Candomble has been illegal, semi-legal or harassed for most of its existence. Colonial and imperial authorities treated African religion as witchcraft. After abolition in 1888 the republic prosecuted it under laws against curandeirismo, unlicensed healing, and against public nuisance. Police raided terreiros, seized and destroyed ritual objects, and catalogued them as criminal evidence; in Bahia, houses had to obtain authorisation from a police vice department to hold ceremonies, and paid for the permit, a requirement lifted only in 1976 after a direct appeal to the state governor by one of Salvador's leading priestesses.
Official acceptance came late and unevenly. The listing of the Casa Branca terreiro by the federal heritage institute in 1984, the first non-Catholic place of worship in Brazil to receive such protection, marked the turn. Candomble is now embedded in the national image of Bahia and in Brazilian music, food and literature.
Acceptance has not ended hostility. Reports of religious intolerance to Brazil's national complaints line have risen steeply over the past decade, and Afro-Brazilian religions account for a share of cases far out of proportion to their numbers. Terreiros have been vandalised and burned, and in some urban areas houses have been driven out under threat by armed groups. Preaching that identifies orixas with demons is a significant driver, and practitioners increasingly describe what they face as religious racism rather than intolerance, on the ground that the target is African origin as much as belief.
Within the religion, the twentieth century brought a movement to strip out Catholic elements adopted under duress, restore Yoruba liturgical language and re-establish contact with Nigeria and Benin. Some houses have gone far in that direction. Others keep the saints, hold that syncretism is now part of what they are, and regard the purifying project as an outside imposition. The disagreement is unresolved and is argued house by house.