Felipe Luther, 37, a scholarship student at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio (PUC-Rio) who also works as a street-sweeper, takes part in an Umbanda ceremony in a terreiro in Campo Grande, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, February 9, 2021. Twice a week, Luther visits a local "terreiro" to practice Umbanda, a religion with origins in West African spiritual traditions. Dressed in all-white clothing with beaded necklaces hanging over his chest, Luther participates in dances, songs and rituals with fellow believers. "It connects me with my ancestry," he said. Popularized in Rio in the 1930s, Umbanda, like fellow Afro-Brazilian religion Candomble, has roots in the transatlantic slave trade, which brought as many as 5 million enslaved people from Africa to Brazil ? 10 times the number brought to the United States. Those who sought to practice their rituals free from the harassment by Europeans would blend their native traditions with elements of Catholicism, creating syncretic religions now practiced by over half a million people in the country. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares SEARCH "BLM OLIVARES" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES