Objective: to understand health practices of black, elderly people in a terreiro community (community of followers of traditional African-Brazilian religions).
Method: qualitative descriptive study under the Black-African paradigm of civilization constituted by the Black-African cultural complex and the structuring elements of the African cosmovision. Semi-structured interviews were carried out from July to September 2013, with six black older people from a terreiro community in Porto Alegre, RS.
Results: thematic content analysis resulted in the following categories: Ancestry; Belonging: the way to know and practice health; Health knowledge and practices in terreiro communities; and Complementarity: promoting health in the terreiro and traditional medicine and its respective subcategories.
Conclusion: the study understood the importance of having a knowledge of the practices of African traditions in both the lifestyle and health of the older black population to help with nursing planning and interventions in response to their needs.