“Jeje não é água, Jeje é raíz que estronda”: reafricanização e luta por reconhecimento no discurso de uma Ialorixá pessoense

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the re-Africanization movements of candomblé in João Pessoa, in Paraíba, from the discourse of the ialorixá Mãe Renilda Bezerra de Albuquerque. Reafricanization movements are understood as the attempts of Afro-descendant communities to retake African values to rescue or build traditions that express the particularity of a black-oriented identity. The tradition of studies on the subject has shown that the Reafricanized temples promote, through changes in their worship, a greater approximation with the contemporary African religious model, but they also point out that this movement does not take place in an absolute way, even when those involved in this quest believe in a ritual purity. Each group has a specificity and a different way of processing these dialogues with the African continent, and if, on the one hand, there are many works on the subject, on the other hand, the way in which the phenomenon occurs in the Afro-Paraíba religious field has been little explored. Thus, this research has an empirical perspective and was carried out based on the analysis of documents about the ialorixá available on the internet and data collected in the field. The results achieved point to a re-Africanization in the investigated temple, based on the concept of ritual force (the closer to African rituals, the stronger and more legitimate the cult), on de-Catholicization (rejection of syncretism with a religion of colonial and hegemonic origin) and in an anti-colonial discourse associated with a political strategy of struggle for recognition and the marking of differences.