Historicity and Race in Afro-American Religions in Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article discusses how theories of mestiçagem and syncretism in Brazil have constituted the arsenal of scientific-political thought that framed Afro-Brazilian religions, in one way or another, within a perspective of historical continuities and ruptures, as well as in terms of purity or mixture. A certain use of historicity worked to situate these religions and their practitioners before the “horizon of death” (Ferreira da Silva 2007). Conversely, although bearing the marks of the perverse effects of colonial violence and antiblackness, these Afro-American religions offer a perspective that does not fall into essentiality or pure historicity. Drawing on Denise Ferreira da Silva and Saidiya Hartman, I argue that the logic intrinsic to Afro-Brazilian religions point to other possible perspectives, displacing historicity and the attempt to inscribe a transparent I (Ferreira da Silva 2007), enabling the production of an emancipatory text connecting different struggles beyond Brazilian borders.