Quimbanda is a dark tradition of anger and revenge. It is a tradition of the upriser, of the downtrodden-no-more. The Exu are the spirits of the cutthroat, the thief, and the criminal, and they beckon to the life of the urban misfit, of indulgence of vices. The female Pomba gira spirits, the whores, the Maria of the Trash, are summoned and cajoled into casting down your hated adversary. Wise warrior Ogum sits between them, dispensing justice with the cold steel of the revolver and the blade, just war and street justice served.

Rituals to invoke these spirits are performed in “marginal locations”—cemeteries, forests, beaches, favela crossroads— and always at night. The practitioner offers sacrifices and gifts— alcohols, cigars, BTLs, drugs, candles—and performs the ritual as appropriate, meaning, for example, acts of aggression for violent revenge, or acts of courting for love spells.

Quimbanda is a tradition focused with materialism, with the provision of the now and immediate, of earthly delights and earthly and immediate justice.