The Brazil Institute invites you to a lecture by Dr. Mariana Ramos de Morais. 

Abstract

This paper explores how the afro-Brazilian religions were represented in the racial reparation policy, entitled Policy for the Promotion of Racial Equality. This public policy can be considered a remarkable achievement of the black movement and was established in 2003. Since then, afro-Brazilian religions have started to feature in governamental documents, mainly within the federal executive sphere, that deal with the fight against racism and racial inequality.

Therefore, this paper aims to ask how the relationship between the fight against racism and Afro-Brazilian religions has been constructed in the public sphere. Does this relationship confirm the link between Afro-Brazilian religions, especially Candomblé, and culture? This paper discusses several issues based on official documents produced by the federal government (laws, decrees, reports) from 2003, when the Policy for the Promotion of Racial Equality was implemented, to 2014. This time-period corresponds to the administration of President Mr Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) and the first term of President Ms Dilma Rousseff (2011-2014) in office. It is possible to state that the Afro-Brazilian religions were represented in the racial reparation policy as culture. Thus, the link between those religions and culture has been confirmed. This link is interpreted by myself as an afro-religious movement’s strategy in a political arena marked by the increasing presence of the evangelicals.

Biography

Mariana Ramos de Morais, PhD in Social Sciences, CAPES Foundation, Ministry of Education of Brazil, Brazil
École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), France

This talk, part of the King's Brazil Institute Research Seminar Series, will be followed by a Q&A and wine.