Afro-Brazilian Healing Knowledge

The healing knowledge and practices rooted in African traditions constitute one of the most enduring and resilient pillars of Brazilian culture. Since the colonial period – when enslaved African peoples brought with them complex systems of spiritual and bodily care – these practices have intertwined with Indigenous and popular knowledge, forming a vast field of traditional therapies that continue to guide the therapeutic pathways of millions of Brazilians. These knowledge systems—expressed in candomblé and umbanda terreiros, quilombola communities, and in the work of healers such as rezadeiras, raizeiras and midwives—challenge the hegemony of biomedicine by proposing an expanded understanding of health that encompasses body, mind, territory and spirituality.

More than alternative therapeutic practices, African-derived systems represent distinct ways of understanding illness and healing, in which the human being is viewed as a whole. They reveal a conception of health grounded in the harmony between the individual and the forces of nature, recognizing the role of the sacred, ancestry and community in restoring vital balance. This worldview contrasts with the biomedical model, centered on physical pathology, while offering both a critique and a complement to Western rationality.

In contemporary Brazil, these knowledge systems also carry political significance: they reclaim silenced identities, affirm the right to difference and expose the racial and territorial inequalities that continue to shape access to health. By entering academic spaces and engaging with public policies—such as the National Policy for the Comprehensive Health of the Black Population (PNSIPN); the National Policy on Popular Education in Health (PNEPS-SUS); the National Policy on Integrative and Complementary Health Practices (PNPIC); and the National Policy on Medicinal Plants and Herbal Medicines (PNPMF)—Afro-descendant healing systems not only seek recognition but also propose a plural and intercultural model of care.

Knowledge from Terreiros and Spirituality as Therapeutic Practice

Afro-Brazilian religions such as candomblé and umbanda are complex systems of care in which the spiritual and material dimensions are inseparable. The article “Health care promoted by Afro-Brazilian religions” highlights that rituals, offerings, baths, prayers and the incorporation of orixás act as therapeutic practices designed to restore axé—the vital force that sustains existence. In this context, the body is understood as a channel of energy, and illness is perceived as an imbalance of spiritual and community forces.

The study “Health practices in candomblé” shows that priests and priestesses play a central role in care, combining the use of medicinal plants with ritual prescriptions. Practices such as smudging, herbal baths and offerings are intended to purify, balance and strengthen body and spirit. The authors emphasize that these practices express a holistic and relational concept of health in which care extends beyond the individual and is embedded in networks of solidarity and belonging.

These practices also serve as spaces of emotional and spiritual support. In the terreiro, listening, touch, speech and song produce meanings of healing that address not only symptoms but also self-esteem and life purpose. The study by Marques et al. (2020) notes that for many Black individuals, terreiros represent the only space where their suffering is recognized without prejudice, and where distress is not medicalized but symbolized and transformed. Healing therefore becomes a form of symbolic reparative action, restoring dignity to bodies historically stigmatized.The research “Health of terreiro communities, care practices and occupational therapy” further shows that these spaces develop their own pedagogy of care, where learning occurs through coexistence and ritual experience. The terreiro is thus a school of self-care and collectivity. At the same time, the article highlights the challenges of engaging with SUS: religious prejudice, lack of intercultural training and institutional racism hinder the recognition of these knowledge systems. Despite these challenges, the authors describe local initiatives—such as consultations mediated by religious leaders, community herbal medicine and spiritual welcoming practices—that have produced positive results in user engagement and effectiveness of care.

Quilombola Knowledge and Ancestry as Care

In quilombola communities, health care is intrinsically linked to ancestry, territory and nature. The study “Knowledge from quilombos in health practices” demonstrates that quilombola peoples maintain their own medicinal system, based on medicinal plants, blessings and spiritual practices transmitted orally across generations. The research also shows that these knowledge systems are often made invisible within public policies, limiting integration between traditional systems and primary health care.

The article “Therapeutic itineraries of quilombola women in northern Minas Gerais” reveals that quilombola women navigate multiple systems of care: they rely on popular knowledge in everyday situations and on biomedicine in more severe cases. This movement illustrates that quilombola therapeutic pathways are plural and strategic, based on trust, accessibility and previous experience. The author argues that recognizing this plurality is essential for culturally sensitive public policies.

Other studies – such as “Popular knowledge and health practices in the quilombola community of Acauã (RN)” – show that the transmission of traditional knowledge is both a political and pedagogical act. By teaching young people to identify plants, prepare teas and perform protective rituals, community elders reaffirm belonging and cultural continuity. This strengthens social cohesion, self-esteem and collective identity while resisting territorial expropriation and the erasures produced by modernity.

The article “Health care practices in a quilombola community of the Agreste region of Alagoas” observes that traditional care does not exclude technical health knowledge but reframes it. Community health workers and health professionals who respect local practices report stronger bonds and greater acceptance. Group meetings, medicinal plant workshops and popular knowledge fairs become spaces for dialogue between community-based medicine and institutional medicine. Although still limited, this coexistence indicates pathways for comprehensive care in SUS and shows that encounters between different rationalities are possible when listening and recognition are present.

Intersections with SUS and Public Policies

Afro-Brazilian healing knowledge has gained increasing recognition in the field of public health, particularly following the establishment of the PNSIPN, PNEPS-SUS, PNPIC and PNPMF. These policies create opportunities for dialogue and appreciation of traditional practices. However, the gap between policy design and everyday practice remains considerable – especially in areas where institutional racism and precarious working conditions limit the reach of these initiatives.

The articles reviewed indicate that the dialogue between terreiro practices and SUS is still fragile and occasional. Many health professionals lack intercultural training and are unaware of the therapeutic role of Afro-Brazilian religions. As a result, symbolic and institutional barriers persist, reinforcing hierarchies in which biomedicine occupies the center and Afro-descendant practices are marginalized. Even so, successful local experiences exist in municipalities that incorporate popular practices and PICS in partnership with terreiros and quilombola communities, offering self-care groups, community health events and mapping of medicinal plants.

The article “The right to health of quilombola populations: between vulnerability and resistance” highlights that structural racism affects care relationships, producing distrust and exclusion. At the same time, it identifies a movement of resistance within the communities themselves, where healing practices operate as political acts of “re-existence”- ways of affirming life and the right to difference. By connecting care, spirituality and territory, these practices construct a model of attention that surpasses the clinical dimension and enters the realm of social justice.

Finally, there is an ethical and epistemological dimension: recognizing African-derived knowledge means expanding the concept of science. These systems challenge hierarchical knowledge structures and affirm that bodily wisdom, herbal knowledge and oral traditions are also legitimate ways of producing health. By integrating these systems into the care network, SUS can become a truly plural system – where encounters between biomedical and traditional rationalities generate not only healing but cultural reconciliation.

Afro-descendant healing knowledge constitutes an intangible and epistemological heritage of great relevance to collective health in Brazil. More than religious traditions or therapeutic practices, they represent ways of living, understanding and transforming human suffering in dialogue with the sacred, nature and community.

The articles reviewed show that these practices – whether prayers in quilombos, herbal baths in terreiros or the use of medicinal plants – form complete therapeutic systems, sustained by their own cosmologies and by an ethics of collective care. In the therapeutic itineraries of Black and marginalized populations, these knowledge systems play a central role, not only as healing resources but also as expressions of cultural resistance and broader conceptions of health.

Recognizing and integrating these knowledge systems into the public health system is not merely symbolic inclusion—it is historical reparation. It means legitimizing the voices of the peoples who shaped Brazil and acknowledging that the future of health also depends on listening to ancestral knowledge. Building dialogue between African-derived practices and SUS means constructing a model of care that celebrates diversity and restores balance between the human, the social and the sacred—a true medicine of ancestry and life.