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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.


Abstract

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Africa Conference 2006: Movements, Migrations and Displacements in Africa
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