As tramas do axé no alto sertão alagoano: memórias do racismo religioso e suas formas de resistência em Delmiro Gouveia (1980-2000)

Abstract

This is an analysis of the historical presence of African religion's origin in Delmiro Gouveia, based on the memories of its oldest practitioners in the region. Oral precepts disseminated about Afro-religious culture generate discriminatory and violent practices, we had significant difficulties in accessing sources. Lato sensu, the accounts of historical characters are fragments of the composition of this document. (POLLAK, 1989), we used the research technique (ALBERTI, 2013) and categorized the research. Other sources were also used: written documents certifying membership of the Umbanda Federation, the terreiro's operating license and photographic records. Analyzing and confronting these records, we realized two fundamental questions that redirected this investigation: the racial aspect in the practices commonly called “religious intolerance” against Afro-Brazilian religions. Ahead of , we found that few works take this racial perspective of problematization and propose the use of the concept of Religious Racism (MOTA, 2019; NOGUEIRA, 2020) which has become a central point of our reflection. The history of Afro-religious practices in Delmiro Gouveia is permeated by multiple tensioned and disputed conflicts, which makes us deny merely fatalistic or romantic perspectives. In this sense, we analyze it from the analysis of power proposed by Michel Foucault (1999; 2011; 1979). In this sense, we perceive power games between expressions of religious racism and forms of resistance to it in the space. This perspective brought us closer to the, still small, but relevant production on the history of Afro religions in Delmiro Gouveia (SANTOS, 2019; TORRES, 2019; GOMES, 2020; SANTOS, 2022) with which this research adds up as a contribution to broadening the horizons of historical reflection. Pondering on the Afro-Brazilian religious in this location is still a very challenging intellectual exercise, but we believe that we have managed to understand some of the dynamics through which Afro-religious people are historical subjects who dispute exercises of power not only around their faith, but also memories and social relations in this community