Abstract
Race relations debates in Brazil, as well as other Atlantic shores, tend to pay attention to explicit signs of differentiation, discourses or boundaries. Nevertheless, the condition of reflexive subjects - able to analyze not only their own experiences, but also to comprehend multiple relations and alterities - is often denied to black people or communities, even at specialized forums. Against those trends, I propose at this article an epistemological reflection about silence and secret. Both notions, which play a central role at candomblé (an African Brazilian religion), will be addressed here through the trajectory of an important Brazilian musician, Dorival Caymmi. I intend to put in evidence, with those considerations, certain non-verbal and intimate dimensions of Brazilian racializing processes which are characterized, additionally, by the strategic use of silence, solidarity and micro-political alliances. By doing so, I seek to underline the agency and conceptual relevance of the ideas hold by candomblé followers, their entities and their temples.
Keywords:
silence and secret; ethnic identity; Dorival Caymmi; candomblé