This text was published in the catalogue of Mestre Didi’s exhibition entitled Poesia mítica e contemporaneidade, organized by the Museu de Arte Moderna in Salvador (state of Bahia, 1997). Written by the anthropologist Juana Elbein dos Santos, the essay states that Mestre Didi (1917–2013) is, first and foremost, a priest/artist, and that his language displays his broad capacity to express his experience of the sacred. Starting with successive initiations into the rites of Candomblé, the artist entered wholeheartedly into the religion’s transcendental mysteries of life and death and the unfathomable secrets encountered in the worship of the Yoruba divinities (Orishas). It is a religion of mythic ancestors and ancestral spirits known as Egun. In Didi’s sculptures, that ancestral aspect of the Candomblé world view (in Africa) merges with the artist’s experience of life in Bahia, where he was born. His work brings together “tradition” and “the contemporary” whose synthesis is explained by Didi himself: “to evolve without losing the essence.”

What this text points out is the indissoluble ties between the work of the sculptor of African origins Mestre Didi and his deep commitment to the world of Candomblé. Given his history of making ritual objects even in his childhood and adolescence, his sculpture transports us into the symbolism and material substance of this Afro-Brazilian religion. In his work, Didi uses palm fronds, pumpkin shells, leather, conch shells (cowries), coconuts, woven fabric, beads and all kinds of little beads, raffia and jute. His sculptures measure between 50 centimeters and 2.10 m. The master participated in individual and group exhibitions in several Brazilian state capitals and abroad (Africa, Europe and Latin America).

[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); from 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 = 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)].