Mama Africa , livre ebook

280

pages

English

Ebooks

2010

Écrit par
Pinho Patricia de Santana Pinho de Santana ,
traduit par Langdon Elena Langdon

Publié par
Duke University Press

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280

pages

English

Ebooks

2010

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

Duke University Press

Date de parution

25 janvier 2010

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780822391760

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

1 Mo

Often called the "most African" part of Brazil, the northeastern state of Bahia has the country's largest Afro-descendant population and a black culture renowned for its vibrancy. In Mama Africa, Patricia de Santana Pinho examines the meanings of Africa in Bahian constructions of blackness. Combining insights from anthropology, sociology, and cultural studies, Pinho considers how Afro-Bahian cultural groups, known as blocos afro, conceive of Africanness, blackness, and themselves in relation to both. Mama Africa is a translated, updated, and expanded edition of an award-winning book published in Brazil in 2004. Central to the book, and to Bahian constructions of blackness, is what Pinho calls "the myth of Mama Africa," the idea that Africa exists as a nurturing spirit inside every black person.Pinho explores how Bahian cultural production influences and is influenced by black diasporic cultures and the idealization of Africa-to the extent that Bahia draws African American tourists wanting to learn about their heritage. Analyzing the conceptions of blackness produced by the blocos afro, she describes how Africa is re-inscribed on the body through clothes, hairstyles, and jewelry; once demeaned, blackness is reclaimed as a source of beauty and pride. Turning to the body's interior, Pinho explains that the myth of Mama Africa implies that black appearances have corresponding black essences. Musical and dance abilities are seen as naturally belonging to black people, and these traits are often believed to be transmitted by blood. Pinho argues that such essentialized ideas of blackness render black culture increasingly vulnerable to exploitation by the state and commercial interests. She contends that the myth of Mama Africa, while informing oppositional black identities, overlaps with a constraining notion of Bahianness promoted by the government and the tourist industry.

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Publié par

Duke University Press

Date de parution

25 janvier 2010

EAN13

9780822391760

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

1 Mo

Mama Africa

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reinventing blackness in bahia

IZmkb\bZ ]^ LZgmZgZ Ibgahhkb`bgZe ^]bmbhg mkZgleZm^] [r >e^gZ EZg`]hg

d u k e u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s

Durham and London

+)*)

First Portuguese edition published 2004

Expanded English edition

∫2010 Duke University Press

Printed in the United States

of America on acid-free paper$

Typeset in Carter + Cone Galliard

by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-

Publication Data appear on the last

printed page of this book.

IdedicatethisbooktoGilson,

mybestfriendandtheloveofmylife,

forsharingthecertainty

thatsoulshavenoonecolor.

contents

acknowledgmentsix

Introduction1

chapter one23 Bahia in the Black Atlantic

chapter two63 Afro Identity Made in Bahia

chapter three101 Africa on the Body

chapter four147 Africa in the Soul

chapter five183 Milking Mama Africa

Epilogue217

notes225

references239

index257

acknowledgments

To thank is to think, to meditate about the special people who participate in our lives and help deﬁne who we are. Without them our own identities, our ‘‘narratives of the self,’’ are not possible. Like ocean waves, the ﬂows of life come and go, bringing and taking away people and feelings, but at the same time maintaining a certain constancy without which we have no reference. I hope that these few words are capable of expressing my deepest gratitude for those individuals that, in many di√erent ways, have helped me throughout my life and academic career. I thank my parents, Fernando and Bernadette Pinho, for their everlasting generosity and for their exam-ple of love and tolerance, and my siblings, Marianna, Rodrigo, and Fernan-dinho, with whom I have learned the practice of coexisting in diversity. I am grateful to my grandmothers, Vovó Conceição, whose forward-think-ing spirit is a source of inspiration to me, and Vó Isaura, who immersed us in beautiful hybrid traditions. Many thanks to Rosária, Elisa, Ciça, Eman-uel, and Sonildes, as well as to my dear friend Creusa, for their constant love and support. I am grateful for the wonderful learning experience o√ered to me by the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (unicamp), where I had great col-leagues and professors, among whom are my advisor Teresa Sales and professors Fernando Lourenço, Célia Marinho de Azevedo, and Josué Per-eira da Silva. Thanks tofapesp(Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) for having supported my PhD studies atunicampand my stay at Yale University as a visiting graduate student in 2001. Thanks to the Henry Hart Rice Foundation for supporting my postdoctoral fellowship in the African American Studies Department and the Council on Latin Ameri-can and Iberian Studies at Yale in 2002–2003, and to the Mellon Foundation for supporting my postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Black

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