“Ewé ó!": terreiro children and their ethnosabers

Abstract

The article discusses the relationship between terreiro children and their ethnosabers produced in the universe of cosmosesenses of Candomblé. As a religion of African matrix where biointeraction is one of the basic principles, Candomblé and its universe present a wide range of traditional knowledge that is constructed and lived in everyday life. Understanding how terreiro children produce their knowledge brings with it the intention to think about childhood and its creative power through an Afro-perspective where the multidimensionality, multireferentiality and polysemy of knowledge are shown at all times, in the emerging ideas experienced, for example, when the children explore the terreiro's  territory with the astuteness of someone who knows what we adults and adults don't know. In the children's drawing production and in their narratives it is possible to learn about ethnosabers, culture and ancestry through itans, orikis and neo-languages characteristic of their symbolic universes where images and didactic rituals unite theory and practice, sensitive and rational. Furthermore, children present an inventive kaleidoscope of knowledge as guides to other educational paths and possibilities in the light of ethnic relations.