Identity refiguration and slavery in Brazil

Abstract

This article presents and analyses the dramatic staging by the mother-of-saint of a terreiro in Rio de Janeiro, which recounts the departure, the voyage, and the arrival of African slaves in Brazil. The play is put on as an educational activity by the children and members of the family-of-saint of the candomblé terreiro. The narrative conveys a central idea: that the slaves came to Brazil bearing with them a material and intangible culture, and a memory of traditions transferred to Brazil by those who were able to resist the laws of slavery and the conditions of servility. The candomblé, a religion with strong political implications in this instance, is a structural element of the narrative, as its deities become characters in the play, those of slaves and ancestors who become not only deities but also liberators. The figure of the slave as victim is thus reversed and transformed into hero, while a new narrative of the Brazilian nation gives slaves and Africa a leading and civilizing role.