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INFLUENCE
OF
AFRICA
ON
BRAZIL
59
that' the Negro's greatest contribution
to
folklore
is the
forms
of
entertain-
ment that
he has
bequeathed
to us, not the
tales
and
oral literature which
have been handed down
to us'. He
adds, critically examining
the two
main Negro cultures
of the
Bantu (Angolans, Congolese
and
natives
of
Mozambique)
and the
West Africans (Yoruba,
Aja,
Mandinga
and
Hausa),
that
we
owe
far
more
to the
Angolan than
to the
other Bantu Negroes from
the
Congo
and
Mozambique,
for it is to him
that we owe two
of
the most important
amusements
of
African origin:
the
samba
and the
capoeira
(a
form
of
wrestling
popular among Brazilian Negroes).
. . . The
influence
of the
Negro from
the
Congo
was
less important.
It can be
seen
in the
congadas
and the
maracatu
(a
Brazilian Negro dance). Both these entertainments somehow manage
to
include
the procession
of the
King
of
Congo.
We ought also
to
mention
the
mofambiques,
which
are
very similar
to the
congadas.
We
should also stress again
the
importance
of the
religious
cul-
tural heritage
of the
Negro,
for
this
is the
part
of his
'life
in
which
he
most resists assimilation,
and
which
has
been most widely diffused among
coloured
and
non-coloured
peoples'.
The
Afro-Brazilian
cults have
deserved
the
closest attention
of
scholars,
and
they
are as a
rule
of
Yoruba
or secondarily
of
Aja origin,
as
Edison Carneiro has endeavoured
to
show.
42
The preservation
of
fetishist religion
in
forms which
are
syncretized
with Catholic beliefs
and
rituals was,
as
Otavio
da
Costa Eduardo
has
said,
the most important aspect
of the
resistance
of
African culture
to the
pres-
sures
of
the dominant culture, under
the
disadvantages
of
slavery.
43
Roger
Bastide
has
shown that these syncretizations were achieved thanks
to a
convergence
of
religious
and
magical ideas.
44
These cults were
not
only
practised
by
Negroes—
Iemanjd,
the
mother
of
water,
who is
often
con-
fused with
Nossa Senhora
da
Piedade
('Our
Lady
of
Piety')
and
Nossa
Senhora
do
Rosario
('Our
Lady
of the
Rosary')
is
worshipped with
in-
creasing frequency
on the
beaches
of
Rio de Janeiro.
As a
result
of
research
carried
out in
Recife, Rene Ribeiro
has
come
to the
conclusion that
the functioning
of
Afro-Brazilian cults
and a
participation in. and familiarity
with their systems
of
belief
and
rituals offers
the
individual, particularly
if he
belongs
to
certain economic
and
social categories
in the
north-east
of
Brazil,
alternative forms
of
behaviour
and
attitudes towards
the
supernatural, which
have been incorporated into
our
regional sub-culture since
the
very beginnings
of
the
settlement
of
Brazil,
and
which have mainly benefited those situated
on
the lowest rungs
of our
social hierarchy.
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- Fall '09
- Rio de Janeiro
