Abstract
This paper is a historical analysis of the life of African freedman José Pedro Autran, who was married to Iyá Nassô, the founder of the Casa Branca candomblé temple in Bahia. The first section examines Autran’s heterogeneous social network between 1822 and 1837, arguing that kinship, baptismal liaisons, spiritual initiation and slave holding formed an important base of support of both the household and his wife’s religious community. Next, the paper turns to the return voyage to Africa in 1837 that ended in the port city of Ouidah. The closing section, based on ethnographic data from Ouidah, focuses on the memories of a family that claims descent from José Pedro Autran, regarding the history of a Xangô temple that he is said to have founded.
Keywords
freed africans; returnees/agudá; social networks; afro-atlantic religions; Xangô
