A liderança das mães-de-santo: dilemas e paradoxos na construção da identidade negra
AUTOR(ES)
Maria Salete Joaquim
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO
1996
RESUMO
The research is about the m~es-de-santo (mothers in sainthood) with the status of giving life, doing the santo, in other words, of opening the access to communication with the Orixás. This tona of this acess is completed by the adjectives provider, lhe one who welcomes, educator, lhe one who providas cozy shelter. In this perspectiva, we have gathered data in the city of Salvador, and in the town of Santo Amaro da Purificação, both of them in the State of Bahia. We interviewed m~es-de-santo from lIê Opô Afonjá, Gantois and Maroketo (Keto Nation); Tumba-Junsara and Bate-Folha (Angola Nacion) and lIê Iyá Omin, (Jeje Nation), from 1993to 1995. We included in our research a short historical report on the Black resistence within the Brazilian society; candomblé appears as a hotbed of social and cultural resistence and together with the quilombos, it created a placa where Black people were abre to preserve both their traditions and the Afro-Brazilian identity. The m~es-de-santo is the charismatic and institutional leader of the religious, social and cultural aspects. Her rôles are: priestress of the Orixás; one of the responsibles for the preservation of the traditions and of the Afro-Brazilian identity; and leader, and as such, she intervenes in the every-day fite of those involved in candomblé. In the African cosmovision, in which candomblé fundaments itself in the Nagô-Bantu perspectiva, she appears as Yalaxé, this corresponds to the one who makes possible the circulation of Axé, the vital force that comes from the Orixás, and is passed on to the ancestors in Orum, reaching Aiyê, the word of the living, in the ritual process of this form of religion. Finally, we present some reflexions on the implications that Brisafrom the relations of the mães-de-santo with the Black movements in the construction of the Black people s identity, and from the dillemmas and paradoxes embbeded in the practice of this leadership in today s word
ASSUNTO(S)
identidade afro-brasileira cultos afro-brasileiros negros -- brasil movimentos negros mulheres no candomble psicologia social negros no brasil
