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Candomblé Reconsidered Sacred Matters

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00:22:07
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We’re here for a conversation on African heritage religions in the African diaspora, namely the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé. Dr. Rachel Harding is Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado and Denver. She is a poet, historian, and scholar of religions of the Afro-Atlantic diaspora. She is author of A Refuge in Thunder Candomblé and Alternative Spaces of Blackness (Indiana University Press, 2003), and she writes about mysticism, creativity, and social justice in the experience of communities of African descent in the United States and Brazil. Donna Roberts is producer, director, and co-writer of the recently completed documentary film, Yemanjá: Wisdom from the African Heart of Brazil, narrated by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker. Ms. Roberts’ background is in broadcast journalism, television production, and environmental advocacy and education. Prior to this film, she wrote and directed Sea of Uncertainty, an award-winning public television documentary about the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.


delete Delete Are you sure?
Wow. Well it's so rich to be able
to be here with the two of you and
have this perfect contextualization within
which to have this conversation because
I usually don't have that opportunity,
it's more, you know, starting from
Candomblé 101, that I, as a filmmaker,
as opposed to a scholar who has lived
and studied it is able to bring,
so thank you first,
both of you for that.
So, you've asked two related questions
my motivation, well, the first time
I traveled to Bahia in 1997
I was just immediately struck
not only by this – the sounds and
the sights and the smells and
the cuisine of this very uniquely
African culture on this side of the Atlantic.
But, as Rachel has said, this visible -
the women and their visible position
of authority in the culture,
in every aspect of the culture,
it is what is most striking in my opinion
about when you, when you first arrive
and are taking in Salvador, Bahia
which was the first capital of Brazil
and as we know the largest former
slave port in the Americas
So, you're struck by the women
and so that initially drew me in
as someone who was an advocate
was still am advocate and activist
for women issues, women's health issues
which, of course, are human issues
they're not just women issues, but . . .
and as an environmentalist,
the more I came to learn about
the integration of the natural world
be it in medicines, in rituals –
it is an integrated culture,
it's not fragmented and, you know,
in this part of the world, in North America,
in most quote unquote industrialized nations,
you know, religion is over here,
it's something perhaps we do on Sundays,
most of us don't even do that anymore,
you know, medicine you go to a doctor,
perhaps you go to a homeopathic practitioner
but you know everything has
its different pockets and moments,
whereas in Candomblé what I began
to discover no, it's, you know, no,
it's all part of one cultural life experience
and best of all most of the traditional
communities or terreiros are led
by elder women and elder women of color
and there is this great honoring
that is extended to the leaders that is,
is, it's unquestioned, it's unchallenged
and it's not that men don't have a role
in these more traditional terreiro
communities because certainly they do
and it's, it's stated that no you cannot
have a community without both men
and women but in these more traditional
communities it was decided,
you know, in the mid-nineteenth century
when they were developing that
women would be the leaders and
this is the way it is and I think
it's such a beautiful model, this,
culture that also includes spirituality,
medicine and it is inclusive,
it's not exclusive, it's something so inspiring.
How the film may address or correct
some of the colonial discourse or errors,
I think that's in a way up to the viewer
to decide, I didn't set out to do that,
what I set out to do was to
allow these leaders, I mean, the film
although it does tell a story and
there is a narrative and
it's beautifully spoken by Alice Walker,
it's really the women leaders who are
telling the stories of Candomblé,
you know, three primary leaders and
an elder who was 109 years old
who punctuates the film with
some of her wise words . . .
it's allowing them, their voices to
tell the stories and I think maybe that
is the response, you know, because
when you, I mean, they say history is
told by the winners of the wars,
you know, in a way it's like, our
history books are filled with stories
that were largely told by elder white men
who speak English and there is a lot,
you know, a lot of stories to be told
by people who have lived and continue
to live extraordinary really rich lives
who don't fit that description whatsoever
and I think, you know, also maybe
something as simple as using
the term enslaved Africans
as opposed to African slaves?
There's reference in the film
by the women who are interviewed
to their ancestors having been
kings and queens?
Does your average high school,
middle school textbook include
that kind of a narrative?
Mine didn't. [laughter]
So, I don't know if that helps
address your question . . .
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