Religious intolerance and the theory of recognition de Honneth

Abstract

The debate around religions of African matrices in Brazil is not a recent discussion, nor something that can be summarized in this brief research. The touchstone is why half the population says it is black or brown, being considered the country with the most blacks outside of Africa. Even though they are the majority, the black population that follows their religious beliefs and practices anchored in religions of African origin faces various forms of discrimination or prejudice, even with the right to worship guaranteed in the Federal Constitution of Brazil. There is a widespread denial about the importance of the influence of African culture in our society, in cuisine, music and especially in religion. This denial of recognition, especially regarding religiosity, is even more aggressive, especially when other religious practices associate them as something demonic and contrary to Christian teachings, possibly due to incorporations (trances) by mediums, the delivery of offerings to orixás and the work carried out with the orixá Exu. This great difficulty in recognizing the importance and the right to exist of matrix religions is directly related to the central idea of ​​Axel Honneth's critical social theory, which places these conflicts as a driving force in the discussion about social changes that accommodate such rights being discussed.