And Covid-19 in the Manzo Ngunzo Kaiango Community?

A dialogue on routine, living and subsistence with Makota Kidoialê.

Abstract

In the midst of the pandemic period caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, during the year 2020 in the Brazilian context and reflecting on the possibilities of giving continuity to the analyses of the anthropological field paralysed by this atypical moment, it became necessary to use new/other means and methods that respected the tradition and the ways of living of candomblé, considering the physical distance imposed. For these traditions, which are perpetuated and maintained through orality, the spoken word has Ngunzo/Axé/Energy (DIÉNE, 2020). Thus, understanding that knowledge and exchange for candomblé terreiro peoples are acquired through living experience, I exposed to Makota Kidoialê - our interviewee and spokesperson of the remaining Manzo Ngunzo Kaiango quilombo community - the freezing situation to which we were conditioned and the need to continue the research. So I suggested to her the possibility of conducting some interviews in the form of written and/or audio questions to follow up on this period, which she kindly accepted. The pandemic changed, among other things, the dynamics of the collective use of spaces, so intrinsic to these peoples' way of life. Therefore, this dialogue aims to demonstrate that, in addition to the use of masks, the techniques of prevention and survival to Covid-19, before the changes in the routine of socio-spatial interaction and the ritualistic and economic dynamics of the community, vary in each terreiro, because in addition to ancestral medicine intrinsic to all of them, they also have several ways to reinvent themselves in the face of the needs, adversities and violence routinely experienced by these peoples.