A santa, o mar e o navio: Congada e memórias da escravidão no Brasil

Abstract

In this article I describe and analyze mnemonic mechanics and processes developed by dancers of the feast of congada of São Sebastião do Paraíso, mg. The congada is an Afro descent party that recalls from the Catholic Church, ritualistic and performatively, through the tribute to a black court, an ancestral Africa opposed to emotions of pain and suffering attributed to slavery. In its realization African memories, values and cultural patterns could be preserved and (re) created in Brazil. This paper aims to analyze processes of remembering and creating religious practices, which over a long period of time, maintained relatively secret as forms of knowledge that identify and rank social actors at this party.