Yalorixás are mães de santo, priestresses of the Candomblé religion. Although they receive social recognition and have the power to mobilize people, they also suffer from racism or intolerance inside or outside their own communities. This article aims to discuss the relationship between school education and religiosity from the point of view of five Yalorixás, in the Baixada Fluminense area. Through interviews and observations, carried out between May 2014 and January 2015 in four different terreiros (sacred sites) of the region, we identified how these religious leaders perceive intolerance and racism and how they critically approach religious education in the public school system of Rio de Janeiro State.
Public Education; Religious Education; Candomblé; Racism