Crossing the Big Kalunga: Cosmograms, Quilombos, and the Diasporic Central African Experience in Minas Gerais, Brazil

This article addresses rock art and artifacts present in maroon settlements in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, drawing connections with African-diasporic contexts in the state of Mato Grosso (Brazil) and archaeological contexts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola in order to discuss processes of maintenance and reconfiguration of beliefs and cosmologies of West Central African populations in the diaspora. It focuses on the interpretation of charcoal drawings from the maroon settlement Lapa dos Desenhos, highlighting how these representations refer to West Central African values and cosmologies reconfigured in the diaspora.