God in Umbanda: Nzambi, or Olorun?

When Umbanda first appeared in 1908 through the medium Zélio Fernandino de Moraes, it emerged in a Spiritist setting. In those earliest years, the supreme being was spoken of simply as God, just as in Kardecist Spiritism, where God is understood as the Supreme Intelligence and the First Cause of all things. There was no cultural name, no African or indigenous title. Umbanda began with this Spiritist language, which gave it a universal tone but little in the way of local roots.

Yet Umbanda did not remain only Spiritist for long. It grew in Brazil’s streets, markets and working-class neighbourhoods, where the memory of Africa was alive in practice. Here, Congo-Angola traditions carried forward from older cults and healing rites were already present. Mediumship, healing and spirit possession were known long before Umbanda had a name, and when these streams entered it, they brought with them the presence of Nzambi. Nzambi was not imported later but was already alive in Brazil’s Bantu traditions, honoured for generations and carried directly into Umbanda as its supreme God.

Nzambi, in Bantu thought, is the great creative force, the one who brings life into being and sustains it. And this continuity is not only historical. When entities incorporate in Umbanda, especially in the older houses, they themselves speak of Nzambi as the supreme God. The pretos velhos, the caboclos and the exus repeat the name of Nzambi in their prayers and teachings, reminding the faithful that the Congo root of Umbanda is still present and alive.

Alongside Nzambi came the spirits of pretos velhos, the wise old Africans who guide and console, the caboclos, bearers of indigenous strength and healing, and the exus, guardians of crossroads and communication. All of these speak the language of Bantu cosmology, where the worlds of the living and the dead are woven closely together.

Only later, as practitioners of Candomblé began to work Umbanda as well, did another name appear: Olorun. Drawn from Yoruba cosmology, Olorun is the source of the orixás and the highest principle in that tradition. In some Umbanda houses, especially where Yoruba influence was stronger, the shift toward Olorun reflected the prestige and familiarity of Candomblé terms. But this was a later development, not an original feature of Umbanda.

What this history shows is that Umbanda was not born out of Candomblé but alongside it, absorbing practices from outside the established Yoruba framework. It grew by drawing in what was alive in the people: popular devotions, indigenous rites, healing currents, and above all, the Congo-Angola stream that gave Umbanda its rhythm and its soul. Spiritism provided the skeleton, but it was the Bantu current that gave Umbanda its flesh and blood.

Today, different names are still used. Some houses keep to the Spiritist simplicity of God. Others prefer Olorun, reflecting the influence of Candomblé cosmology. Yet the name that most directly expresses Umbanda’s own foundations is Nzambi. To speak of Nzambi is to recognise that Umbanda is not only a Spiritist creation, nor a Yoruba transplant, but a religion deeply Congo in character.

Umbanda lives in many forms, but its heart remains Bantu. The spirits that walk in its terreiros, the rhythms of its songs, and the vision of life as a movement between worlds all point back to the Congo. And when the spirits incorporate and speak, they still call on Nzambi. This continuity shows clearly that Umbanda is not an invention built from borrowed pieces, but a living religion whose deepest root is Congo, carried into Brazil and still alive in its practice today.