“Don’t Ask Questions, Just Observe!” Boundary Politics in Bahian Candomblé

Abstract

When I got stuck in a traffic jam in Sâo Gonçalo do Retiro, a peripheral neighborhood in Salvador in which the terreiro (temple) called Ilê Axé Opô Afonja is situated, I began to realize that my assumptions about the upcoming event had been wrong. From what I had read in the announcement, the Semana Cultural da Herança Africana na Bahia (Cultural Week of the African Heritage in Bahia), was going to be yet another one of these rather boring meetings of Salvador’s Candomblé elite, who organize a never ending cycle of (often highly self-congratulatory) seminars, debates, fairs, and homenagems. However, judging from what I saw through the window of my car things might well be different this time. Hundreds of cars were trying to make it to the opening night of the Cultural Week, impatiently honking their horns, clutching up ill-lit roads, and floodlighting the street vendors who ran from one car to the next to sell their cashew nuts and beer and silicone bra strings. Policemen were all around, trying to control the traffic and monitor the crowds, who, in a steady stream, entered the central square of the terreiro’s compound.