If You Have Faith, Exu Responds on-line: The Day-to-Day Life of Quimbanda on Social Networks

Abstract

The present work analyzes the interface between Quimbanda and the digital environment in the daily life of a Quimbandeiro. Quimbanda is an Afro-Brazilian faith that has grown in the virtual universe through consultations and other uses of digital media. In addition to analyzing the Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram pages of these religious groups, we interviewed and followed the daily life of a teacher and also conducted bibliographic research on the subject. In their daily practices, Quimbandeiros use the internet as a space for interaction, quotidian practices of care, and the manufacture of spells. We analyze how digital interaction presents this religious belief in the virtual public sphere and the interconnections between religious and technological narratives. Quimbanda, a somewhat stigmatized religion, expands its boundaries in virtual mode. In the case analyzed in this article, Quimbandeiro work is directly linked to the movements of Exu, the entity who controls the crossroads. Through the mediation of the production of religious images, Exu expands his spiritual and technological presence offline, flooding online communities with meaning.

Keywords

• quimbanda
• religion and virtual world
• afro-brazilian rites
• materialities of the food and the sacred
• spiritual agency