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here to listen to Paola talk about this festival
This is an excerpt from the book Celebrating Women.
Brazil had four times as many slaves as the United States, and, in
1888, became the last country in the world to end slavery. Abolition
finally occurred in part, thanks to freed slave women in Bahia, leaders
of Candomblé (West African) religious groups.
Candomblé was illegal, so they met and networked as members
of a lay Catholic sisterhood. They disguised their deities (orixa)
as Catholic Saints and disguised their ideas in Catholic doctrine:
slaves who died free had a “good death” (Boa Morte) just
as Mary had a “good death” thanks to her bodily assumption.
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The Sisters of Boa Morte earned money
to buy slaves’ freedom, used their social and spiritual power
to give sanctuary to escaped slaves, and helped them reach quillombos
(back country communities).
Today, their descendants, who are still leaders in Candomblé
congregations as well as members of the Sisterhood of Boa Morte, continue
the fight against racism in Brazil and celebrate the Festival of Our
Lady of the Good Death.
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