Do barro a palavra: a transmissão oral do conhecimento dos solos pelos povos africanos em diáspora.

Abstract

For centuries, African peoples have experienced the erasure of their knowledge systems, which are predominantly transmitted orally, through racist and epistemicidal strategies that have denied scientific recognition of their intellectual achievements. One way these communities preserved and transmitted their knowledge was through Ìtán, African mythologies that form part of the intangible cultural heritage of African-based religions. In this study, we examine oral transmission with an emphasis on knowledge systems, while also allowing for biogeographical interpretations of the experiences of enslaved African peoples and their persistence in Afro-Brazilian culture, particularly through Ìtán used in Candomblé in Bahia. To this end, we compiled collections of Ìtán, selected those containing pedological content, and analyzed their narratives. Our approach was Afrocentric in geography, seeking to identify the presence of soil knowledge and techniques of use and management embedded within African mythological narratives. We began by surveying African environmental knowledge, with particular attention to tropical soils, to understand how this knowledge contributed to the transformation and interpretation of the Amefrican landscape during the diaspora. Two Ìtán were selected for closer analysis: one concerning Nanã and the creation of humanity and another concerning Ogum and agricultural tools. From these narratives, we sought to identify the existence of a pedological cosmoperception in them. The results indicate that Africans who were forcibly taken to the Americas possessed extensive knowledge of tropical soils, including conservation practices, management strategies, and fertilization techniques. This knowledge was preserved through oral tradition and cultural practices within African-based religions, reinforcing an epistemological continuity that resists the coloniality of knowledge and influences landscape transformation in the Americas. Recognizing the scientific contributions of the African diaspora to the production of geographic space underscores the necessity of incorporating geography into debates on race, territory, and culture. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of oral tradition and its validation as a means of knowledge transmission, contributing to the redefinition of geographical science from an Afrocentric and pluriversal perspective.