The Nagô Heart and Its Reinvention: Orikis in Brazil Today

Abstract

This article attempts to read a text in the book O poço das marianas [The Well of the Marianas], by Eliane Marques. By perceiving it as an oriki, a text typical of the iorubá world, that pays tribute to the head. It may be written for any being: people, animals, orixás, and even for cities. I understand that, to listen to it, I need to start to thinking as nagô does. I explore this way of perceiving the world through some theorists like Muniz Sodré and Leda Maria Martins. With them and others, I notice the importance of the body in African perceptions of the world and understand it is fundamental in reading or listening to the oriki, which can be done as if it was a ritual. By doing so, I find a nagô heart that mixes with the heart of the writer to reinvent itself in literature. I relate this re-creation to the Exunouveau mode of writing, a term coined by Edimilson de Almeida Pereira.