Father Joaquim of Angola

Father Joaquim De Angola always wears white pants, no shirt and only one leash. He carries his pipe in his left hand and a white pemba in his right hand. Talking about Pai Joaquim D'Angola is not an easy task. It is wonderful to be able to work with this entity. Whenever he does, even for quick jobs, he always leaves great lessons. He always speaks with affection to consultants and other mediums, even when he is irritated with their actions, procedures or when there is something wrong in the terreiro. When incorporated, it always brings a very cozy feeling of relief. His first concern is to clean the medium with whom he is going to work, keeping him energetically balanced so that he does not carry anything bad while he works. His way of working is very peculiar. He works on both sides and can turn the work to the left without anyone in the yard being able to easily notice. He always presents himself with a great sense of humor and always tries to leave his lessons in a simple and objective way, so that there are no doubts about the subject. He is an excellent connoisseur of the medicinal properties of plants. His specialty is working with health. Father Joaquim D'Angola is the head of the phalanx and it is worth noting that his phalanx is enormous. He has great influence over his subordinates and a very large team of Exús at his service. Pai Joaquim, like many Pretos-Velhos, was brought to Brazil at the time of slavery. He was a simple resident of a village in Angola, today called Lobito, when there was the Portuguese invasion. The Portuguese enslaved several blacks who were in good health to serve as slaves on the other side of the Atlantic. Father Joaquim was torn away from his family, he had a wife and children at that time. One of his children begat a son named Tomáz, his grandson, today an entity known in Umbanda who presents himself with the name of Pai Tomáz. When Pai Joaquim arrived in Brazil, he worked for the rest of his life on a sugarcane and coffee farm in the region of Minas Gerais. During his life on the farm, he began to be called Pai Joaquim because he was the healer of the tribe that formed. He always had a way of relieving his brothers' physical suffering through the use of plants, developing teas, ointments and poultices. He was very skilled at cheering his brothers with messages of affection and hope. He always had a good lesson to teach. His miraculous deeds with his brothers drew the attention of the landlords who began to take their loved ones to be treated by Pai Joaquim. He lovingly treated them in the best possible way. The news of his deeds was spreading among the closest communities, which denoted him as a healer and, for some people at the time, simply a witch, knowledgeable of black magic and, at this time, totally condemned by the Catholic Church. One day, a child, the daughter of one of the masters, was taken to Pai Joaquim to be treated for his illness. She had serious health problems. At the beginning of the treatment, Pai Joaquim already knew that she was taken too late and that it would be almost impossible to restore her long-awaited health. The gentleman, the child's father, said that if Pai Joaquim did not cure her of such an illness, he himself would try to order her death and that this would happen with a lot of suffering. Father Joaquim, with all his knowledge, could not restore her health and the child ended up disincarnating. After the pain of loss, the lord immediately ordered that old Joaquim be flogged to death, so that in this way all the others would learn who they were dealing with and that no other means of healing would help him if it were not for the traditional one. The lords of the farms would no longer tolerate the acts of healers, nor black people who held the power to manipulate the spells that only they knew. Pai Joaquim was flogged for a whole day, without any food or even a little water. During his torture session, he cried and asked God to take him, as his pain was unbearable. Not only the pain of the flesh, but also the pain of his feelings, where he did so much to bring peace, joy and health to those who now scourged him without mercy. The more time passed, the more Father Joaquim hated everything he had done for his neighbor, and the worse, he began to hate God for his Laws and for what he had in store for him in life. "How could such a good and just God allow this to be done to me? I who have always watched over his laws and his teachings? I who was enslaved and the rest of my life was condemned to work like a beast of burden? me, oh my God, to treat me like an animal, when what I wanted most was to treat my fellow men in the most humane way, transmitting to them the love that the Lord tries so hard to teach us!!!

I, who was just love, now turn into hate, for everything I've done and that I deserve, now I'm being whipped in this fragile body, tired of work and time!!! Where are you, my God, who does not protect me in this hour of my greatest agony???" Father Joaquim left the earthly plane at dusk, when the sunlight no longer warmed his body. He found himself enveloped in a white mist. Scary what he felt because he still carried with him the pain of the whips, the longing for his brothers... the love for his own... Alone and lost, he began to pray once more. or at least tell him what to do or where to go. After a good time of anguished waiting, irritated by this situation, he began to rant: "And now??? Where is this God that you always taught me that exists??? That God is the one who simply left me when I needed Him the most??? What is this God who instead of teaching me love taught me pain??? What God is this???" While he was raging, he noticed that his feet were not touching the ground. He stopped talking for a moment. He looked back and saw that the one holding him in his arms was Jesus Christ, who was walking towards the Father. Jesus said to him: "- Take it easy, my old man, my friend, my brother, your pain is over. And where we are going you will never feel pain again, you will never miss you again, you will never feel loneliness again and you will have everyone you love by your side!" The child whose illness it was not possible to cure today accompanies this dear Preto-Velho in all his works in which she participates. She only incorporates in mediums who have a great vibratory affinity with Pai Joaquim and who are very balanced during the work. Its incorporation is only necessary when determined by Pai Joaquim. Pai Joaquim (or Iquemí) was a strong warrior, the promised son of an African royal family, from Angola, Africa, to reign with his people. Iquemí was a majestic prince, loved his freedom, his loves, a legitimate son of Xangô But in the midst of a war of fighting for power, Iquemí was imprisoned by an enemy tribe who handed him over to the white merchants. Iquemí, the great warrior, prince of his tribe, was in despair . Trapped like an animal, he came in the hold of a ship to the desperate cries of his colored enemies. The slave merchant, owner of the ship on which Iquemí came, learned of the prominence of having a prince among other slaves, observed his size, his beauty, his perfect teeth and his muscular body, but saw in his eyes that he would not submit to the ill-treatment in becoming a slave. The slave merchant is called Manoel Joaquim, born in Lisbon, he then decided to stay with Iquemí on his farm in the lands of Bahia. So Iquemí arrived in Bahia and went to the merchant's farm. But Iquemí did not accept being a slave, the merchant became fond of Iquemí due to his courage, his strength and prominence among black people, little did he know that under the light of spiritism both were like souls united by destiny. Iquemí gained the friendship of Senhor Manoel Joaquim, who had only one son who died early with the plague, he loved Iquemí as a son and one day he said to him: "- Negro, you don't have a name, a real name, a name where you will be known, I will think of what to call you." The merchant fell seriously ill, and before dying he named Iquemí Manoel Joaquim de Luanda, at Iquemí's request. His fame spread across lands, as he grew older he became the father of all, Pai Manoel Joaquim de Luanda or Pai Joaquim D’Angola. His role in slavery was very important. He promoted peace among his colored brethren. Kind, a true Christian, Pai Joaquim received his first straw hat given by a local church bishop when his head was already all white. He suffered a lot in captivity, but he never forgot his big old hand Africa. To you, my father and dear friend with whom I have the great pleasure of working, Saravá!