Nas margens da fé: a Umbanda e o Candomblé e seus enfrentamentos contra a violência e a discriminação de práticas sociais afro-brasileiras, em Uberlândia/MG (1980-2000)

Abstract

Afro-Brazilian religions, which were born in Brazil from enslaved Africans or who are connected, in some way, to African cultures, are repeatedly violated by Brazilians of various other religious denominations, mainly Christian, or by the public authorities who, in most of the time, it does not take protective measures to ensure freedom of religious expression. The past 20 years have seen an increase in this violence. Religious hatred has been recurrent, explicit and increasingly affronting. The objective of this text is, from a historical perspective, to understand religious violence against Umbanda and Candomblé, as a facet of racism that demonizes, persecutes and, at the limit, promotes the extermination of the population and the black conscience. Analyzing the memories and speeches constructed by orality that mark religiosity, interviews, prayers, sung points, in confrontation with speeches and episodes where hatred and conflict are evident (newspaper articles, murders attributed to saints' parents), we understand that Uberlândia, although permeated by the ideal of the Marvel city, is the place where racial conflict is evidenced in a veiled way and that hides between its folds, not only a large contingent of organized black population, but also the racism and conflicts inherent to its existence.