Discover Top Posts Tagged with #caribean

Grace Bay Beach in the Turks & Caicos Islands at sunrise

Trump just announced he’s going to pardon Juan Orlando Hernández

former president of Honduras.

Convicted of taking cartel money and moving literal tons of cocaine into the U.S.

Meanwhile, his administration has spent months blowing up small boats

in the Caribbean in the name of “drug interdiction.”

So let’s be clear

Small traffickers get lethal-force raids.

A narco-president gets a political favor.

This was never about drugs.

It’s about power, loyalty, and who the rules actually apply to.

When the U.S. torches traffickers at sea but frees the president who moved tons of cocaine, the hypocrisy stops being subtle and starts bein

[Phd work 7 : collecting data]

Bolsas de Mandinga: Afro-Atlantic Amulets of Protection and Power

In the 18th century, Africans deported across the Portuguese Atlantic, to Madeira, Brazil, or Lisbon, created bolsas de mandinga, small amulets worn on the body. Made by ritual specialists, or those trained in exile, they combined Catholic prayers, herbs, bodily fluids, fabric, and sacred items like medals or coins.

These powerful objects served as spiritual, emotional, and physical survival tools in a world of enslavement. They were believed to stop bullets, calm the soul, protect against violent masters, or rekindle love. Bolsas circulated across Brazil, Portugal, and other colonial ports like Saint-Domingue and Cartagena.

Each bolsa turned the imposed remnants of Catholicism into a mobile, mysterious object of African-rooted power.

A striking example comes from 1730: in Lisbon, an African slave named José Francisco Pereira, a Vodun devotee, was arrested and accused of witchcraft. Like many others of his time, he attracted the Inquisition’s attention due to his spiritual knowledge and the use of bolsas. Many testimonies from both Africans and Europeans, especially during Inquisition trials, described the protective power of those who wore them. source : Interview du professeure Cécile Fromont, thethinkersgarden.com