Umbanda Religion | National Geographic

Summary

This National Geographic segment explores Umbanda, a Brazilian religion shaped by African spiritual traditions and blended with Catholic influences. In a northeastern Brazilian market, spirit mediums Zu Lady and Pakito represent two different uses of the same belief system: Zu Lady insists her spirit guides only heal and protect, while Pakito is willing to summon harmful forces for clients who want revenge or relief from painful situations. The film follows a woman seeking help for a curse and another client asking for a curse to be removed, showing how mediums enter trance states to identify spirits and negotiate with them. The story highlights the tension between good and evil within Umbanda, where spirits are seen as active powers in everyday life. It ends on a tragic note, as one client dies and another accusation spreads, but the mediums continue their work, underscoring the religion’s complex moral world.

Highlights

• Zu Lady channels spirit guides to lift curses and help people 🪄
• Pakito openly accepts requests to place deadly curses on others 😈
• A client’s curse is identified only after a spirit speaks through Zu Lady 👁️
• Another woman seeks relief from mysterious medical problems believed to be caused by a spirit 🩺
• The documentary shows the uneasy line between healing and harm in Umbanda ⚖️

Key Takeaways

• Umbanda blends African spiritual traditions with Catholic elements in Brazil ✨
• Spirit mediums act as vessels for communication with spirits, good and evil 👻
• Some practitioners use Umbanda for healing and protection, while others offer darker services 🔮
• The film shows how curses, trance, and spiritual negotiation are treated as real forces in daily life 🌙
• The story closes with tragedy, but the mediums remain committed to their calling 🕯️

Overview

The video introduces Umbanda as a Brazilian religion rooted in African spiritual practices and mixed with Catholicism. It immediately sets up the contrast between two spirit mediums working in the same marketplace: one devoted to helping people, the other willing to use spiritual power for revenge. That contrast gives the whole piece a dramatic, almost noir-like feel.

From there, the documentary follows several spiritual consultations. Zu Lady enters trance to discover which spirit is responsible for a woman’s curse, while Pakito entertains a client who wants her husband killed. The segment presents these encounters as part of ordinary religious practice, not as spectacle, emphasizing how central spirit communication is to Umbanda.

The ending turns somber when the woman seeking help dies before the cleansing can be completed, and rumors begin to swirl about whether the failed ritual played a role. Even so, Zu Lady continues her work. The film closes by stressing Umbanda’s core idea: spirits are not distant or symbolic, but active forces people can call on for either good or ill.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:45: Umbanda in Brazil’s Marketplaces The segment introduces a bustling marketplace in northeastern Brazil where Umbanda practices are visible in everyday life, blending with Catholic influences and rooted in African traditions brought by enslaved people. It contrasts practitioners who use spirit possession for healing and protection with others who claim to use it for harmful work.
• 00:45 - 01:40: Spirit Possession and Religious Practice In a Brazilian market where Umbanda blends with Catholic traditions, the segment introduces spirit mediums who use possession as part of religious practice. Zu Lady says her guiding spirit, Maria Conga, only works for good and rejects requests for harm, while another practitioner, Pakito, is willing to use conjuring for evil, including a woman’s request to kill her husband.
• 01:40 - 02:30: Lifting Curses and Seeking Protection In the marketplace, two umbanda practitioners are shown with very different intentions: Zu Lady uses spirit guidance only for healing and protection, while Pakito openly agrees to help clients with harmful requests, including killing a husband.
• 02:30 - 03:30: Confession, Mercy, and Breaking the Curse Biano demands a plea for mercy before lifting the curse, and after hearing the remorse and blame placed on the mother’s quarrel, he agrees to remove it. The episode then shifts to the aftermath of the earlier curse: Pakito says the husband has died, refuses to reveal the grave, and Joanna’s death interrupts Zu Lady’s planned cleansing. Despite the gossip and setback, Zu Lady resolves to continue her work, underscoring Umbanda’s view of evil as both something to fight and something that can be harnessed through the spirits.
• 03:30 - 04:20: A Second Medium’s Dark Work Biano is pressured to lift a curse and finally agrees after the afflicted man begs for mercy, showing the precarious bargaining between sorcerer and victim. Meanwhile, the consequences of Pakito’s earlier curse become grimly apparent when he confirms that Mr. Ramunda’s husband has died, and he refuses to reveal the grave.
• 04:20 - 05:00: Aftermath and the Cost of Belief Biano is pressured to lift a curse only after being asked for mercy, and the scene closes with the belief that the curse has been removed.

Umbanda Religion | National Geographic Transcription

• Segment 1: 00:00 - 02:30 In the Brazilian port of Bim's bustling marketplace, a woman is arming herself for a battle against dark forces. In the same market, another medium has more sinister intentions. Both are practitioners of a religion called umbanda. Here in northeastern Brazil, mixes freely with Catholicism. brought to the region by African slaves. It's a religion founded on spirits, both good and evil. Since Zu Lady was a teenager, she has been possessed by spirits. Spirits that she says can lift curses and foretell the future. Her main spirit guide, Maria Conga, works only for good. People come here all the time and ask me to kill someone. I tell them that they have knocked on the wrong door here. We don't do evil. Pakito receives clients in a small shop behind his house. Today, Pakito's client is a woman who claims she's in an abusive marriage. She requests a rather extreme solution. I want you to do the work to kill my husband. For Pakito, it's not an unreasonable request. He sees conjuring evil as a service to people. Spirit medium Maria Zui also has a client. Joanna believes that an evil spirit has placed a curse on her. She has numerous medical problems that doctors have been unable to cure. To negotiate with the evil spirit haunting Joanna, Zady must find out which one is the culprit. To do that, she will enter the realm of spirits, offering her own body as a vessel. On this night, Zady is visited by many spirits, but it is the one called Bayano Grande who solves the riddle of Joanna's curse. Through Zu Lady Biano orders Joanna and her son Clauddio to go
• Segment 2: 00:00 - 02:30 outside with him. He admits he is to blame for the curse.
• Segment 3: 02:30 - 05:00 You have to ask for mercy. If you don't, I will never remove this curse from you. [Music] What have I done to my ex-girlfriend to deserve this? You have done nothing. But your mother has because she fought with her. She quarreled with her. Biano listens to their please and decides to grant their wish. He lifts the curse. It has been a long and successful evening, or so they believe. Two weeks have passed since Pakito put a deadly curse on the husband of his client. He claims the curse has done its job. What happened to Mr. Ramunda's husband? He died. Can you show us where his grave is? No. No. I will not show you his grave. Meanwhile, Zu Lady had planned to cleanse Joanna's house of any residual evil. But she never gets the chance. Joanna has died. Gossip is spreading that Joanna died because Zu Lady failed to get rid of the curse. Though badly shaken by the death, Zu Lady has resolved to carry on with her work. In the Umbanda religion, evil is both a force to fight and a force to enlist on your behalf. The spirits are at your service.