“Aquel dia el Africa negra y ultratlantica se trasladaba.” Party Christmas Cycle Circuit Brazil-Caribbean, XVIIIs and XIXs Centurie

Abstract

This paper has outlined the emergence of black festivities around Christmas holidays, in Brazil and the Caribbean during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its main objective was to identify its dynamic processes of transformation, as well as strategies used by slaved Africans to both adapt to the "new world", and to perpetuate ties that bound them to Africa, a necessary step to resist colonial power embodied into oppression and violence. In addition to seasonality, these black festivities share fragments of “performative literacies”, which inspite of their similarities and differences are revealing the contribution of African civilization in the Americas.