Experiências congadeiras: a decolonialidade como estratégia teórico-metodológica de pesquisa em Lambari/ MG

Abstract

How to search for identities and subjectivities of people whose social environment the researcher is not part of? This work aims to demonstrate the methodological paths adopted in a qualitative research on the Congada of Lambari / MG and the formation of the identities and knowledge of the festival’s participants. Congada is a black cultural and religious manifestation through which the participants chant verses that praise Catholic saints, speak about the experience of slavery and the struggle for freedom. When questioning the power relations involved in Congada, it was necessary to seek methodologies that suited the specificities of the research. From the “Congada’s experiences” it was possible to suspect the usual place of researcher who defines what is valid knowledge and what is not, and to exercise a decolonial strategy of blurring the borders and expanding the possibilities of other knowledge as valid as it is powerful.