There is a "Terreiro" in the Forest

(Re)Connections between the Amazons and Africas through Ylê Asé Oba Amacú

Abstract

Amid the genocide perpetrated against the black population from Africa, the diaspora brought to Brazil, in its most varied and hidden regions, suffering and resistance from people enslaved by the colonial system. The text outlined here aimed to reflect on the connections between Africas and the Amazons through religion, via autoenographic methodology – by combining biography and classical ethnography based on post-colonial debates -, obtained through experience at the erês and ibejis festival held in the Ylê Asé Oba Amacú in October 2024, in the city of Manaus, capital of Amazonas, understanding the connections between the particular and the general. The result highlights the importance of making visible the ancestral knowledge preserved in the region, showing, with a focus on the experience of the sacred, pedagogical aspects brought by the accompanied party, as highlighted by the celebration in praise of erês and ibejis, as well as the importance of babalorixás and ialorixás that guide the rituals and the relationship with ancestry in the terreiros. In conclusion, it is also understood that more studies are essential to enable discussion around the black presence in the Amazons, in order to combat racism – including religious and epistemic racism, constituents of structural racism – and the fallacious idea of ​​an insignificant African presence. in the region. In this vein, as suggestions, there is the need for more research in this axis, in order to combat the aforementioned racism based in the Amazon region and in Brazil, through the construction of knowledge aimed at social subjects who experience religion, whether practitioners and/or priests.