Resistance and sociopolitical mobilization at the Manzo Kalla Muisu Terreiro (Federal District)

Abstract

This study investigates the dynamics, practices, and lived experiences of the Manzo Kalla Muisu terreiro in the Federal District, aiming to understand how Congo-Angola Candomblé shapes community lifeways beyond the strictly religious dimension, establishing social, cultural, and political practices. The study posits that the community's practices and cosmologies serve as strategies for resistance, continuity, and the integration of Candomblé into modernity within a backdrop marked by racism, religious intolerance, and the rise of the far-right in Brazil. The ethnographic research is grounded in participant observation and dialogues with interlocutors, theoretically framed by a synthesis of classical and contemporary literature on Candomblé, cosmologies, and Afro-diasporic modes of life. Additionally, it draws on scholarship examining religion, sociopolitical action, secularism, the concept of the state, and the public sphere. As an ongoing study, it aims to demonstrate how the terreiro's experiences express a "life politics" that confronts religious racism and attempts to erase tradition, thereby contributing to the academic, political, and social empowerment of terreiro communities, as well as offering new perspectives on Candomblé today.