white flags decorate the staircase.

My aunt prepares a caruru and the first portion is offered to Iansã. To the sound of the berimbau, capoeiristas move their bodies. The popular religious rites are very different from the official ones; the dance, music and joy are contagious and are ways of paying homage to Iansã and Saint Barbara, contrary to the resignation and melancholy of the procession. This and other passages of the narrative reveal to us that, in the city of Salvador, popular culture has a peculiar characteristic, where the boundaries between profane and sacred spaces are not precise, and there is a sacralization of profane spaces.

if in The Promise Payer The steps of the Church of Santa Bárbara are consecrated by popular rituals, reality presents itself in a similar way. It is not only the steps where “washings” (the one at the Church of Bonfim is the best example) and “popcorn baths” take place.[iv] (every Monday in front of the Church of São Lázaro), which undergo this process of sacralization, but the sea also transforms into a sacred place, covered in flowers and offerings, on February 2nd, in homage to Iemanjá.

Finally, it is interesting to note that the donkey has an identity, he is Nicolau, while his owner has an identity dependent on him, he is Zé do Burro. The name Nicolau means “the one who wins together with the people”. At the end of the story, Zé do Burro is shot and dies. The capoeira player Mestre Coca (played in the film by Antonio Pitanga), who witnessed Zé do Burro’s anguish, takes the initiative to place him on the cross, followed by other capoeira players and atabaque drummers.

Carrying the cross, they break down the church door and, followed by the people of the saint, enter the sacred place. Like a crucified Jesus, Zé do Burro assumes the identity of his donkey, because in a joint victory, both Zé do Burro and the people enter the church, until then forbidden to them. Zé do Burro becomes Nicolau and wins together with the people.

A beautiful and powerful metaphor that reveals the strength and capacity for resistance and resilience of black people and people of the saints, who still face many adversities, prejudices and violence, but continue to fight for their rights in collective movements and actions, such as the religiosity of Candomblé.

*Soleni Biscouto Fressato holds a PhD in social sciences from the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). She is the author, among other books, of Soap operas, the magic mirror of life (Perspective).

References

Dias Gomes. The Promise Payer. Rio de Janeiro, Bertrand Brasil, 2014, 154 pages.
The Promise Payer
Brazil, 1962, 98 minutes.
Directed by: Anselmo Duarte.
Screenplay: Dias Gomes, Anselmo Duarte, HE Fowle.
Cast: Leonardo Vilar, Gloria Menezes, Norma Benguell, Dionisio Azevedo, Geraldo del Rey, Antonio Pitanga.

REFERENCES

BAKHTIN, Mikhail. Popular culture in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: the context of François Rabelais. New York: Routledge, 1993.

ELIADE, Mircea. The sacred and the profane. The essence of religions. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1992.

BERLIN, Maria. The Brazilian peasantry: essays on civilization and rustic groups in Brazil. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 1973.

Notes

[I] Povo de santo is a popular expression widely used in Bahia, which refers to followers of Candomblé, also called Candomblecists.

[ii] Caruru is a recipe from Bahian cuisine prepared with okra, dried shrimp, onion, peanuts, cashew nuts and palm oil. Like abará and acarajé, it is one of the dishes offered to the orixás in Candomblé rituals, in which case it is called saint's food.

[iii] Stairway washings are religious and cultural celebrations associated with the people of the saint, carried out by women (known as baianas) wearing traditional sacred costumes, who wash the stairs with perfumed water.

[iv] Popcorn is the food of the saint of Omulu, the orisha of healing and illness, the dead and cemeteries, honored on Mondays and syncretized with Saint Lazarus.

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