Afro-Brazilian Identity: Persistence and Resistance through the Arts

​By Carter Potthoff

​As we wrap up our three weeks here in Bahia, I have begun to reflect on the experience and think about what I have learned during our stay here. There is one common theme that almost all of the activities we have done and lectures we have listened to have touched on, and that is Afro-Brazilian identity. Salvador, being the most African city outside of Africa, has a long history of Afro-Brazilian culture and resistance, which is reflected in various art forms, education, and community.
 
It is impossible to talk about Afro-Brazilian cultures and history without talking about art, music, and dance. During my time here, I have begun to understand how different arts forms are used to tell the story of ancestors, whether enslaved people in Brazil or ancestors from Africa, and promote the Afro-Brazilian identity. We had the opportunity to learn about many of these art forms, like percussion, capoeira, Afro-Brazilian dance, and graffiti. During our percussion workshop with Mario Pam, we talked a little bit about the history of percussion in Afro-Brazilian communities and the formation of African Blocks, or blocos de carnaval, in which Afro-Brazilians came together to create music and dance during Carnaval, but they were historically targeted by police. Osmundo Pinho, a social scientist at UFBA, says that “the image of the city of Salvador as a civilized and white city appeared threatened by the African presence” (Pinho 2020, 7). The white, Brazilian elites felt threatened by something as simple as music and dance. They went as far as banning “the display of African customs with drumming”, but there was no success (Pinho 2020, 7). Afro-Brazilian drumming has a history founded on resistance, and it is still of great importance to Afro-Brazilian identity and resistance in Salvador to this day.  

Photo of the group with Mario Pam after our percussion workshop.

In “AmarElo – It’s All for Yesterday”, a Netflix documentary by Brazilian rapper Emicida, he walks us through the history of Afro-Brazilians through their music. It is symbolic as well, because he tells the story during one of his concerts at the Teatro Municipal de São Paulo, which was historically a place where black Brazilians were excluded. This concert was a way for Afro-Brazilians to take back a space they were historically excluded from (Ouro Preto 2020). For me, I see Afro-Brazilian music in Salvador in a similar way; Afro-Brazilians use music to form their identity and take their claim to spaces, both physical and societal, that they have historically been excluded from. Another Afro-Brazilian custom from Bahia is capoeira, which is a kind of fusion of martial art and dance. Capoeira was documented from as far back as 17th century Brazil and has been played in Afro-Brazilian communities as a form of resistance throughout Brazilian history (Pinho 2020, 6). Capoeira, like many other forms of Afro-Brazilians arts, was once banned, but regardless, it survived and was passed down from generation to generation and it remains a practice today. Similar to other Afro-Brazilian art forms, there is connection to Afro-Brazilian religions, like Candomblé, within these practices. Both came from enslaved Africans in Brazil and are unique to Brazilian culture, and both have been used to create community building spaces for black Brazilians, like the capoeira school or the Candomblé terreiros we visited. In the book Crooked Plow, the Jarê rituals, which is a religion similar to Candomblé, were accompanied by music and dancing, and when Zeca or other characters were mounted by orixás, they danced and sang (Vieira Junior 2019). Music and dance is so central to Afro-Brazilian identity that it plays a central role in things as important as religion. At the Balé Folclórico da Bahia, we were able to see many different practices of Afro-Brazilian culture, like capoeira, Candomblé, maculelê, and samba performed in one space using dance, drumming, and singing. It was a really impactful way to end off the trip and really allowed me to make connections about everything I was seeing and learning.
 
One last art form I want to talk about, that is much more contemporary than capoeira or drumming, is graffiti. We had the chance to visit Eder Muniz, who is a graffiti artist and tagger from Salvador. He shared with us some of his work, but also some background about graffiti and tagging and the social aspects of it as well. In a paper about “street youth” in Salvador, Marit Ursin, a sociologist at NTNU, talks about the negative connotations around street youth and how these connotations reinforce the social exclusion of these youth and continue to drive unequal structures of power (Ursin 2016). Eder talked a bit about this and said that in his case and the case of many others street artists, their art begins as a means of liberation and as a way of making themselves seen, by putting literal representations of themselves, in the form of tags, in their physical space. In a sense, tagging is about taking back their right to live and exist in their communities. Eder talked about using graffiti as a way of building community as well, and the importance of the community when making street art. He showed us some pieces around his community that he worked on, which were often accompanied by neighborhood parties or barbecues. Involving the community in the process of art is important in creating a piece that truly represents a community, but also that the community sees themselves represented in. These past three weeks in Salvador, we have had the opportunity to see and participate in all of these art forms, and I definitely have a new appreciation for art and music as a tool in resistance and building community.

Photo of one of Eder Muniz’s pieces in his neighborhood, about a block from his home.

Sources
Ouro Preto, Fred, director. 2020. Emicida AmarElo: It’s All for Yesterday. Netflix.

Pinho, Osmundo. “Race and Cultural Politics in Bahia.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, 2020.

Ursin, Marit. “Contradictory and Intersecting Patterns of Inclusion and Exclusion of Street Youth in Salvador, Brazil.” Social Inclusion 4, no. 4 (October 20, 2016): 39–50.
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Vieira Júnior, Itamar. 2019. Crooked Plow. National Geographic Books. 

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Carter Potthoff is a senior at Saint John's University, majoring in Hispanic Studies and Biology and minoring in Latino/Latin American Studies. He is originally from Sartell, MN. Some of his many research interests include indigenous groups, cultures, and religions in southern Mexico and Guatemala, immigration in the Americas, and racial dynamics in Latin America. In his free time, Carter loves trying out new recipes, spending time with his family and friends, and most people don't know this, but he is an avid birder! Carter is excited to visit Brazil for a second time and learn firsthand about race and gender!

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