AFRICAN CULTURAL INPUT AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF BRAZILIAN EXPERIENCE . Akanbi Oyebamidele OYENIRAN

Akanbi Oyebamidele OYENIRAN Department of International Relations, Faculty of Social Sciences. Hill City University, Cotonou, Republic of Benin. oyeniranakanbi@gmail.com

The paper examines the African cultural input in the construction of Brazilian cultural experience. It observes the ever increasing body of opinion lending credence to the presence of African culture in Brazil which varied in intensity and scale in different parts of the region which have continued to flourish to the present depending on the inter play of factors of geography, demography, the nature of economic enterprises the Africans were involved in the ideological disposition and commitment and the continuity or otherwise of African contact with the Brazilian society throughout the period of slavery Africans in Brazil created a universe in which the African cultural impulse was unmistakable. Using the historical analytical methodology to interrogate the primary document, the paper position, however, that, as African protagonists, the African slaves has been able to fashion their cultural universe in Brazil to express their fundamental African beliefs and cosmology. Africans contributed in fashioning the socio-cultural institutions in Brazil in the areas of religion music, dance, folklore and art. Indeed, that he Africans were able to retain the metaphysical conceptions of Africa, her philosophical schemes, folklore, arts, and language, is a testimony of their resilience as cultural protagonists rather than on a permissive environment allowed them by the Brazilians. Therefore, it becomes imperative not to doubt that the cultural traditions found among the contemporary Brazilians is firmly anchored in African cosmology and practices wide spread and have overtime become part and parcel of the cultures and experience of the Brazilians. The paper concludes that it is still more accurate to see Brazilian cultural experiences as a tapestry woven from different strands of African input. Which demonstrate the irresistible thirst for life and living among Africans and their indomitable determination to survive obstacles and the massive in life as a project to be fully lived and enjoyed and in the process impacted on the various aspect of the Brazilian cultural experience.