Performances of Spiral Time

Famed Afro-Brazilian thinker Leda Maria Martins introduces the notion of “spiral time”—curved and recurrent temporalities materialized in Black corporealities in which the body is the place of the inscription of memory and knowledge.

In Performances of Spiral Time, famed Afro-Brazilian thinker Leda Maria Martins theorizes forms of African and African diasporic temporality, corporeality, and space that exist apart from and critique Eurocentric notions of linear time. Martins introduces the notion of “spiral time”—curved and recurrent temporalities materialized in Black corporealities in which the body is the place of the inscription of memory and knowledge. She draws on African and African diasporic philosophy as well as the ritual performance and quotidian practices of Afro-Brazilians, arguing that spiral time is most powerfully expressed by the moving body. Embodied performance—whether manifested as capoeira, CandomblÉ, or theater—and the influence of oral traditions, sacredness, and ancestrality, cause time and memory to curve and return. With this theorization, Martins not only counters the claim to dominance of Western linear time; she provides a polyvalent and foundational account of African and African diasporic thought and ontology.