TO LEARN LIKE OURS: Playful Knowledge and Doings of Terreiro Matamba Tombenci Neto (Ilhéus/Bahia)
Antiracist and Afrocentric Education; Lucidity; Traditional Communities of Angolan Nation Terreiros; Ancestry; Black Pedagogies.
The present study is focused on ethnic-racial socialization within education and was developed in partnership with Terreiro Matamba Tombenci Neto, located in Ilhéus, Bahia. The house’s history dates back to 1885 and it is currently presided by Hilsa Rodrigues (Mameto Mukalê). Starting from this location, the author seeks to enable an interculturaldialogue between the afro-Brazilian ancestral heritage from an Angolan nation candomblé house, also known as terreiro, and ludic teaching-learning practices for preschool education. In this research, it is predicated that the body of a child raised in a terreiro constitutes (and is constituted by) a set of games of its own, which is specific to a body that is historical and broad in its ancestry. Accordingly, aiming the production of pedagogical resources destinated to afro-affimartive, antiracist and decolonized educational practices, the author developed a series of projects of recollection books entitled Alegrias de Nvunji no Jardim Tombenci (The Joys of Nvunji in the Tombenci Garden), which contain stories, songs, and games. These projects aspire to make a contribution to the children cohabiting in the terreiro, namely their belonging progress towards their own community, as well as to present some values and essence of the games built by the Terreiro Matamba Tombenci Neto to the external community. The literate and lettered part of society still doesn’t recognize and poorly know the efficacy of the produced pedagogical knowledge which emerges from traditionally oral communities as an Angolan nation candomblé house. The theoretical-methodological approach for the present study is the cartographic interviewing (TEDESCO; SADE; CALIMAN, 2013), intertwined with the critical reading of methodological and theoretical framework regarding the Black Pedagogy, mainly the Eco-Ancestral Pedagogy (OLIVEIRA, 2014) and the Pedagogy of the Crossroads (RUFINO, 2019).