CODÓ: a countryside Africa

Abstract

Abstract: This article is part of my PhD research and it is a brief overflight on the African presence in Codó. In this study, we sought to collaborate so that the cultural contributions brought by Africans became increasingly visible, especially in regard to Codó, which we dub here as a “countryside Africa”. Africans, from the 18th century, became the largest contingent of the population of Maranhão. It should be noted that Africans will not be treated here in an essentialist manner, as we are referring here to hybrid cultures, due to the very process experienced by these peoples still on the African continent, from their contact with Europeans and other cultures. These are the subjects who, in contact with this new land and other peoples, have met and created new ways of living and of manifesting themselves culturally, re-signifying their experiences, making themselves visible, especially from the point of view of their religiosities that are present in Codó.

Keywords: Codó. Hybridity. Religiosity.