[^0]
[^0]:    6 'Application of Black Devotees of the Brotherhood of Senhora do Rosário', Bahia, 1786, cx. 71, doc. 12235 [old numbering system], Arquivo Histórico Ultramirino; copy courtesy of Maria Inês Cortes de Oliveira. These devotees asked Queen Maria I for permission 'for great general festivities to celebrate our Lady, with masks and dances in the Angolan language using the appropriate instruments, songs and praises'.  
by the founding brothers (Africans from the Costa da Mina and Luanda) of the Senhor Bom Jesus da Redenção brotherhood, instituted in Salvador's Corpo Santo chapel. ${ }^{7}$ The Creoles, in turn, were also able to create their own exclusive brotherhoods, as occurred in the parish of São Gonçalo, Vila de Cachoeira, Bahia, where a brotherhood was instituted in 1800 under the invocation of Bom Jesus da Cruz. ${ }^{8}$ However, as already pointed out, the equations were not fixed, as shown by the close relationship between Angolas and Creoles in the Rosary brotherhoods. ${ }^{9}$ The Angolas of Bahia were nominally associated with the formation and history of the Rosary brotherhood in Baixa dos Sapateiros. ${ }^{10}$ However, this phenomenon was not exclusive to Bahia, with Angolans and Creoles also frequently holding privileged positions in the Rosary brotherhoods of the Diocese of Pernambuco. ${ }^{11}$ It is possible that the identification of Angolas with Catholic brotherhoods of various invocations, especially those of the Rosary, resulted from a combination of historical contingencies and collective experiences. Precedence is a relevant factor in this history. In the seventeenth century, when the brotherhood of Rosário dos Pretos das Portas do Carmo was created, along with its counterparts in Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and Pernambuco, 'the numerical superiority of blacks from Angola and Kongo was incontestable'. For this demographic reason, these first brotherhoods may have  
[^0]