The Night of Iemanjá

In early February, the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood where I live in the south of Brazil, was transformed by thousands of people walking down the main shopping street until it opened onto the beach. Many sang in Yoruba, the Nigerian language preserved in afro-Brazilian rituals. Others clapped to the rhythm of the ijexá, the rhythm of the orixá Iemanjá, queen of the ocean. Six ogans — drummers and priests in the candomblé and umbanda religions — carried a boat made of banana laves and palm fronds, filled with flowers and a statue of Iemanjá.

What brought this return of Africa to a part of Brazil where many people want to see themselve as whitr and European? That’s the question for today’s episode.