Yeda Pessoa de Castro

Yeda Pessoa de Castro is a Brazilian ethnolinguist. With a PhD in African Languages at the National University of Zaire, she is a Technical Consultant in African Languages for the Museu da Língua Portuguesa at the Estação da Luz in São Paulo, a Member of the Academia de Letras da Bahia and of the ANPOLL's GT de Literatura Oral e Popular.^[1]

Castro was born in Salvador, Bahia on 3 October 1936.^[1] Retired as a teacher from the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) [1] is currently a Technical Advisor and Professor at the University of the State of Bahia (UNEB)[2], with the Post-Graduation Program for Languages Studies - PPGEL [3], where she teaches African languages and cultures in Brazil. Also is Director and founder of the GEAALC - Studies Group of African and Afro-Brazilian Languages and Cultures.

Notable accomplishments

• Technical Consultant in African Languages for the Estação da Luz da Nossa Língua Project, by the Roberto Marinho Foundation, São Paulo, from 2004.
• Counselor of the Palmares Cultural Foundation, Ministry of Culture, Brasília, 2001-2003.
• Cultural Attache at the Brazilian Embassy, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, 1986-1988.
• Consultant and advisor in developing projects in Education at the State University of Santa Cruz - UESC / Ba - Department of Arts and Letters, Kawe Center for Afro-Bahian Regional Studies, 2000-2001.
• Member of the Scientific Council and the Reading Committee of the International Colloquium "Le Monde et le Gabon Iberique, Université Omar Bongo [5], Libreville, Gabon, May/2002.
• Permanent Member of the Scientific Board of the Journal Kilombo, publication of [CERAFIA], Omar Bongo University, Gabon
• Reviewer for [CAPES] and various books, magazines and scientific journals in Brazil and abroad.
• Visiting Professor at universities in Africa and the Caribbean, where she also served as Cultural Attache at the Brazilian Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago.
• First Brazilian to defend post-graduate thesis at an African university and the only one so far in her specialty.
• In Bahia, was Director of the Centro de Estudos Afro-Orientais - CEAO, founded the Afro-Brazilian Museum in Salvador and is currently Visiting Professor of Post-Graduate Studies at the University of the State of Bahia, where she teaches African languages and cultures in Brazil.

• (2009) - Falares africanos na Bahia: um vocabulário afro-brasileiro. Rio de Janeiro: Academia Brasileira de Letras/ Topbooks Editora e Distribuidora de Livros Ltda. (2ª ed. - new print)
• (2005) - Falares africanos na Bahia: um vocabulário afro-brasileiro. Rio de Janeiro: Academia Brasileira de Letras/ Topbooks Editora e Distribuidora de Livros Ltda. (2ª ed.)
• (2002) - A língua mina-jeje no Brasil: um falar africano em Ouro Preto do século XVIII. Belo Horizonte: Fundação João Pinheiro (Coleção Mineiriana).
• (2001) - Falares africanos na Bahia - um vocabulário afro-brasileiro. Rio de Janeiro, Academia Brasileira de Letras/ Topbooks Editora e Distribuidora de Livros Ltda.

• Comendadora of the Order of Rio Branco [4] by the Ministério das Relações Exteriores [5] in 1997.
• Comenda Maria Quitéria by the Câmara de Vereadores of the City of Salvador [6] in 1989.
• Socio-Meritorious by the Afro-Brazilian Cult Foundation of Bahia - FEBACAB in 1994.
• Honored as a great benefactor of the Afro-Brazilian Bantu Terreiros components of the Eco-Bantu, in São Paulo, 2008.
• Honored by the Afoxé Filhos do Congo, Carnival 2007. Salvador, Bahia.
• Honored by the Cultural Group Afoxé Loni [7] Archived 2010-04-02 at the Wayback Machine for her life and work devoted to the study of the Afro-Brazilian Culture and Language, at the Carnival of Cultures in Berlin, Germany in May 2008.