Episode 8: Candomblé in Crisis: Confronting Religious and Environmental Racism in Brazil

In this episode, Irenae Aigbedion (LAC) welcomes Dr. Jamie Lee Andreson (Penn State) to the series to discuss the latter's project, "Candomblé Temples in the Fight against Religious and Environmental Racism in Brazil." Through her personal stories and case studies, Dr. Andreson takes us to the main site of her work: Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, where a fierce battle for religious freedom and antiracism is taking place. She examines the threats that candomblé temples face today and unpacks that ways that colonial history, contemporary global politics, and the ever present tension of the COVID-19 pandemic have complicated and even prevented their religious practices. Dr. Andreson shares the ways that temples themselves are nonetheless fighting back against oppression and mobilizing for their freedom to practice and their right to exist.