African animism as a strategy of decolonial resistance in the novel a Louca de Serrano, by Dina Salústio

Abstract

In the subchapter entitled “Narrative and Resistance”, from his work Literature and Resistance, Alfredo Bosi (2002) clarifies that “resistance”, being an ethical concept, should not, a priori, be related to aesthetics, as this originates from effects of knowledge, which would be: intuition, imagination, perception and memory. However, the author explains, contrary to popular belief, resistance and aesthetics interact in literary productions in a consistent and recurring way.  Resistance to certain institutionalized values ​​combines with narrative in two ways: as a theme and as an inherent form of writing. In this sense, we propose to analyze the way in which African animism manifests itself in the novel A Louca de Serrano, by Cape Verdean writer Dina Salústio. Our interest is to highlight the differences between the animistic perspective and the Cartesian discourse, with regard to proposals for interaction between human beings and the environment. According to the animist view, dichotomous/exclusive positions must be rejected and replaced by more harmonious and aggregating positions. In this way, it is possible to infer that the founding ideas of the animist unconscious, related to the sharing of vital force by all beings, human and non-human, point to the urgent need to rethink the ways in which we relate to nature; and also the importance of considering the proposal of “living in relationship” as a valid option for accessing relevant knowledge for training in environmental ethics. The work selected for analysis falls within the line of African Animist Realism, therefore, to provide a sufficient and appropriate approach to the topic, we chose, as main sources of consultation, the following texts: Literature and Resistance, by Alfredo Bosi (2002); “Decolonial metamorphoses: the animist unconscious and transmutations as a worldview in African literature”, by Silvio Ruiz Paradiso (2024); and “Provisional reflections on animism, modernism/colonialism and the African order of knowledge”, by Harry Garuba (2018).