As grandes rochas, fogueiras e muitas rodas: o sentido de aular nas ancestralidades africanas

Abstract

This article discusses the paths, possibilities, and contributions of ancestral oral traditions of African origin. Our object of study is the conversation circle as a class, the peculiarities of an education whose formative spaces are much broader than those of the European school since it is everyday life itself. Western civilizations, in considering that where there is no writing, there is no knowledge or history, treat with discredit the oral traditions and traditional education of African civilizations. Through an expanded listening based on African protagonism, we seek to understand the “aular” from the perspective of the Fulbe, the bámàná, the Maninka, the Sénéfo (ethnic groups of West Africa) and from the perspective of our own ancestry. We conducted documentary and bibliographic studies, in addition to unstructured interviews with Africans from the Sudano-Sahelian region. For the purposes of this article, we focus on the dialogues established with the philosopher Amadou Hampâté Bâ, the djeli Toumani Kouyaté and the master of the art of storytelling François Moïse Bamba. We seek the non-hierarchy of knowledge, since the methodological foundation of the research is the dialogue between people.

Keywords: “aular”, african ancestry, orality, conversation circle