Conversation ‘Religions and democracies: Perspectives and dialogues on governance and religion’. The case of Sierra Leone and Guatemala (#Biennaldepensament2024)
The activity ‘Religions and democracies: Perspectives and dialogues on governance and religion’ was organised by the Office for Religious Affairs (OAR) on Friday 11 October 2024, as part of the Biennial of Thought, in which Barcelona has become the first European Capital of Democracy. It consisted of a conversational roundtable between two experts on the connection between democracy and religion in two international settings, and a roundtable of experiences in which three of Barcelona's religious communities shared their participation and internal democracy practices.
Estrella Samba-Campos, PhD in Arab Studies and multidisciplinary researcher specialising in the role of text and orality in the construction of knowledge and narratives, presented the case of Sierra Leone, where she was born, which is characterised by a profound cultural and religious hybridisation, especially between the Muslim majority and the 20% of the population who are Christians. ‘Sierra Leone is a secular republic where ‘religious tolerance [which she views as religious pluralism] has become a hallmark’, the speaker began. Religious and cultural contact started in the eighteenth century, after which ‘different Afro-descendant peoples were pushed to Sierra Leone, where they built connections with Islam and autochthonous beliefs’. Gemma Celigueta Comerma, member of the Research Group on Indigenous and Afro-American Cultures (CINAF), in turn, offered a view of the indigenous peoples of Guatemala. In that country, there is such a diversity of communities that the contacts are both syncretic and anti-syncretic: indigenous, non-indigenous, Catholic, indigenous Christian, evangelical, Mayan spirituality and more.