The “terreiro” and the city: ancestry and territoriality in affirmative action policies

Abstract

Black social movements have included in their political narratives the religious communities with African roots as integral to the Black-African struggle for emancipation in Brazil. The “Black-African” identity blends diverse social, political or religious identities into the same category. Ancestry as a relation between negritude/Africanness becomes an area of tension as the territorial demands of afro-brazilian religious movements conflict for use of urban space. The “return to Africa” movement is a means of diasporic territorialization of urban space, affecting the political organization of the religious movements in the formulation of their social demands and public policies, influenced by the political discoursse of black social movements, of the academia, and of the state.