This text consists of excerpts from the catalogue for the exhibition Para nunca esquecer. Negras memórias/ Memórias de Negros, held at the Museu Histórico Nacional (in Rio de Janeiro in 2001). It includes scores of texts and poems by writers who date from the 19th century down to this day. Regarding Afro-Brazilian religious art, the pieces that stand out are those written by the ethnologist/photographer Pierre Verger and by Mestre Didi [the visual artist Deoscóredes Maximiliano dos Santos]. There are some unsigned short articles on artists of African ancestry such as Agnaldo Manoel dos Santos, Rubem Valentim, Hélio de Oliveira as well as Mestre Didi, whose work has that cultural background. The catalogue includes photographs of the works shown, along with an essay by Verger in which he compares variations in the religion of the deities (Orishas) of Candomblé in Brazil, Nigeria and Benin (the former kingdom of Dahomey).

This document offers an inclusive view of the art created by Afro-Brazilian painters and sculptors, using a historical perspective that runs from the colonial period through the exhibition date. What the catalogue makes clear is religiosity as a sine qua non, inseparable from the workmanship of this art. In turn, a brief article by the photographer and ethnologist Pierre Verger defines aspects of Candomblé, Afro-Brazilian ritual[s] in the Yoruba tradition. In his text “As festas de Oxum, senhora do dengue e da formosura,” the visual artist Mestre Didi describes a celebration in praise of Oxum, a Candomblé divinity representing women’s fertility.

[As supplementary reading, see the following texts in the ICAA digital archive: by Raul Lody “Coleção Arthur Ramos” (doc. no. 1110525), “Coleção culto afro-brasileiro: um documento do candomblé na cidade do Salvador” (doc. no. 1110527), “Coleção culto afro-brasileiro: um testemunho do Xangô pernambucano” (doc. no. 1110526), “Dezoito esculturas antropomorfas de orixás” (doc. no. 1110529), “Símbolo do mando” (doc. no. 1110531), and “Yorubá: um estudo etno-tecnológico de 50 peças da coleção arte africana do Museu Nacional de Belas-Artes” (doc. no. 1110532). In addition, see by Abelardo Duarte “Catálogo ilustrado da Coleção Perseverança” (doc. no. 1110522); by Carlos Eugênio Marcondes de Moura “Religiosidade africana no Brasil; Arte afro-brasilidade” (doc. no. 1110519); by Maria Lúcia Montes “Cosmologias e altares” (doc. no. 1110528); by Luiz Felipe de Alencastro “Geopolítica da mestiçagem” (doc. no. 1111371); by Jocélio Teles dos Santos “Catálogo do Museu Afro Brasileiro = Catalogue of the Afro-Brazilian Museum” (doc. no. 1110521); by Vagner Gonçalves da Silva “Arte religiosa afro-brasileira. As múltiplas estéticas da devoção brasileira” (doc. no. 1110520); by Oneyda Alvarenga “Catálogo ilustrado do Museu Folclórico” (doc. no. 1110523); and by Rita Amaral “A coleção etnográfica de cultura religiosa afro-brasileira do Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia da Universidade de São Paulo” (doc. no. 1110533)].