Guided by Eleguá: At the Crossroads of Just and Sustainable Futures
At every crossroads, lies an opportunity - a moment to listen, to choose, and to imagine otherwise. In Afro-diasporic Candomblé cosmologies, Eleguá is the guardian of these thresholds, the one who opens paths and reminds us that no future is predetermined. Futures emerge in encounters: between people and places, between memory and imagination, between ancestral wisdom and new forms of knowing.
In this spirit, the workshop „Eleguá and the Crossroads of the Future: Sustainability, Health, and Justice“ took place on November 25 and 26 2025 in the Comunidade Quilombola de Mangueiras, in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Bringing together members of the Quilombo community, researchers from Heidelberg University and the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), representatives of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and activists from social movements in Belo Horizonte, the workshop created a space of encounter across institutions, territories, and knowledge traditions.
Guided by the presence of Eleguá, the guardian of the crossroads, the event was conceived as an invitation to pause at moments of decision and to imagine alternative paths toward the future. The workshop opened pathways between university-based research and traditional Quilombola knowledge, fostering a dialogue grounded in reciprocity, careful listening, and mutual respect.
At the heart of the discussions was the question of what sustainable and just futures might look like when envisioned from the perspectives of peripheral Black communities in Brazil, particularly Quilombola communities. Participants reflected on multiple, interconnected dimensions of the future, including health, social justice, food and food production, energy, and digitalization. Rather than treating these themes as isolated issues, the workshop emphasized their entanglement in everyday life, territory, and collective care.
Designed as a participatory event, the workshop combined presentations by community members and university researchers with collaborative group work, collective reflection, and the shared presentation of results. Participants also engaged deeply with the territory of Quilombo Mangueiras itself, visiting the community garden, sacred spaces, and the community center currently under construction. These encounters made visible how visions of the future are already being practiced in the present through communal organization, ecological knowledge, and resistance.
Throughout the two days, participants were welcomed and nourished by the community through traditional Quilombola food, allowing culinary practices to become another form of knowledge exchange. The event was audiovisually documented by the Programa de Formação Transversal em Saberes Tradicionais of UFMG and accompanied by a graphic facilitation, capturing the collective imaginaries, discussions, and emotions that emerged during the workshop.
Conceived and organized by Heidelberg University - through the Heidelberg Center Latin America (HCLA), the Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies (HCIAS), and the Heidelberg Center for the Environment (HCE) in close collaboration with the Comunidade Quilombola de Mangueiras, and the collaboration and financial support of the German Centre for Research and Innovation (DWIH São Paulo) the workshop demonstrated how futures can be co-created at the crossroads of academic inquiry, community wisdom, and political commitment. From these encounters, new paths toward sustainability, health, and justice continue to unfold.
Author: Anne Ziegler
