"Excuse me, the Male and Female in the Shango of Recife"

Abstract

Ago in Yoruba language means "excuse me", this photo essay shows the African culture in Recife, strengthening the fight against prejudice and religious intolerance. According to Pierre Verger "the Orisha is a pure force, immaterial Asé that only becomes noticeable to humans incorporating into one." And it is the incorporation of the transformation of the person in the Orisha, where one perceives the relationship between body and spirit in African religion. This transformation is accompanied by a visual and symbolic construction where clothing, insignia, strings of beads and own gestures will characterize the Orisha it belongs to the "son" or "daughter" 's saint. The photographs of the AGO photo essay seek to show the Shango and its various forms of gender relationship. The female and male appear so without restriction to one sex. In the yard of the everyday life a male Orisha can manifest itself in a daughter's saint or vice versa. In this photo essay the images of Jeferson of Oshun and Tatiana of Oxossi show the duality between the feminine and the masculine, manifested by the sons and daughters of saint as a memory of spiritual identity acquired experience of Xango yard.

Credits:

Authors: Roberta Guimarães & Raul Lody

Photographs: Roberta Guimarães

Trusteeship: Raul Lody