JONGO & MOZAMBIQUE: THE SLAVE CULTURE FACES IN SÃO LUIZ DO PARAITINGA – BRAZIL

Abstract

Jongo and Mozambique were cultural expressions of African origin practiced by the same actors during the period of slavery, in the city of São Luiz do Paraitinga - Brazil. Such expressions form the dual strategy of the captive community fight for autonomy: on the one hand, the slave rogue infiltrating the colonizing culture and incorporating their ways of being; the other, the ancestor worship rituals, used to criticize slavery and organizing riots. From memories of some africanBrazilian, collected by folklorists, both cultural events is analysed in the conflicts present in their specific historical context - as Edward Thompson points out in his critique of the notion ofpopular culture. Jongo and Mozambique appear in a web of tensions that reveals the story of African and Afro-descendents in the region.