Cacimba de histórias: narrativas de vida en comunidades quilombolas en recôncavo baiano

Abstract

The reflections presented here are part of a project, developed as a network and entitled "Well of stories: lives and knowledge of traditional storytellers belonging to towns in the interior of Bahia". The current research is based on investigating exchanges between traditional and academic knowledge related to performance and repertoires of oral traditions and popular culture belonging to male and female Masters of Oral Tradition, i.e. the subjects who took part in this study. The methodological approach used in the current research includes the following steps: a) performing a bibliographic study of the most relevant works by authors who discuss the formation of storytellers and the valorization of oral narratives; b) identifying the Masters of Oral Tradition, through the interactions and experiences carried out by two of the team's researchers,  students born and resident in quilombolas communities where the research took place; c) conducting narrative interviews recorded on video; d) transcribing the tales that were collected. The results, narratives and ongoing reflections make us identify an ancestral bridge that exists between different contexts and Afro-diasporic territories highly rich in oral tradition, as is the case of the quilombola communities researched. Both in Acupe and on Ilha de Maré, the need to preserve the oral tradition repertoires of their Masters is visible, at the risk of losing this knowledge. At the same time, this repertoire is recognized by members of the community and is seen as a strengthening and building element of their history, culture and social and ancestral identity.