Relocating the Sacred

Niyi Afolabi is Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Identities in Flux: Race, Migration, and Citizenship in Brazil, also published by SUNY Press; Afro-Brazilians: Cultural Production in a Racial Democracy; and Ilê Aiyê in Brazil and the Reinvention of Africa.

• PrefaceIntroductionPart I: Mapping the Sacred 1. Bahia: Yoruba Diasporic Domain of Activating the Sacred2. Pierre Verger and Yoruba Ritual Altars in Brazil3. Matriarchs of Candomblé: Mãe Stella de Oxóssi, Mãe Beata de Yemonjá, and Mãe Valnizia BianchPart II: The Sacred in Literary Manifestations 4. Jorge Amado and Vasconcelos Maia: The Sea/River as Iemojá/Oxum's Domain5. Abdias Nascimento and Nelson Rodrigues: The Fallen Angel as Betrayal of Blackness6. Zora Seljan and Alfredo Dias Gomes: Sacred Feminine Solidarities and Sango's Revenge7. Raul Longo and Robson Pinheiro: Afro-Brazilian Deities in Literary Rituals8. Cléo Martins and Chynae: Oiá and Oxossi in Invocations and EncountersPart III: Hybridities in Afro-Brazilian Culture 9. Filhos de Gandhi and Cortejo Afro: Candomblé in the Carnivalesque Frame10. Give Us This Day Our Daily AcarajéConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

"…Relocating the Sacred serves not only those concerned with cultural criticism but also anyone seeking to do transnational religious scholarship across all our political and social disparities." — H-Net Reviews (H-Africa)"Relocating the Sacred is an important contribution to the study of Atlantic spiritualities and religiosities … Afolabi's book is a terrific study of African divinities in Brazil, but his study also sheds light on the enduring questions of the coloniality and politics of knowledge production about Africa and the looting and repatriation of African cultural objects (especially chapter 2). This book will be useful for students and scholars interested in the religion, history, material culture, literature, and anthropology of Africa and its diaspora." — Research in African Literatures"…the book provides a thorough scholarly analysis, particularly in terms of literature. It is extensively researched, documented, and annotated … an excellent work of analytic scholarship." — Hispania"Afolabi provides a subtle and exciting reading of the cosmology of African traditions in Brazilian cultural productions, showing the complicated ways race and racism operate on an aesthetic level." — Tshombe Miles, author of Race and Afro-Brazilian Agency in Brazil"Relocating the Sacred makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Yoruba diaspora and the transnational vivacity of African traditions. Afolabi brings to English-speaking audiences Afro-lusophone texts and contexts with remarkable translational capacity." — Felipe Fanuel Xavier Rodrigues, Federal University of Roraima, Brazil