Afro-Umbandistas, cultural workers and Black activists : Conflicts and alliances in the strategies of cultural legitimation of Afro-Brazilian religions in Argentina and Uruguay

ALEJANDRO FRIGERIO

Paris

Simposio; Religions afro-americaines et dynamiques transnationales.; 2008

Programme Relitrans de la Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (ANR ? Francia) -SUD-. Université Paris X-Nanterre

In this paper I want to stress the fact that Afro-American religions, due to their racial origins, have become inevitably enmeshed in the constructions of the nation or of the region where they originated ( or in the national and regional narratives). According to the place awarded to the Black cultural heritage in this construction, their existence may be highlighted, downplayed or ignored. Even when they are awarded a place, it is more easily bestowed as ?cultural heritage? or ?folklore? than as a legitimate religion or spiritual quest. This has happened in Brazil (even in Bahia) and in Cuba, at least until recently. The fact that they have been considered mostly ?folklore? or ?culture? (or, for some variants, not even this) has consequences for their transnationalization. This precarious place they are awarded within the nation or the region in the primary diasporas where they originated, becomes lost when they disseminate through secondary diasporas. Here they must again, try to regain a place in the (new) nation. I argue that each Afro-American religious variant, apart from its religious beliefs and practices carries with it what can be called a cultural script : an interpretive framework, tightly connected to religious identity and to designing actions of religious group members with respect to sociocultural institutions and other social groups within a given society.