The “Kimbanda Elekes” Myth

People never cease to amaze me! Several emails I have received have drawn my attention to the term “Kimbanda elekes” being used to market consecrated beads and, where helpful, an accompanying ceremony of a rather enterprising nature, both presented as traditional Kimbanda practice.

“Kimbanda elekes”. Within Brazilian religious traditions, this phrase is incoherent. Elekes ceremonies do not exist in Kimbanda, Umbanda, or Candomblé. They belong to Santería and are part of a specific initiation system with its own ritual structure, lineage authority, and theological assumptions. Using the term outside that context is not a harmless borrowing of language. It introduces a foreign ritual category into traditions where it has no historical or structural basis.

This matters less as a question of offence and more as a question of basic religious literacy. Afro diasporic traditions are not loose collections of symbols that can be freely rearranged. They are internally coherent systems shaped by history, lineage, and transmission. When terminology is misapplied, it usually reflects a misunderstanding of how those systems function. Over time, that misunderstanding affects practice, not just language.

To be clear about why the phrase “Kimbanda elekes” makes no sense, it is necessary to understand what elekes actually are. In Santería, the elekes ceremony, often referred to as collares, is a recognised initiation step. It is not simply the blessing of beads. It is traditionally not an initiation in itself - although it is marketed as such nowadays - but more akin to an “adoption” into a house or family. By receiving elekes, a person comes under the “patronage” and protection of the godfather or godmother.

It is performed by initiated godparents who have the authority to do so within a specific lineage. The ceremony establishes a formal relationship between the devotee, their godparents, and the Orishas of that house. It is acknowledged, remembered, and treated as binding. It carries obligations and consequences.

The beads themselves are not decorative items. Their colours, numbers, and sequences encode religious information transmitted through generations of priesthood. The ceremony is conducted on a specific day, according to established ritual rules. When someone receives elekes, they are being marked as having entered a particular religious framework. This is why elekes function as identifiers within Santería. They signal lineage, affiliation, and ritual status. That meaning is inseparable from the system that produces it. Traditional, the needed necklaces give as part of the elekes ceremony should be simple. They may have simple patterns, but they should be generic, made from 4 mm seed beads. There should be no larger beads, no roads or qualities of the godparent’s Orishas. All those things on new inventions four reasons that would probably necessitate another post.

Brazilian traditions also work with beads, but the logic is different. In Candomblé, necklaces are tied to initiation and to the confirmation of a person’s head Orisha. They are linked to the nation of the house and to the timing of a person’s formal entry into obligation. Beads are not normally given through a separate, early ceremony detached from the rest of the initiation process. They are received when someone is actually assuming the responsibilities of that Orisha and that house. The beads are part of a broader ritual sequence, not a standalone event.

Umbanda has an even less standardised relationship with beads. Guias exist across Umbanda, but their use and consecration vary widely by house. In some cases, mediums make or commission their own necklaces and bring them to be washed in waterfalls or herbal baths during development or initiation. Individuality is valued.

In other houses, different methods are used. But still, there is no Umbanda elekes ceremony either. Or better put, there shouldn’t be. Brazil is a very big country with literally tens of thousands of temples. We don’t know exactly what each and everyone does - especially with cross-cultural interchanges over the internet and a desire to stand out. Digging deeper into this would indeed require another post.

Umbanda is not a centralised religion, and attempts to impose uniformity on it usually misunderstand its structure. But still, the elekes ceremony doesn’t and shouldn’t exist. Maybe it does now, but it’s certainly not part of the older Umbanda lineages.

When attention turns to Kimbanda and to Umbanda currents working with Exu and Pomba Gira, the distance from Santería becomes even more pronounced. In these contexts, beads function primarily as working tools and markers of relationship with specific entities. Mediums often make their own necklaces or have them made according to the character of the spirit and the nature of the relationship. While there are traditional aesthetic conventions, there is no equivalent to the fixed, canonical patterns found in Santería elekes.

Across Brazil, beaded necklaces for Exu and Pomba Gira are most commonly made from 10 mm faceted glass beads. There is a long standing tendency for male entities to favour opaque beads and for female entities to favour transparent ones. But this is not a hard and fast rule. Colour choices correspond to the nature and domain of the spirits involved. Gypsy spirits frequently take shades of blue mixed with red. Cemetery spirits such as Exu Caveira and Maria Mulambo das Almas often combine white or purple with black. Pomba Gira Menina may take black and pink. Exu Tranca Ruas is known to favour red and blue, although red and black are also commonly accepted.

Caboclos and Caboclas generally work with transparent greens and clear or coloured crystal beads and tend to be less strict about opacity. Pena Verde is widely associated with green and clear crystal, while Cabocla Jupira is commonly linked to green and yellow. Preto Velhos often take faceted or round beads in the same 10 mm range, usually in black and white patterns of 3 or 7, interwoven with Job’s Tears and Bull’s Eye Seeds. Caboclos may request the addition of boar’s teeth in their necklaces.

These conventions are widely recognisable across the more traditional houses in Brazil, but they are not enforced through a central authority. In more recent practice, pendants are often added to these necklaces, such as tridents for Exu, daggers or fans for Pomba Gira, and playing cards for Zé Pilintra. These elements are modern additions rather than inherited convention. More traditional approaches favour tying a wooden or gemstone figa to the back of the necklace, positioned to rest at the nape of the neck. Nowadays people tend to wear them to the front, like pendants. But this is a newer trend.

Necklace length is also meaningful. Traditionally, these beads fall to just below the navel. This reflects an understanding, shared across Afro Brazilian and Indigenous influenced believe systems, of the navel as a sensitive spiritual point. The beads are intended to cover and protect that area. They are not fashion items.

Just as important is how and where they are worn. Traditionally, wearing these beads in everyday public settings would be considered inappropriate. Santeria encourages this. Umbanda and Candomblé don't. Beaded necklaces are for ritual space. They identify the medium to the spirits and to the house, not to strangers or online audiences. Treating them as public accessories is a recent development and reflects changing attitudes rather than inherited practice.

Brazilian religious life has always involved exchange and influence. Candomblé shapes Umbanda, Umbanda sometimes feeds back into Candomblé, and both interact with Spiritism, Catholicism, Indigenous practices, and newer spiritual imports. This process is not new. What is new is the speed at which ideas circulate online and the commercial pressures that accompany that circulation. Under these conditions, innovations are often presented as tradition.

A clear example is Oxumaré. In Candomblé contexts, his bead colours follow specific patterns linked to serpent symbolism and prosperity. Yellow with black stripes. In classic Umbanda, Oxumaré is not a central figure at all. Yet in some contemporary houses he is now given rainbow coloured beads to emphasise the image of the rainbow serpent. This choice is symbolically intelligible, but it is also clearly modern. It has somehow made its way into some of the more modern Candomble houses, and into Santeria practices also. Practitioners who know the history recognise it as an innovation rather than an ancient practice. That distinction matters.

Brazilian traditions are generally tolerant of difference. One house doing things differently from another does not automatically provoke conflict. The expectation is that each house respects its own lineage and obligations. Problems arise when new practices are presented as old, or when terminology from one religion is used to lend authority to practices from another.

This is why the phrase “Kimbanda elekes” is misleading. The word elekes is a Yoruba word meaning beaded necklace, but the elekes ceremony refers to a specific Santería ritual. It implies a defined ceremony, embedded within a broader initiation system and lineage structure. There is no traditional Kimbanda or Umbanda ceremony that corresponds to this. What is usually being described is a necklace that has been ritually washed or consecrated within a Brazilian framework. The work itself may be sincere. The issue is the terminology, because it suggests an equivalence that does not exist.

At a deeper level, this is about how legitimacy is understood. In Santería, elekes carry weight because they are embedded in a recognised chain of transmission. In Brazilian traditions, legitimacy also comes from lineage, but it is expressed differently. A person’s standing is determined by where and how they were initiated, by their relationship to their house, and more than anything by the development and conduct of their spirits and the results they can achieve in their spiritual work for clients. None of this requires Santería language to be valid. Borrowing that language often signals uncertainty rather than depth.

If a house develops a modern ritual for consecrating beads and names it honestly as a house practice, there is no inherent problem with that. The issue arises when it is framed as something it is not. Precision in language is not pedantry. It is a form of respect for the traditions involved.

Candomblé already has coherent systems of initiation and bead use. Umbanda already has flexible and lineage specific approaches to guias. Kimbanda already has effective ways of working with material objects as tools of spirit relationship. None of these traditions are incomplete. None of them require borrowed terminology to function.

A consistent lesson across Brazilian religious culture is that difference does not imply disrespect. Saying that something is not traditional is not the same as declaring it invalid. What matters is whether a practice makes sense within its own lineage, with its own spirits, and under its own obligations. Being clear about what is inherited and what is new strengthens a tradition rather than weakening it.

While my initial reaction to “Kimbanda elekes” would be to run and never look back, a sensible response might be to ask what is actually being done, where it comes from, and what the beads signify within that house. Those answers are far more informative than the label.

Elekes belong to Santería. Kimbanda, Umbanda, and Candomblé have their own complete and internally coherent systems of beads, initiations, and ritual practice. Vodou doesn't have "loa elekes" either, but that's yet another can of enterprising worms better dealt with elsewhere. Respecting those differences is not gatekeeping. It is how traditions remain intelligible, grounded, and worthy of the spirits they serve.


ROOTS AND ROADS - A History and Practice of Quimbanda