We are Yoruba” or the Notion of African Art in Brazil

Bibliographic Data

ID9024784
AuthorsJuliana Ribeiro Da Silva Bevilacqua (0000-0003-3484-5442, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume57
Issue3
Pages1-6
Publication date2024-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican Arts (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-9933 • E-ISSN: 1937-2108
PublisherMIT Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1162/afar_a_00771
OpenAlexW4402208944
LanguageEN
References cited11

On October 23, 2004, the Afro Brazil Museum1 was inaugurated in São Paulo with a long-term exhibition featuring just over a thousand works from the private collection of its founder and curator, Emanoel Araujo (1940-2022). Among the sections of the exhibition, there was one dedicated to African art, mainly exhibiting works of Yoruba origin, such as Gelede and Egungun masks and Ibeji figures, among others. When I asked Araujo about the reasons for the predominance of works from these particular people, he immediately responded, “because we are Yoruba.” Twenty years after this exchange, and despite numerous studies on the Yoruba presence in Brazil, little attention has been given to the notion of African art constructed in Brazil, which reverberates in museum collections and in how objects have been acquired, documented, and exhibited. Without the pretense of providing definitive answers, I want to offer some clues to understand this complex dynamic.The construction of a distinctively Brazilian idea of African art, based mainly on Yoruba works, is undoubtedly related to African heritage in Brazil being deeply and historically linked to Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion based on the worship of the orishas, voduns, inquices, or caboclos, depending on its denomination or nação.2 The role of Candomblé terreiros (temples or houses) and their priests in the construction and consolidation of this idea cannot be overlooked. They have had and continue to have a fundamental role in maintaining relations with Nigeria and Benin, whether through political articulations, travels and exchanges, contact with intellectuals and artists, or through the commercialization of products and objects for ceremonies. Another aspect that seems to have been important was the dissemination in widely circulated newspapers of images of objects seized during police persecutions of the terreiros, which persisted until at least the 1940s (see Valle 2018). These images revealed to a broader audience, albeit in a pejorative way, objects that were often only accessible to practitioners and other attendees of the terreiros.A group of physicians who predominantly worked in the state of Bahia until the first half of the twentieth century, including Raimundo Nina Rodrigues (1862-1906), Arthur Ramos (1903-1949), and Estácio de Lima (1897-1984),3 also played a significant role in solidifying the predominantly Yoruba image of African art in Brazil. These three physicians collected and studied objects related to Candomblé, produced both in Brazil and on the African continent, contributing to the establishment of a history of African material culture in Brazil through their collections and publications (Conduru 2023). Additionally, a vast array of intellectuals and artists, whether practitioners or not, also had a direct or indirect impact on the formation of African art collections in Brazil, exemplified by individuals like the French ethnologist and photographer Pierre Verger (1902-1996) and the artist and curator Emanoel Araujo.The images of objects seized during police persecutions of Candomblé terreiros in various regions of Brazil, such as the states of Bahia, Alagoas, and Rio de Janeiro, published in widely circulated newspapers, reveal that those of African origin shared the same space with those produced in Brazil and likely played similar roles in the ceremonies and shrines of Candomblé. A newspaper article published at A Tarde (Salvador, Bahia) on June 22, 1940, regarding the seizure of objects at a Candomblé terreiro in Amoreiras, on Itaparica Island, Bahia, highlights that the confiscated objects, according to the 97-year-old priest himself, “date back to the time of slavery, with some even coming from Africa” (see Ribeiro Junior 2008).This hypothesis is reinforced by a publication by physician Raimundo Nina Rodrigues, a doctor and forensic pathologist who applied his medical training to the study of Afro-Brazilian cultural practices. In 1904, Nina Rodrigues published the text “Fine Art Among the Black Settlers of Brazil—Sculptures” (Rodrigues and Raitt 2016) where he presented a collection of Afro-Brazilian objects alongside others from Africa collected in terreiros from Bahia, establishing a direct relationship between them and the art traditions of Nigeria and Benin.Nina Rodrigues inaugurated the studies of material culture of African origin in Brazil and paved the way for other scholars, such as the physician Arthur Ramos, who in 1949 published the article “Negro Art in Brazil” (Ramos and Engman 2016). Despite dedicating part of his text to the discussion of African art (not limited to that only from Nigeria and Benin), Ramos was interested, as the title of his text indicates, in understanding how African art “survived” in Brazil. Ramos categorically asserts that sculptural traditions in Brazil came directly from Benin and Nigeria. However, according to him, the process of transformation of Candomblé sculptures produced in Brazil, which at that time were formally distinct from those of African origin, would have been motivated by the scarcity of pieces arriving over time in Brazil directly from the African continent. The author highlights that at the time Nina Rodrigues published his text, it was common to find objects from the African continent. However, the following decades were marked by a decrease in more direct contact with these sculptures, which would have contributed to Brazilian sculptors developing a distinct style (see Salum 2017).Ramos's statements should be analyzed with caution, since the arrival of objects from Africa in Candomblé terreiros did not cease over time but underwent transformations. It is highly likely that among the enslaved people from the regions of Nigeria and Benin were undoubtedly skilled wood sculptors. The recollection of this abundant material culture, deeply ingrained in the daily lives of these Africans before they were forced onto slave ships, could also have played a pivotal role in their spread throughout Brazil. Although formal records of the arrival of these objects have not been found, it is worth noting the existence of a trade in sculptures to Brazil during the Atlantic slave trade. In this context, I highlight the work Economia e cultura do Candomblé na Bahia: o comércio de objetos litúrgicos afro-brasileiros—1850/1937, by Flávio Gonçalves dos Santos (2013). The author examines the commercial exchanges between Brazil and Africa involving products used in the worship of orishas, even though he does not mention documented evidence to support them. Nevertheless, this significant limitation does not preclude considering the role of travelers, Candomblé leaders, and practitioners in the small-scale commercial exchanges of items related to the ceremonies, which certainly included the trade or commissioning of sculptures.In this context, “Entre memória, mito e história: viajantes transatlânticos da Casa Branca” by Lisa Earl Castillo (2012) is an article that delves into the journeys to Africa undertaken by individuals associated with the Casa Branca terreiro in Salvador, Bahia, among other topics. One of the notable figures emphasized by Castillo is Martiniano Eliseu do Bomfim (1859-1953), who also served as an informant for Nina Rodrigues in his research. Born in Bahia and son of Yoruba parents, Bomfim was taken to Lagos in 1875, where he lived for eleven years. During his time there, he acquired fluency in the Yoruba language and was initiated into the Ifa divination system, eventually becoming a babalawo. After his return to Brazil, he embarked on at least two additional trips to Africa.Interviews with Bomfim in the early decades of the twentieth century reveal that his father traded African products like kola nuts, black soap, and palm oil, suggesting frequent Atlantic crossings. Both Bomfim and his father likely commissioned sculptures for use in Candomblé rituals during their voyages. Moreover, these religious leaders not only traveled to Africa but also moved within Brazil, contributing to the establishment of other Candomblé terreiros. For instance, Rodolfo Manoel Martins de Andrade (1820-1904), known as Babalawo Bamboxê Obitikô, was instrumental in founding the Casa Branca terreiro. Of Yoruba descent, Bamboxê settled in Bahia and Lagos, significantly advancing the worship of orishas in various parts of Brazil, including Rio de Janeiro (Castillo 2016).A complete account of the dissemination of Yoruba sculptures in Brazil remains obscure, and the circulation of these sculptures throughout the country via this network of religious leaders is a topic that requires further exploration. The Afro-Brazilian sculptures derived from Yoruba art do not, by themselves, explain the preference of Brazilian museums for acquiring Yoruba works for their collections, but the historical connection between these Brazilian productions and those originating from Benin and Nigeria was the reason why many institutions acquired works from these regions of the African continent for their collections. Another aspect that should be considered is that this direct relationship between Brazilian and African production reinforces the link of “continuity” or “survival” of Africans in Brazil, contributing to the idea of African art constructed in Brazil, unlike that created in Europe, not referring to the history of “others,” which also helps us understand Araujo's response to my question.The objects seized by the police in Candomblé terreiros for a long time occupied the showcases of police museums or ethnographic and anthropological museums without being truly recognized as art, even if Nina Rodrigues himself used the expression “fine art” in an article from 1904 (Conduru 2019; see also Conduru 2023). There was also no distinction in how objects produced in Brazil or in Africa were displayed, as in most cases they were not accurately identified. Even though more recently Brazilian museums have been concerned with distinguishing objects produced in Brazil or on the African continent, Candomblé objects produced in Brazil have continued to share the same room as African art and have often been exhibited in dialogue with objects from other regions of the continent. This is exemplified by the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, whose collection was destroyed in a fire in 2018. Four years before its destruction, the museum had opened the long-term exhibition Kumbukumbu: Africa, Memory, and Heritage, curated by Mariza Soares de Carvalho (2016). The exhibition was divided into sections: “Africa, Past and Present”; “The Colonial War”; “The Peoples of the Equatorial Forest and Their Surroundings”; “Angola after Atlantic Slavery”; “Diplomacy of Friendship”; and “Africans in Brazil.” The section dedicated to Africans in Brazil brought together objects seized from Candomblé terreiros in Rio de Janeiro in the nineteenth century, which were loaned to the National Museum between 1880 and 1887 at the request of the then director, Ladislau de Souza Mello Netto. In the same section were objects acquired in Bahia in 1940 and 1953 by the anthropologist and then director of the National Museum, Heloísa Alberto Torres. The collection included wooden sculptures representing the orishas, which were carved by José Afonso de Santa Isabel, as well as an agogô, a musical instrument commonly used in Candomblé ceremonies, and small stools also used in the terreiros. The section also displayed pipes, likely belonging to enslaved peoples, found in archaeological excavations in Rio de Janeiro, and three objects whose origin had not been identified until 2018: an Ifa opele and two edans.The exhibition room Kumbukumbu was generally known as the “Africa room,” despite also displaying Brazilian objects. What is striking, however, is the disassociation between most African objects exhibited and those related to Candomblé. At the time of the fire, the Museum exhibited perhaps the only work identified as Yoruba in the collection, a Gelede mask. The presence of only one Yoruba object in the exhibition did not, therefore, justify the dialogue with Yoruba-derived works of Candomblé. Even though unintentional, the exhibition ended up associating objects from different parts of the continent that lacked any formal or historical relationship with the Brazilian objects exhibited there. It is worth noting that in 1911, Pr. Etienne Brazil published the text “O Fetichismo dos Negros do Brasil” and included images of various African works from the National Museum as well as those published by Nina Rodrigues in his 1904 article (Brazil 1911). Among these works were minkisi (power figures) from Kongo and a figure of a chief (mwanangana) from the Chokwe people, which Brazil interpreted as somehow related to the orishas, despite their provenance not indicating any previous connection with a Candomblé terreiro.The Afro Brazil Museum is yet another example of how the idea of African art as linked to Candomblé came to encompass objects from other regions of Africa. Since its inauguration, the museum has diversified its collection through the acquisition of works not historically linked to Brazil. However, the room dedicated to these productions remains in direct dialogue with that dedicated to Candomblé, which displays orisha tools and garments used in ceremonies. In this same section, there is a large installation called the Coroa de Xangô [Crown of Shango], a clear reference to one of the most traditional Candomblé terreiros in Brazil, the Ilê Axé Iyá Nassó Oká, known as Casa Branca (Fig. 1). In Casa Branca, the crown sits atop its central pillar, in the same place where festivities and ceremonies take place. In 2011, the restoration of the crown made headlines in some newspapers and may have influenced the Afro Brazil Museum's decision to create the installation shortly thereafter. The installation was carried out by the visual artist and Candomblé practitioner Antonio Miranda. At that time, Araujo was already familiar with the original temple, as he had visited Casa Branca many times and had close friends in that terreiro.At the Afro Brazil Museum, the Coroa de Xangô serves as a direct link between the Candomblé showcases and the African art displays. Interestingly, inside the installation, there is a set of oshes Shango in wood made both in Brazil and on the African continent, which for a long time remained unidentified. Although the installation was not built to be a sacred temple, since its creation many visitors have offered coins and other gifts, which until recently were incorporated as part of the installation. Despite Araujo's diversification of the African art collection at the Afro Brazil Museum, its relationship with Candomblé remains strong today, reinforced by the public's reception as evidenced by the case of Coroa de Xangô.A similar movement has been happening not only in museums but in terreiros as well. Increasingly, objects from various parts of the African continent have been incorporated into Candomblé terreiros. Although not necessarily related to the orishas, these objects have been reinterpreted, receiving new meanings and functions. Unfortunately, the recent incorporation of these objects into Candomblé terreiros has not been properly documented or received adequate attention from researchers. Considering that Brazil is experiencing a sharp increase of religious intolerance in which various terreiros are being attacked by followers of neo-Pentecostal religions, these significant transformations risk remaining neglected or disappearing without proper documentation. Unlike the police persecutions of terreiros between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, which confiscated objects and allocated at least some of them to museums and other institutions, in the current context, they have been completely destroyed.Araujo was not the first to inaugurate this connection between African art and Candomblé in a museum. Before him, Pierre Verger had already contributed in many ways to strengthen this connection. Two years after moving to Bahia, Verger began his spiritual and research journey in Benin and Nigeria. Before departing for Africa in 1948, he was not only initiated into Candomblé by Mãe Senhora, a priestess of the Opô Afonjá terreiro in Salvador, but also received the role of “messenger” between Brazil and Africa. Throughout his many trips to the African continent in the following decades, Verger played a central role as an intermediary, conveying and bringing back information, photographs, and also objects between Africa and Brazil, including sculptures (Matos 2012).In Salvador, Bahia, Verger was involved in the creation of the Centro de Estudos Afro-Orientais (CEAO) [Afro-Oriental Studies Center] in 1959, alongside important figures such as Vivaldo da Costa Lima (1925-2010) and Agostinho da Silva (19061994), and played an important role in the conceptual definition of the CEAO, with an emphasis on the Bight of Benin. At that time, Verger was already developing his thesis “Flux et reflux du trafic des esclaves entre le golfe du Bénin et la Baie de Tous les Saints,” presented in 1966 at the Sorbonne, France. The CEAO's idea of creating a museum initially focused on works from the Portuguese colonies, including pieces from the Dundo Museum in Angola, which had held an exhibition in Salvador in 1959 during the IV Luso-Brazilian Colloquium, was replaced by a museum featuring and Yoruba works from Nigeria and Benin, as well as objects by priests and of The Afro-Brazilian Museum of the Federal University of Bahia was in not inaugurated until with significant from Verger in its African collection through the acquisition of sculptures in Nigeria and Benin in from Yoruba and Verger contributed to creating the African and Afro-Brazilian collection at the Museum of and of the University of São Paulo Pierre studies also significantly influenced Verger and Araujo a close and Araujo even curated as the director of the de São Paulo as director and curator of the Afro Brazil Museum, Araujo created a small featuring in the long-term exhibition, images that idea of et the art who opened an African art in in many African to private and museums in Brazil. was influenced by as revealed in a between the art and the director of the de the in Yoruba works in Brazil, began to on works from these and other of Nigeria. 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Aesthetics · African art · Art · Linguistics · Sociology · Visual arts · Yoruba · African history and culture studies · Anthropology · Cuban History and Society · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies

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