Rita's voice and cross: African women and communication under the slave system

Abstract

The research on which this article is based focuses on the dilemmas, choices and possibilities of communication and linguistic interaction presented to enslaved Africans. More specifically, it examines the use of what was then called the 'Mina language' (encompassing diverse languages of the Gbe group) from records written in Vila Rica, Minas Gerais by Antônio da Costa Peixoto (Alguns Apontamentos da Língua Mina com as palavras portuguesas correspondentes, 1731, and Obra Nova da Língua Geral de Mina, 1741). The proposal here is to identify the dialogical practices that informed the elaboration of these documents and reveal, subjacent to their declared author, experiences shared by the linguistic communities involved. Pairing the work with contemporary documentation and historiography on slavery and Mina Africans, the article seeks clues to Peixoto's possible informants, especially the female experience, based on their commercial activities, their relationship to writing, and the question of intimacy. It also seeks to explain the theoretical and methodological procedures used in the research, thus contributing to deepening and systematizing our knowledge about the linguistic dimensions of the enslavement of Africans in Brazil.