Somanlu: Journal of Amazonian Studies

Editorial

Ludolf Waldmann Júnior — 2025-04-01

The Quilombo of Abacatal

Amanda Cardoso da Silva — 2024-12-31

The present work is based on interviews conducted with female leaders of the Quilombo of Abacatal, located 8 km from the center of the city of Ananindeua, in the metropolitan region of Belém, Pará. Since its origin in 1710, the quilombolas of Abacatal have faced ongoing conflicts in their struggle to remain on their territory. The quilombo covers an area of just over 508 hectares, comprising approximately 150 families and around 500 inhabitants. Our conversations with these leaders were part of the activities aimed at producing and disseminating scientific knowledge within the extension project "Pandemics in the Amazon", carried out by the Department of Anthropology (DAN) and the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology (PPGAS) at the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM). The interviews were conducted in two sessions, and the interview presented here is based on the second session, granted by Amanda Cardoso, a community health agent in the quilombo. Our methodology consisted of a semi-structured, online interview with audiovisual recording via Google Meet. Among the topics addressed, we discussed the quilombolas’ resistance to public-private enterprises encroaching on their territory, the impacts of the pandemic, and the significance of female leadership within the quilombo.

Presentation of the Dossier "Amazon(s) and Africa(s): Political, Economic, and Sociocultural Connections"

Manuel Henriques Matine — 2024-12-31

Linguistic Re-Signification in Mozambique

Sóstenes Valente Rêgo — 2024-12-31

The article addresses linguistic and cultural aspects of Mozambique related to Portuguese colonization and the actions of successive governments of independent Mozambique, with the aim of identifying, correcting, and re-signifying cultural, linguistic, symbolic, and mythological inaccuracies committed during these two periods, which negatively and permanently affected the issues mentioned above. It also aims to advocate for the re-Africanization of the spirits of Africans and the strengthening of cultural identity. This approach uses a methodology that is appropriate and adapted to the oral cultures and traditions, whose sources are inscribed in nature and society, in which the author(s) are the linguistic community itself — the elders, guardians, living libraries of ancestral knowledge. Since this is research about Mozambique — Africa, it would make little sense to use a methodology disconnected from Sub-Saharan realities. It appears to be an innovative approach and may be of interest to academia insofar as it is part of the struggles of the peoples of the Global South for their liberation and cultural, linguistic, academic, epistemological, mental, spiritual decolonization, and the consequent re-Africanization of spirits (Amílcar Cabral) and the assertion of Afrocentric epistemologies, consistent with the realities of these spaces in question — a sine qua non condition for the development of these countries. The data analyzed are corruptions of anthroponyms, chrononyms, eponyms, toponyms, etc., scattered throughout Mozambique, which were deliberately destroyed and replaced by Portuguese labels, attempting to erase ancestral African memories — memories that are essential to seek to correct and restore. They imposed their names on territories and people such as the Americas, Brazil (Pindorama), Mozambique, António, Conceição, Domingos, Patrícia, through baptisms, standards, branding with hot iron, even when people already had their ethnic names. To assign another identity or name is the art of destroying authenticity, a subtle form of domination and occupation (Nêgo Bispo). The eradication of indigenous languages in colonized areas, the annihilation or looting of local knowledge, the alienation of entire peoples — these are all strategies of the same crimes against humanity. They even criminalized (prohibited) the cultures, languages, and religions of the colonized. They were to be the sole holders of cultures, languages, knowledge, religions, and civilizations. The writings of colonialists about the colonized peoples are full of distortions and traps. All peoples possess knowledge, skills, and wisdom, but the monolithic worldview of a single God, a single truth or certainty (The Principle of Uncertainty), a single way of being and existing, does not recognize polytheism, multiple and fluid truths, or other ways of being and living. For these forces, all other peoples are seen as sub-human, devoid of knowledge, pagans, etc. The absence of written records by the native peoples of Mozambique complicates the recovery of what was destroyed — but it is not impossible. Some knowledge has survived to this day through polytheistic cosmologies and oral transmission from generation to generation (Nêgo Bispo). This article, written from orality, with oral sources, is an effort towards the revitalization of ancestral memories that were destroyed and erased by invaders and colonizers, learning from orality in order to rewrite and restore what was destroyed. Because “no one can speak better about the life of a people than their songs” (Nêgo Bispo). Therefore, there are few written sources. In this sense, the concepts and methodologies used were reviewed and updated to suit spaces of oral traditions and cultures, where writing is marginal, limited, and restricted to official and elitist domains. This has direct implications for the written bibliography, which ends up being scarce; oral sources, on the other hand, are original/primary because they are obtained first-hand from the very protagonists — the cultural and linguistic community. It is unreasonable for Western paradigms to consider the millennia-old oral cultures of most peoples around the world as “non-cultures.” This notion has become widespread and has kept many valuable types of knowledge away from science.

The Koumpo

Eugène Tavares — 2024-12-31

The koumpo is a mask that plays an important role in the cultural life of the people of Ziguinchor. It is considered a mystical, mythical, sacred and profane character. It accompanies key events in social life and plays a part in the traditional education of young people, shaping their cultural imagination. Like the kankourang, it fights evil spirits and protects the inhabitants. Like all masks, the koumpo obeys a set of rituals whose secrets are known only to the initiated. In the past, the city of Ziguinchor had many sacred koumpo woods, the most important of which were the sacred woods of Boucotte, Kandé, Santhiaba and Tilène. The aim of this contribution is to provide a better understanding of this mythical character and to revisit his place in the cultural space of Ziguinchor, a region considered to be one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan in Senegal.

Appeasing the Spirits, Illuminating Visions, and Self-Defense

Maria Henrique Fernando — 2024-12-31

The objective of this article is to explore the social grammar associated with the capulanas of the tinyanga. The study is based on data collected through field research conducted in the city of Maputo, complemented by academic analyses from other researchers. The central argument highlights the significant presence of capulanas in the daily lives of the tinyanga, both as attire and as a tool of their practice. In the former case, capulanas are worn freely in various social contexts and situations, outside any formal normative framework. As a working tool, they embody a set of communicative codes used to appease spirits, enhance visions, and serve as a means of self-protection.

Local Customary Practices for the Conservation of Biocultural Heritage in Mozambique

Alberto Augusto Rofasse Madinho — 2024-12-31

This article focuses on the customary conservation practices of the sacred forest as a natural heritage category, in interaction with khu-phalha and myths as intangible cultural heritage categories. The aim is to analyse and demonstrate how the intangible cultural practices of ku-phalha and myths contribute to forest conservation and vice versa. Methodologically, the research is supported by bibliographical research and fieldwork based on direct observation and oral history. From the research carried out between 2023 and 2024, in Mozambique, Inhambane Province, Govuro District, Save Locality, it is concluded that the practices of khu-phalha and myths attribute a symbolic value linked to the sacredness of the place, which is described as a forest where a group of plants are present that are believed to have cultural value and a syncretic religious magical character. Sacredness implies the creation of a set of inhibitions on the exploitation of ecosystem services, which translates into the protection and conservation of the forest. Khu-phalha has in the forest yet another space for its practice, its transmission and continuity for new generations. Conservation finds its broad sense of application in the symbolic analytical category of Ku-phalha, because the forest is another space for conservation and protection practices, with a view to their transmission and continuity for new generations. There is an interaction between ku-phalha, myths and the forest, which translates into the conservation of both heritages, and this interaction leads to what is known as biocultural heritage conservation practices. This article aims to answer questions about the role of these customary and customary dictates in the process of maintaining representative and symbolic spaces of intangible heritage.

The Memory of the Slave Trade in Mozambique

Bernardino Cordeiro Feliciano — 2024-12-31

It is known that Colonial Education in Mozambique fought the integration of local knowledge, considering it traditional and, therefore, backward, which would compromise the project of Portuguese colonialism. Immediately after independence, from the reformulation of the Colonial Education System (SEC) to the creation of the National Education System (SNE), through Law 4/83, local knowledge gained significance, although implied, in the training of students. Then, with the introduction of Law 6/92 and the approval of the New Basic Education Curriculum, in 2003, local knowledge under the name Local Curriculum became part of the curricular subjects and 20% of the teaching time was reserved for the Subject of Social Sciences that took place in the 4th-7th Classes. In this way, the article seeks to analyze the slave trade in the ports of Inhambane, as well as local knowledge at the Primary School at 7 of april in the City of Inhambane.

The Slave Trade to Grão-Pará in the correspondences of Governors during the Commercial Monopoly (1757-1778)

Diego Pereira Santos — 2024-12-31

This article is the result of the collection of new historical sources and the treatment of the slave trade to the northern region of the colony, particularly to Grão-Pará, during the period of validity of the monopoly exercised by the General Company of Commerce of Grão-Pará and Maranhão (1757-1778). The existence of a consolidated historiography on the slave trade during the Pombaline period did not establish a complete history that cannot be investigated or researched from other places and historical records. In this sense, based on the inquiry of the “Original correspondence of the governors of Pará with the court” (20 books, 4 used in this article), we seek to analyze the transit of slaves in Pará, but from other perspectives, mainly the dimension of the presence of slaves and their agents, here emphasized from the administration of the Company, its masters/captains and, when possible, also owners of slave ships). The methodology for analyzing the data was essentially quantitative, since it prioritized the aridity of the numbers and the organization and tabulation in tables. However, it established a dialogue and understanding of the figures in the context of the government of José I and the policy implemented by the Pombaline ministry and its interlocutors, in particular the governors of Pará, regarding the issue related to labor. The results lean towards an analysis of the people who were involved in the slave trade in the Amazon in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, as well as their agencies as subjects equally necessary for understanding the functioning of mercantile logic.

Torto Arado and the Colonial Reconfiguration

Adelci Silva dos Santos — 2024-12-31

This article presents an analysis and problematization of the theme of the colonial impact on identity and gender construction, based on the hermeneutics of the book "Torto Arado" by Itamar Vieira Junior (2019). The problem we focus our attention on is around the accounts of being a woman described in the aforementioned work. As a hypothesis, we emphasize the role of art, especially literature, in making explicit the toxic and violent relationships that mark the relationships between women, men, and society. In a journey of bibliographic review, we will use Michel Foucault (2019) as an epistemological basis to reflect on the relationship between philosophy, literature, and gender construction, as well as dialogue with contemporary theorists in the field of the construction of southern epistemologies, specifically Lélia González (2022) and Schwarcz (2012), both bringing to light the entanglements related to blackness and the female body. Finally, we highlight that heteronormativity, a product of coloniality, exerts power of control and subjugation, so that the aesthetic experience allows, on the one hand, the confrontation with realities and, at the same time, propositions related to the constitution of modes of subjectivity.

There is a "Terreiro" in the Forest

Antônio Lago da Silva Júnior — 2024-12-31

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.