A reflection of historical agents in the systematzation of the African stereotype in the construction of the black people imagery in Brazil

Abstract

This article presents a reflection based on references in order to show a major problem which is the African stereotype on the construction of the imagery of black people in Brazil, which interferes directly as a limiter in the receptivity and in the adequate recognition of the founding myths of the matrix African religions. The cultural references of the Africans were built up under occidental values and codes represented by the white-Christian man. In this sense, these ethnocentric parameters, at that period, were used specifically for evaluation and later on they migrated to Brazil. In this article, the focus is towards the possible origins of the construction of the African stereotype as a starting point in the trajectory of the representation of the identity which established the image of the black African in the Portuguese imagery in the 14th century. In this context, some special features shown by the Portuguese Catholic culture migrate as a continuum phenomenon which is fostered in the meeting or (re)meeting in Brazilian territory, of the African culture together with the Portuguese catholic religion.

Key words: black culture, phenomenology, identity.