The contribution of Maria Stella de Azevedo dos Santos to Brazilian education: a debate on other ways of educating,
Mother Stella De Oxóssi; Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá; Afro-Brazilian Studies; Anti-racist education.This Master's thesis aims to present the contributions of Maria Stella de Azevedo dos Santos to Brazilian education: a woman of black ancestry, dissident of heterosexuality and Ialorixá. To this end, I start from a brief study on Brazilian social-racial formation, arguing how the action of eugenicists established barriers that prevented the full insertion of black people in social life, particularly in education, and compare it with the situation of black people in education contemporary Brazilian. The study by Ruth Landes (2002) entitled “The City of Women”, is also important as it reveals the power of women from Salvador in their Candomblé terreiros, but also passages of racism in everyday social relations and roles of genre established at the time. I also discuss the grandeur of the life of Mãe Stella de Oxóssi, and the history of the foundation of the Ilê Axé Opó Afonjá terreiro, the sequence of Ialorixás of the house, as well as the social legacy left by Mãe Stella in the construction of a museum, library and a municipal school.