Brazil has taken a significant step toward recognizing African ancestral knowledge and cultural memory with the introduction of an advanced academic course on African and Nigerian theatre, drama, performance, and Yorùbá spirituality at one of its foremost universities, the University of São Paulo (USP).
The new course, “Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies in Africa, with Specific Focus on Nigeria,” reflects a growing institutional commitment to what scholars increasingly describe as ancestral intelligence—knowledge systems rooted in African spirituality, oral traditions, ritual performance, and collective memory. The initiative positions Brazil as a leading space in the Global South for the academic study of African-derived worldviews, performance cultures, and spiritual philosophies.
Created and activated on 18 November 2025, the intensive seven-week program carries seven academic credits and a total workload of 105 hours, combining theoretical study, practical engagement, and independent research. Classes will be taught in English with simultaneous translation into Portuguese, ensuring accessibility while maintaining international academic standards.
The course is coordinated by Fausto Roberto Poço Viana and Babatunde Allen Bakare, bringing together Brazilian and African scholarly perspectives. Its objectives include a critical examination of Yorùbá and broader African performance traditions—such as music, dance, storytelling, ritual, masquerade, and oral literature—as tools of memory preservation, resistance to oppression, and identity formation from pre-colonial times to the present.
Beyond aesthetics, the program interrogates the historical, political, and socio-economic realities of African societies before, during, and after European interference. Particular attention is given to the impacts of colonialism, Christianity, Western education, and the transatlantic trade of enslaved Africans, as well as to how performance traditions evolved through displacement, trauma, adaptation, and resilience.
A central theme of the course is the post-slavery African world, including the experiences of freed Africans who returned to places such as Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Brazil. Students will explore how these returnees influenced local artistic, spiritual, and performative expressions, shaping forms such as carnivals, festival parades, concert parties, operas, and Afro-Brazilian theatrical traditions.
The curriculum also highlights the emergence of Afro-Brazilian, Caribbean, and African-American dramatists, while encouraging students to critically reflect on how memory, nostalgia, and reconstructed African pasts are performed in contemporary contexts. Importantly, the course frames performance not only as art, but as a tool for education, healing, community building, and even environmental and climate justice awareness. Assessment will be based entirely on a scholarly article written by each student, fostering in-depth research and critical engagement with one of the course themes.
By embedding Yorùbá spirituality, ritual performance, and African epistemologies within a top-tier academic institution, Brazil signals a broader intellectual and cultural shift—one that values ancestral wisdom alongside modern scholarship. The initiative strengthens historical ties between Africa and Brazil and affirms the role of African spiritual and performative knowledge as living, dynamic forces within contemporary global education.
