Dieux d’Afrique, a (French) anthology, undoubtedly makes the most convincing connections between religious icons and related objects produced in Africa and in twentieth-century Brazil, illustrated with photographs taken and text written by Pierre (Fatumbi) Verger (1902–1996). This is essential research that documents the cultural and religious continuity from one continent to the other. It focuses specifically on Nigeria and Benin, two countries from where thousands of slaves were transplanted to Brazil; Verger’s book explores this part of the story, underscoring the importance of those cultural bonds in the nineteenth century. The author spent three decades of his life shuttling back and forth from one end of that spectrum to the other: from Salvador, in northeastern Brazil, to the African villages where the Yoruba culture and language, and the cult of Candomblé, found fertile ground. Verger worked as a photojournalist in France in the 1930s. He was in the Brazilian state of Bahia when he was initiated into Candomblé (the animist cult that has remained truest to its African roots). Over time, and assisted by his ethnographic background, the author became deeply knowledgeable about the cosmogony of the cult. While in Benin (called Dahomey in colonial times) he was assigned “Fatumbi” as his priestly name, which he then made part of his real name.
[As complementary reading, see the following articles 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); “Yorubá: um estudo etno-tecnológico de 50 peças da coleção arte africana do Museu Nacional de Belas-Artes” (doc. no. 1110532). See also the articles by Abelardo Duarte, “Catálogo ilustrado da Coleção Perseverança” (doc. no. 1110522); “Religiosidade africana no Brasil; Arte afro-brasilidade” (doc. no. 1110519); by Maria Lúcia Montes, “Cosmologias e altares” (doc. no. 1110528) and “Geopolítica da mestiçagem” (doc. no. 1111371); by the Museu Histórico Nacional “Para nunca esquecer. Negras memórias. Memórias de negros” (doc. no. 1110530); by Jocélio Teles dos Santos, “Catálogo do Museu Afro Brasileiro” (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); 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); and “Candomblé,” by José Medeiros (doc. no. 1110536)].