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“Don’t Ask Questions, Just Observe!” 51

Baudrillard one could argue that such fights (and the dreams that motivate
them) are already an effect of the simulacrum. In the broader picture, then,
Mãe Stella herself, the public interest in Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá, the “re-
Africanizing” and antisyncretistic movements in Candomblé, as well as
the anthropologist contemplating the real of silence, or his being impressed
by the ineffable qualities of sacred dance: all of this already belongs to that
“panic-stricken production of the real and the referential” that follows an
awareness of the unsettling effects of the simulacrum. The assignment
“don’t ask questions, just observe” is an effect of the simulacrum, just as
much as it seeks to fight it.

Notes

1. One of the organizations of the movimento negro (black movement).
2. Some people may consider the word “cult” and “cultist” pejorative. I wish to
stress that I use the word in a neutral sense.
3. In Candomblé, axé is the life-giving force that animates all being, the accumu-
lation of which is central to all activities in the temples. Axé is also used to
denote the religious community.
4. Interestingly, Ildásio Tavares identifies himself as “poet and Otun Oba Aré of
the Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá,” which means that he occupies a honorary post in Mãe
Stella’s terreiro.