The Terreiro and the city: Voices on African ecological and cultural heritage in Bahia (1960–1980)

Abstract

This article analyzes the urban modernization of Salvador between the late 1960s and the early 1980s. It examines the impacts of these transformations on terreiro communities as well as analyzing the ways in which religious people acted in the face of threats to Afro-Brazilian ecological and cultural heritage. It investigates the circulation of symbols, worldviews, and dictions from the terreiros in the public sphere of the Bahian capital (Van de Port, 2012; Parés, 2012) through the press and from a historical-anthropological perspective. In the analyzed period, there were decisive moments in the history of Afro-Bahian religiosity, such as the end of registrations and licenses at the public security agencies of the State of Bahia. Additionally, in this context, new state policies and new approaches to Afro-Brazilian religiosity could be found in Bahian newspapers. By consulting press references, it was possible to recover evidence of the main lines of the municipal administration intervention under the military regime in the city and new behaviors by the public linked to the terreiros because of the implementation of urban reforms. Results show that this period of change in the landscape of the capital of Bahia coincided with the historical and political emergence of Black voices in defense of an African ecological and cultural heritage and religious freedom and against racial and class inequality.