THE ENCOUNTER WITH THE INTERNATIONAL: THE MANDJAKU PEOPLE, KNOWLEDGE, AND ANCESTRY OF IRAN AND BALUGUM

Abstract

This article aims to problematize the role of the international in the construction of national identity in Guinea-Bissau, specifically the Mandjaku peoples, through the ideological/colonial project 'New Man'. The article argues that the international exerts a double movement of dehumanization and erasure of knowledge and ancestry in Iran's ritual Gëtchai and Balugum, and their practices in the relationship with nature, food survival and forms of collective care. To this end, we used semi-structured interviews as a methodology to listen to the Mandjaku about the current situation of the people in the current structure of the country, being structured in the scope of the article in two sections. The first section problematizes the theoretical debate on the double movement of the international in the construction of national identity in Guinea-Bissau, highlighting the negative influences against the Mandjaku people. In the second section, we highlight the ritual of Iran Gëtchai and Balugum as a way of confronting this international, opposing colonial ideologies, based on ritualistic practices such as relationship with nature, food survival and collective care, in addition to ancestral teachings. In short, this article contributes both to the discipline of history and International Relations, since it addresses narratives of the history of Africa (Guinea-Bissau), unarchiving the epistemologies in the ancestral knowledge of the Mandjaku people, as well as dialoguing about the international, the nation-state and the relations and power, inserting itself in the literary currents that go against the forms of epistemicide and the ontological violence on the literatures of Guinea-Bissau.