Afoxé Omó Orùnmilá: History, Culture, and Politics in Movement

Abstract

The 2007 Carnival in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, was a week away and preparations for the Afoxé Omó Orùnmilá (Afoxé Children of Orùnmilá) were moving at a brisk pace. I entered the Centro Cultural Orùnmilá and walked toward the makeshift table to help glue cowries to afoxé outfits. Before I could sit down, Pai Paulo, Orùnmilá co-founder and president at the time, came over to me anxiously with a booklet in hand. “Read this and tell me what you think,” he said. The booklet was the insert accompanying the Municipal Culture Secretariat’s official 2007 carnival CD, which contained recordings of carnival groups’ enredos, or “theme songs.” On the cover of the booklet, three carnival mask-like drawings smiled at me with red lips and shiny white teeth. A speckle of colorful confetti and streamers hovered above them, surrounding the words indicating the 2007 theme: “Carnival: Everyone’s Happiness.” I opened the sleeve and scanned the short paragraphs on the inside cover:

… Maintaining strong ties to tradition … the annual carnaval celebrations … have sought to break with conservative ties in [the city of] Ribeirão Preto [by] … going beyond culture as symbolic object, and adding to cultural action two other contemporary factors that are equally important: culture as a right and the exercise of citizenship, and culture as a job-creating and income-generating economic activity.