“Alufa Rufino, a Man of Faith and Sorcery in the Periphery of Islam”  

 a talk by João Reis

King Juan Carlos Center auditorium (53 Wash Sq South)

3:00 to 4:30PM, Wednesday, October 24th. 

Sponsored in part by the NY Center for Global Asia

Brazil, and particularly Bahia, was arguably the destination of most African Muslims deported from West Africa to the Americas on board slave ships during the first half of the nineteenth century. They were mainly Hausas, Nupes, and Yorubas who, once in Brazil, were involved in several slave revolts. This is a well-known story. What is less well-known is that parallel to this militant Islam, there were other, more accommodationist forms of Islam that also flourished among African slaves and freed people in Brazil. This lecture is about a man who represented  this form of Islam. A devout Muslim, Abuncare (a.k.a, Rufino José Maria) nonetheless dedicated himself to divination and other unorthodox practices that he learned in Africa and either reproduced in Brazil or adapted to Brazilian belief systems.