GIVE ME “AGÔ” TO TALK ABOUT TRADITIONAL AFRICAN MATRIX KNOWLEDGE IN CHEMISTRY TEACHING

This paper presents the results of a participant research. We represent the science class-room as conditioned by the heterogeneity of the identities constituting it from positions that are defined and legitimized by our social structure. We present a pedagogical intervention (PI) entitled “Traditional knowledge of African-matrix peoples and communities”. The PI was audio and video recorded and analyzed using Discourse Analysis. Our results show that the religiosity of Brazilian African-matrix is nowadays a resignification of the cults of various ethnic groups in the African continent, in this sense, the plants and leaves were incorporated to people’s everyday life. Plants perform a sacral role of symbolic value and a functional role through its chemical components. We understand scientific knowledge is not traditional knowledge, but it relates to it. Our results show how it is possible to bring these topics to the Chemistry class-room. To establish a dialogue among these various forms of interacting with the world is necessary to break up with the epistemicide reaching our classrooms.