Press Release | Arole Cultural debuts on children literature with "The Orishas Book for Children" collection
“Knowing the Orishas” is the first volume of the series, with 18 titles about the African Gods of Nature
Arole Cultural makes its debut in children literature with “The Orishas Book for Children” collection, a series of 18 titles, which in a didactic and illustrative way presents to the small readers the universe of African-Brazilian culture. The first volume, “Knowing the Orishas”, is signed by the PhD in Children Education, Waldete Tristão, and by the illustrator Caco Bressane.
In the book are presented the characteristics and peculiarities of the Orishas commonly worshiped in African-Brazilian religions, who survived here by attending to the needs of the enslaved peoples and their descendants, whether invoking the forces of nature or to achieve success in agriculture and hunting, for example. In the next volumes of the collection, the Orishas will be protagonists or supporting characters in stories that portrayed 17 itans - the traditional African myths - and in them, they will have adventures specially selected for the children at first age and in literacy.
In addition to the cultural and educational character, the collection also aims to be a relevant instrument for the strengthening of the Law on Guidelines and Bases of National Education (LDB) 9.394/96, amended by Law 10.639/03, which makes compulsory the study of culture and African-Brazilian and African history, as a constituent and formative of Brazilian society, in which blacks are considered historical subjects. Connected with Opinion No. 4 of the National Education Council, approved in 2004, which established the National Curricular Guidelines for the Education of Ethnic-Racial Relations and for the Teaching of Afro-Brazilian and African History and Culture, the collection values ​​the African-Brazilian cultural heritage, recognizing and affirming rights with regard to education, insofar as it collaborates to bring children closer to African-Brazilian and African history and culture, in the perspective of religiosity as a cultural heritage.
The books collaborate so that an important part of the African-Brazilian and African History and Culture are present in the curricula of the Basic Education as a way to value the black population, evidently, not being restricted to it. On the contrary, it is desired to reach all the Brazilian children, since all must be educated as citizens acting in the direction of a society that recognizes the different and diverse nature of their formation, to be able to build a democratic nation.
Knowing the Orishas
40 pages, paperback
Cover price: R$35,00 | ISBN 9788590624011
Available at: www.arolecultural.com.br/shop/conhecendo-os-orixas
About the author
Waldete Tristão is PhD in Education by the University of São Paulo (USP, 2017) in the area of Didactics, Teaching and Practical and School Theories and Master of Education: History, Politics and Society from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP, 2006). The author has worked professionally for more than 30 years in municipal public education in São Paulo, in EMEIs and day care centers, as a teacher, pedagogical coordinator and teacher educator aswell as school manager in basic education.
About Arole Cultural
The publishing house was founded in 2015 by Diego do Oxóssi, aiming to translate the culture of the Orishas in an objective and easy way for the lay reader or for anyone who already has an interest in the subject "Arole means `the heir` in Yoruba language - one who carries a tradition. This is the mission and the main goal of our titles and brand: help spread African religions, breaking down taboos and stigmata, demystifying and deconstructing prejudices and showing that we are all equal in our differences", explains the founder and writer.
