O processo de constituição das deusas do ébano: dança, mulheres negras e vínculos comunitários no contexto do bloco afro Ilê Aiyê

Abstract

This thesis seeks to understand the process of constitution of the Ebony Goddess, a black woman selected each year to lead the Ilê Aiyê Afro Block from Salvador, Bahia. The starting point of the research was the place occupied by dance in the process of selection of the goddess. This topic was later expanded in the course of the research to include the process of “becoming” a Ebony Goddess and the Goddess’s relation to the community. The thesis was built upon ethnographic work as well as interviews with people directly related to the process, mostly Ebony Goddesses. An understanding of the transformations occurred during the process was developed by intertwining data from field work with theoretical references related mainly to the debate on criticism to the coloniality of power (Segato, 2021), the concept of re-existence (Albán Achinte, 2015, 2017), and the Educational Black Movement (“Movimento Negro Educador”) (Gomes, 2017). This understanding took into consideration the perception of goddesses and goddess candidates, as well as of other people involved in the process. Dance proved to be related to the possibilities of building belonging and connecting with ancestry, as well as to other aspects related to a way of being in the world. Finally, the process of constitution of the Ebony Goddess, beyond its connection with the selection of a representative of an Afro block, and as such concerning only that selected black woman and her dance, proved in the end to be related to the project of a community that struggles to (re)affirm itself daily.