Mãe Maria Conga

Where she came from, Angola, Congo, Mozambique, Guinea, Luanda, it doesn't matter, because her presence represents a relief for our sufferings and a lesson in life from that old black woman, who with her white pipe, carijó skirt, rosary tears of our lady, sits on a wooden stump in the yard and tells the facts of her life on Brazilian soil, beginning by saying that just the fact that we can live with our children is a great gift.

Coming from distant Africa, daughter of Father King Congo and Grandma Cambinda, the slave who was given the name Maria arrived in Bahia by tumbeiro ships. As her origin was from the tribe of the King of Congo, she was called Maria Conga. At that time, black women were things and destined to take care of the crops, to procreate, to generate children who were taken away from them very early, even before they were weaned. Other black women fed their offspring or that of other slaves, just as so many other candengues were breastfed by Mother Maria Conga. Almost all slave women became mothers; they took care of the children who arrived at the farm not knowing where their parents had been sent, praying that their own children would also find solace wherever they were.

African deities played a fundamental role at this time. Different African nations that used to fight were forced to unite in the defense of the race and all the orixás started to work for all the black people. Mothers became aware of the fate of their children through messages from the orixás. It was they who asked for offerings in difficult times and it was to them that everyone turned to ward off pain. In order to stop being a breeder, Grandma Maria Conga started to use some herbs, and because she was a strong slave, she was sent to the sugarcane plantation, where the harvest was always a reason for a lot of work and a kind of racket infected the spirit. place, as the women cut the cane and the children, in total excitement, arranged the bales for the slaves to carry them to the place indicated by the overseer. It was on one of these occasions that Maria Conga found out that one of her sons, who had been taken away from her during the breastfeeding period, had become a strong slave and was working on a nearby farm.

  Then love spoke stronger and her heart overflowed with joy and nothing could dissuade her from the idea of seeing him again. Maria Conga left the farm, running from sunrise to sunset to admire the beauty of that black fort. The first few times she had no way of talking to him, but the orixás heard her pleas and it didn't take long for the two to embrace and shed the tears that had been held back for so long. It seemed to her that they had never been apart, for love had held them together for all time. One afternoon, almost arriving at the slave quarters, the black woman was discovered. She was beaten a lot, she was chained, but she always managed to get her feet through the shackles and did not fail to escape again to find her son. Once again the whites caught her in flight, again chained her with the shackles on her feet and as she still insisted a third time they decided to close the matter: they burned her right leg, a little above the shin, so that she could no longer run.

  Unable to see her son, with less ability to work and move around, Maria Conga began to cry out in pain and began to take care of black children and their patients. Suddenly, Maria Conga was found silent, sad, with a heart full of sadness to learn that her son had been killed when she tried to run away to see her. Her demeanor changed from being cheerful and chatty to being very serious, but she always took care of sick slaves and other blacks who came to seek her advice and told children stories of black kings, from other lands beyond the sea, where there was no slavery. .

One day, when the slaves were looking for Grandma Maria Conga inside the slave quarters, they found her peaceful sleep and her happy face strange when she slept. As the sun broke and the slave did not wake up, the slaves went to call her, that's where the surprise happened, they did not find the body, because Maria Conga disincarnated and was no longer on this earthly plane, because Orumilá had rescued her, to become another star of your constellation. It was of no use for the overseers to flog the slaves, as they did not know how to explain the disappearance of the slave Maria Conga