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Finding Africa in the Dances the Gods
Cheryl Sterling, Ph.D., General Studies
Program, New York University
Historically, race relations have been
a site of tension in Brazil and this, of course, continues today. The
politically charged official policy promotes an ethnic plurality in
which the idealized being, albeit racially mixed, chooses his/her racial
identity. Yet the choice is not between racial identities that are
considered equal; rather, a clear privilege is given to an individual
who adopts a white/European aesthetic over an African/black one. The
policy of whitening known as “embranquecimento” or “branqueamento” is
bolstered by the prevailing myth that Brazil is a racial democracy
(Burdick, 1992; Winant, 1992; Fontaine, 1985; Skidmore, 1974). Afro-Brazilians
are the targeted group in this process of embranquecimento as whitening
is equated to social mobility. It is popularly believed that through
this gradual whitening caused by miscegenation all social impediments
will disappear.
It becomes crucial then to ask the following: Why then do Afro-Brazilians
maintain such a vital link to Africa as seen in the context of candomblé (the
African based religious tradition in Brazil)? I contend that this preachment
of Africa and the holding forth of an African identity still continues
as a form of resistance, but this resistance is not just opposition
and affirmation, but transformative processes to shape ideals of self
and society. These formations of an African identity are thus seen
as transformative acts simultaneously aimed at interrupting the dominant
discourse, articulated through the concept of embranquecimento, and
altering future relations of Afro-Brazilians in the social and political
strata.
This paper thus examines the imbrication of culture and politics in
three public rituals in Salvador da Bahia: the festa de Santa Barbara,
the festa de Iemanjá, and the Lavagem do Bonfim. It contends
that within the performative codex of these rituals, which are firmly
rooted in the candomblé, Afro-Brazilians find a source to debunk
the policy of embranquecimento while simultaneously transforming their
social and political sphere.
Thus, I read these festas as forms of cultural politics and I analyze
their celebratory aspects in light of the project of political and
social transformation seen in their performance strategies. Examining
performance encompasses subject formation, the internalization of subjectivity,
and its representation in the public sphere. As public reflexivity,
performance inverts and reverses established social order, articulates
social issues, and strengthens group identity. Shifting the negotiation
of discourse to the performer, the body is the visual text where identity
is simultaneously formed and performed. Codes of discourse are evident
in the gestures, music, dance, dress and use of symbolic objects. Hence,
I analyze the performance textures for each of the festas as externalizations
of sacred ritual forms found in candomblé. This paper then shows
how these public performances of an “African” identity
profoundly engages the discourses of power, while also shaping the
processes of Afro-Brazilian identity formation.
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