Paper short abstract:

COSTUMES OF EGÚNGÚN, ÈGBÈ ORUN AND GÈLÈDÉ IN THE CITY OF SÃO PAULO I present the presence of Egúngún, Ègbè Orun and Gèlèdé costumes in São Paulo used in the Ìṣẹ̀ṣe Ẹ̀sìn Òrìṣà Ìbílẹ̀ religion and industrialization of African textiles. KEYWORDS: egúngún costumes; egbe costumes; gelede costumes.

Paper long abstract:

COSTUMES OF EGÚNGÚN, ÈGBÈ ORUN AND GÈLÈDÉ IN THE CITY OF SÃO PAULO

IYORÙBÁ AFRICAN MEMORY, PERPETUATION AND LEGACY

The present work aims to present the presence of the costumes of Egúngún, Ègbè Orun and Gèlèdé in African temples settled and present in the city of São Paulo, since the production of costumes and clothing of the traditional religion iyorùbá Ìṣẹ̀ṣe Ẹ̀sìn Òrìṣà Ìbílẹ̀, dialogue and feed back on trends in the craftsmanship and industrialization of African textiles. Currently, these costumes are produced, marketed and increasingly popularized through the mythical market throughout the national territory, and in particular, in the city of São Paulo. And yet, the importance of using these costumes to carry out public rituals and festivals, dialoguing with the perpetuation of ancient African traditions and permanence beyond their lands of origin. Since fashion, the textile industry and traditional religions feed each other, the African temples present in the city of São Paulo become symbols of resistance, the fight against racism and the preservation of Iyorùbá ancestral memory. We start from the hypothesis that the act of dressing involves the simple fact of covering and protecting the body, but also providing intersectionalities that promote alterity, the rescue of black Afro-Brazilian and African identity, the valorization of their epistemes and cosmoperceptions of the world in the diaspora contemporary Brazilian.

KEYWORDS: egúngún costumes; egbe costumes; gelede costumes; black religious clothing; African fabrics.

Paper short abstract:

Analyze the Yoruba attire tradition, axó ebi, adapted in São Paulo's Candomblé, Axé Ilê Obá. Rooted in Yoruba culture, it involves using the same fabric during ceremonies, fostering a communal bond through visual unity. Uncommon in Brazilian Candomblés, Axé Ilê Obá embraced this tradition in 2022.

Paper long abstract:

The purpose of this communication is to analyze the Yoruba tradition of attire known as axó ebi, which has been adapted to the context of a candomblé in São Paulo, Axé Ilê Obá. Axó ebi constitutes a sartorial practice rooted in Yoruba culture, wherein during social, religious, and political ceremonies, all participants use the same fabric in their clothes, sharing a sense of community expressed through the visuality of their garments. This tradition, characteristic of the Yoruba people, is not commonplace in Brazilian Candomblés, even those dedicated to the worship of Yoruba orixás, such as the queto nation houses. However, in the year 2022, the candomblé Axé Ilê Obá adopted and adapted this tradition, employing a wax print fabric for the skirts and bows of the daughters of the orixá Iansã, the goddess of storms, and the current Ialorixá, the priestess leader of the terreiro, Mother Paula of Iansã. The communication will address the underlying motivations for the adoption of axó ebi in this house, considering the movements of (re)Africanization in candomblé. To analyze the attire of the practitioners of Axé Ilê Obá, sources emanating from the adherents themselves will be utilized, such as the book "O perfil do Aché Ile Obá" by Sylvia Egydio (1980), interviews with the clothing manufacturers responsible to produce the ilê's garments, and the image repository captured by the terreiro's official photographers, made available for research purposes.

Paper short abstract:

I argue that ritual dress in such religions as Candomblé and Santería not just helped to create an imagine a Black identity outside of Africa, but also forms by its shared aesthetics a community across borders. This shared visual language thus forms an alternative form of archive of the diaspora.

Paper long abstract:

The African Atlantic Diaspora, formed in the in the Americas and Caribbean Islands, while divided by force and separated by language still created a “community in performance born out of the struggle for emancipation” (Gilroy 1993, as cited in Werbner und Fumanti 2013). This performance of a community, the black diaspora of the Americas, is most profoundly in its cultural practices. These performative and aesthetic codes transcend boarders and languages, forming an underlying ‘oneness’ in the diaspora (Hall 2021). Diaspora aesthetics thus function as a tool to claim “ownership of places and nations” (Werbner und Fumanti 2013), a tool widely wielded by the survivors of the Middle Passage to re-create a history and identity in those new lands.

Examining especially at the dress practices of diaspora religions such as Candomblé (Brazil) and Santería (Cuba) which invent and imagine a Black identity and culture in the diaspora, aside of or in opposition to a colonial system of oppression. Thus, looking at the fabrics that enshroud the worldly representative of gods and spirits in ritual contexts this project aims to decode the histories and aesthetic legacies woven into these dresses.

I argue that these practices play an integral part in the performance and consciousness of blackness in the diaspora. Ritual costumes constitute alternative archives of a people, as they are adorned with codes and references to past and present cultural entanglements, occurrences and mythologies.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how ankara fashion performances in Nigeria and Brazil manifest cultural identity and empowerment. Drawing on the Yoruba philosophical concept of axé, it uncovers ankara's performative power, shaping identities and political and fashion narratives.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the interplay between ankara and fashion performances in Nigeria and Brazil, shedding light on the manifestation of cultural identity, empowerment, and self-making through the use of ankara. Originating in the 19th century, this Euro-African cloth became popular in West Africa has transcended to various countries in the African Diaspora. Drawing parallels between Yoruba performances and the concept of axé (vital energy), Victor Turner's definition of performance and Judith Butler's concept of the performative, the study elucidates how ankara performances serve as transformative expressions in Nigerian and Brazilian landscapes. Positioned at the nexus of staged acts and bodily gestures, fashion performances with ankara showcase the power of axé in the cloth, animating patterns and interacting with social spaces.

The paper argues that the axé present in ankara and latent in the Black body animate the patterns while interacting with the social spaces. Rooted in African elements, these performances create a tangible bodily image, suspending and breaking roles to declare self-transformation publicly. The axé confers the energy of Africanness to the material, enacting the African identity in the performances and materializing the connection between the diaspora and Africa, thus serving as a tool of cultural identity expression and political agendas and supporting one in their journey through self-identification as Black. Through fieldwork in Nigeria and Brazil, the paper scrutinizes contextual variations, contributing to an understanding of ankara as a potent force shaping diverse identities and narratives.

Paper short abstract:

Adire traditional Yoruba textile art involves dyeing and pattern creations, as well as a network of human and non-human agencies, allowing as to think through different epistemological approaches from Yoruba and diasporic knowledge, connecting Africa and Brazil.

Paper long abstract:

We aim to discuss some research questions regarding the Yoruba textile art of dyeing in the production of Adire fabric, based on the field study carried out in Yorubaland in 2023. As well as the participationof Adire artist and researcher, Peju Layiwola, as part of the Meeting of Knowledges around textile art in Cachoeira, organised at Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia in 2022. It is an initiative in Brazilian universities aiming to promote dialogues between traditional and scientific knowledge. Originally, Adire textiles were dyed in indigo from the leaves of the Lonchocarpus Cyanescens plant. Since the 1920s, with synthetic dyes introduction, production and meanings have changed. Adire has always been a way of telling tales, and it continues to be so. The research considers the network of multiple human and non-human actors in the creative processes of textile productions, bringing into the field of art history the dimension of non-human agencies facing the challenges of the context of ecological crisis. We seek to inscribe other dimensions in the history of art, undoing categorizations and separations between art and craft, nature and culture, subject and object through epistemological approaches to Yoruba and diasporic knowledges.Thus, we propose a paradigm shift and an investigation into art history and creative processes that analyze non-human actors and agents in their configuration, including fabric, indigo dyeing, the creation of patterns as creations produced by a complex network of actors - humans, plants, bacteria, substances, the tissue itself, deities and spirits as agents.

Paper short abstract:

This text delves into the interaction between the Parisian Senegalese diaspora and the Musée Quai Branly, studying Senegalese textile dolls and their relation to the local diaspora, highlighting the museum's role in alienating the objects from diasporic cultural festivities and identity molding.

Paper long abstract:

This text examines the relationship between the Parisian Senegalese diaspora and the Musée du Quai Branly, focusing on how museum spaces can both facilitate or disrupt the transmission of indigenous knowledge within the diaspora. The Museum includes wax and textile dolls from the Mande, Bassari, Toucouleur, and Wolof communities collected during various missions. For the museum, artifacts represent a conduit for exploring the dynamics of cultural preservation and knowledge transmission among diasporas. From a diaspora perspective, these objects may represent sources of embarrassment meant to be concealed, underscoring the stark reminder of the Global South's plunder, as evidenced by the sequestration of these items.

The article explores the difficulties encountered in including these objects in the preservation of indigenous customs, particularly the paradox of being physically close, yet emotionally distanced. This paper questions the museum in either supporting diasporas through inclusion or, excluding its voice from the narrative constructed around objects. Through transcribed discussions, this study examines the museum's potential dialogue between the diaspora and its heritage collections.

Frobenius's exploration of cultural identity and morphology offers a foundational approach for examining how museums contributes to the alienation of artifacts and diasporic communities. Azoulay and Vergès's critical analysis of Western museology sheds light on the treatment of objects stripped of their contentious histories through colonial extraction. Through the lens of the selected textile dolls, this text seeks to unravel the complexities of indigenous knowledge transmission or forgetness within the diaspora, highlighting the role of the museums in molding cultural identity.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation highlights the literary and artistic journey of Fatoumata Sidibe, a Malian who made Belgium her home and created a line of environmentally-friendly fashion accessories emerging from her art books of poetry, masks, and other women-centered symbols of the Bambara tradition.

Paper long abstract:

In 2014, Fatoumata Sidibe, a Malian woman author transplanted to Brussels at a young age, published the art and poetry book Les masques parlent aussi (Masks also speak). The book included not only her poetry but also photographs of her paintings of masks and Bambara symbols. In 2021, Sidibe launched a brand of fashion accessories called Sarankofa which in Bambara means "Out of love for Saran" -- Saran referring to the artist's mother. Sidibe's motto for the company and for her fashion accessory line was "Nourish oneself with the past to construct the future." Her environmentally-friendly line of handbags which uses alternative materials also features colors and designs from Malian traditional fabrics sewn with leather. In addition to paying tribute to her "roots," Sidibe also celebrates "wings" -- those that her mother gifted her to be free to choose the life that she wanted even if she often had to offer moral support from afar. Sarankofa is a brand that blends quality, respect, solidarity, environmental awareness, freedom, and the transmission of culture and values into fashion accessories and it has helped "decolonize" the Belgian fashion scene by bringing African designs closer to the center. This presentation will focus on Sidibe's journey and work using an interdisciplinary theoretical approach citing ecofeminist principles, Bambara philosophies, postcolonial studies, and "migritude" writings. The presentation also explains how Sidibe's fabrics and creations challenge Western stereotypes of African designs by making them a part of what is modern and new.

Paper short abstract:

Through the reconstruction of the labor trajectory of two Senegalese interlocutors engaged in fashion production within the Argentine and German labor markets, our goal is to reflect the sensibilities, representations, and subjectivities associated with the practice of working with wax textiles

Paper long abstract:

This paper provides insights into the occupational journeys of two Senegalese designers based in Berlin and the City of La Plata. The research is part of an ongoing doctoral thesis that delves into the labor trajectories of Senegalese migrants living in these two locations. Specifically focusing on two male fashion designers, we investigate their integration into distinct labor markets and analyze how this integration shapes both their professional and artistic experiences.

Utilizing a comparative biographical perspective, we highlight the case of these two interlocutors working within the fashion production, with a particular focus on designing apparel using wax textiles. Through the reconstruction of their life stories, our objective is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the sensibilities, representations, and subjectivities associated with this specific textile design and production practice.

Simultaneously, we explore the distinctive characteristics of the labor markets in which these migrants participate, specifically within the Argentine and German circuits. The study underscores the significance of local and transnational networks, emphasizing the crucial role of learning and knowledge transmission within the family. These elements are identified as fundamental influencers shaping the involvement of these designers in diverse transnational cultural circuits.

Paper short abstract:

How do we examine the circulation of goods, materials, media, and fashion professionals between Brazil and Angola? I advocate for decolonial fashion ethnography to promote diversity in fashion research based on decolonial and Afrocentric exchanges and dialogues.

Paper long abstract:

How do we examine the circulation of goods, materials, media, and fashion professionals between Brazil and Angola? 2018, I began researching fashion production and circulation in Luanda, Angola, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and Los Angeles in the United States. I felt uncomfortable; if I were to apply theories and methods based on binarism that Eurocentric framework works, I would be analytically unethical.

The multi-sited ethnography effects invited me to a colonial break involving a decolonial turn. This enabled me to notice that fashion theories, methods, practices, and politics from Angolan fashion knowledge production were considered invisible by the Brazilian fashion workers in Luanda.

The coloniality of power (A. Quijano) manifested in fashion, social sciences, and African scholarship still dismisses the value and knowledge of fashion in African and Latin American societies. The decolonial Fashion Ethnography: ‘Before Yesterday’ method aims to enable new perspectives and methodologies to engage on social-historical, cultural, political, and economic forces that shape the field and to promote a more nuanced and inclusive understanding of fashion and its role in shaping cultural identities and subjectivities.

I list 20 attentions that one conducting qualitative research in Africa and its Diasporas should take. By doing so, we will begin making visible the invisible while challenging the dominance of Eurocentric ideas and practices in the research process, offering alternative perspectives and approaches.