Being Negro in Recife Brazil^†

† The ethnographic material for this article was mainly collected by Lynn van Leerzem, during 6 months of fieldwork in Recife in 2011 and 2012. When “I” is mentioned in the ethnography, this is Lynn's voice. Monique Nuijten and Pieter de Vries have regularly conducted research in Recife since 2005. The three authors equally contributed to the writing of this article.

: A Political Aesthetics Approach

ABSTRACT

In this article, we explore the role of cultura negra and what it means to be negro for a particular segment of the population of Recife, Brazil. We zoom in on participants in Terça Negra (negro Tuesday), one of the foremost weekly events in the city. For these participants, self-identifying as negro refers not principally to skin colour but to an emancipatory project based on the consciência negra (negro consciousness), the awareness that poor people have in common a history of oppression and discrimination originating in times of slavery. Following the theoretical framing of Jacques Rancière, we argue that what is at stake in cultura negra and the assertion of negro identity is a political aesthetics formed through disagreement with the dominant order. We conclude by stressing the political significance of these zones of egalibertarian practices in the margins.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultura negra
• Brazil
• being negro
• Rancière
• political aesthetics

Acknowledgements

We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which helped us to improve the manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

† The ethnographic material for this article was mainly collected by Lynn van Leerzem, during 6 months of fieldwork in Recife in 2011 and 2012. When “I” is mentioned in the ethnography, this is Lynn's voice. Monique Nuijten and Pieter de Vries have regularly conducted research in Recife since 2005. The three authors equally contributed to the writing of this article.

1. Capoeira is a martial arts dance genre originating among the Afro-Brazilian population.

2. Afoxé is a music and dance genre related to rituals of the religions of the African matrix. It often takes on a militant stance.

3. Terreiro originally referred to the terrain where rich landowners kept their slaves. Nowadays, it is used to refer both to a Candomblé house and to a group of people belonging to this cult within the Afro-Brazilian religion.

4. Candomblé is a religion of the African matrix.

5. A music and dance genre within Pernambucan popular culture, originating from African influences.

6. Comunidade refers to poorer neighbourhoods, slums.

7. A religion with indigenous origins, mixed with African and Catholic influences.

8. As Žižek (2014) following Hegel would put it, it is a concrete universal.

9. In fact, discrimination against people based on their adherence to a religion of the African matrix is experienced as one of the most persistent forms of discrimination in Recife by most participants. In particular, many Protestant churches outspokenly denounce the religions of the African matrix.

10. Music and dance genre originating from Afro-Brazilian slave communities, that over the twentieth century has evolved into various popular subgenres.

11. See the website of the Programa Multicultural: http://www.recife.pe.gov.br/fccr/multicultural/ and the website of Carnival Multicultural: http://www.carnavaldorecife.com.br/, also to get an impression of the colourful visual representations of the meaning of ‘multicultural’ by the prefeitura.

12. Deity of the religions of the African matrix.

13. A dance and music genre of Pernambucan popular culture, mixing European fanfare music with acrobatic moves from capoeira.

Additional information

Funding

The research for this article was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) [VIDI grant number 452-05-365].