aIn the early 20th century, Salvador, the capital of Brazil’s state of Bahia and the center of Portuguese colonial planning in the Americas, changed its image. In the post-apocalyptic era and the beginning of the Republic (1889), Salvador was widely satirized in Brazilian newspapers as an “old black woman”. That image deeply confused white elites, who were guided by ideas of scientific racism and progress.These elites wanted to look modern and white.
According to Barbara Weinstein, a scholar who studies race, gender, and regionalism in the formation of national identity in Brazil, São Paulo pushed for whiteization and modernization at the turn of the 20th century, but Salvador took the root. selected to change the From the 1930s through her 1950s, Salvador began adopting the image of Brazil’s “Black Heart”. The old racialized characterization of the city has been re-elaborated. In discussions of regionalism and racial harmony, the racialized imagination of the city became a symbol of pride and singularity. replaced by the body of a young black man, carefully painted by colorful strokes of Caribe’s paint, flaunted by Jorge Amado’s complementary writing. Now there was magic in the beauty of this city. To be black and to embrace Candomblé, the mixed religion of Afro-Brazilians that developed in the transatlantic slave trade. This radical change in the image and cultural aspects of the city of Salvador had symbolic significance for Black Her Atlantic as well. Bahia has come to occupy a central place in the political imagination of the Diaspora, alongside Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti.
Brazil’s strategy against race has fostered the mythical image of “racial democracy.” This is the (erroneous) idea that racism does not exist in Brazil due to its intense racial mixing and inclusion. The Bahian elite placed Salvador at the center of this myth when interacting with the popular sector. This shift in the visual and symbolic profile of Bahia and its capital is the subject of Anaderia A. Romo’s book. Sale of Black Bahia: race, nation and visual culture of Salvador, Bahia.
As the author shows, reinventing Salvador’s cultural image was not a simple and conflict-free task. For 30 years, it was held in the context of Brazil’s industrialization as Bahia’s agricultural production declined and the country’s tourism market developed. The reinvention involved the work of various intellectuals, members of the economic elite, politicians, and popular sectors associated with Candomblé..
The book tells the story of how Brazil’s white elite realized they could profit from tourism by emphasizing being black as a unique element of their Bahian identity. In Brazil, this uniqueness is now called ByanidadeRomo argues that the construction of Bahia as a culturally “magical” place is the result of the production of an identity that seeks to embrace blacks from a cultural perspective while maintaining gaps in economic relations. To some extent, the production of state culture and symbolism has been taken over by blacks. However, black men and women continued to be relegated to precarious working conditions, recreating the terrible income disparity between blacks and whites.
Yet Bahian white elites and Candomblé leaders shaped Bahian identity as a black experience. The action produced three effects. First, blacks came to occupy a symbolic position in modernization projects. For example, the distribution of postcards showing black people representing Salvador and the celebration of black popular music as Brazilian music. Second, the blackness memorial industry attracted white tourists and brought in more money, but also made the city whiter. has come to occupy
Through in-depth research on the images and stories created to promote the city, Romo traced the negotiation process between the Bahia elite and the Candomblé leaders. terreiros. This process led to the elaboration of Salvador’s robust image-centric culture.
In addition to analyzing the work of influential artists such as Jorge Amado, Caibe and Pierre Verger, Romo sheds light on other Bahian and non-Bahian artists who have shaped Bahia’s visual culture. I’m here. Visual his artists such as Manuel Martins, Renio Braga, Clovis Graciano, Luis Jardim, Castello Branco, Carlos Stile, Lizia Sampaio and Carlos Bastos contributed to the crystallization of Salvador’s racialized image. Beyond the work of prominent intellectuals and artists of the Bahian culture, Romo also examines other artifacts, such as his guide materials for tours, to reveal intents and characteristics not found in the more famous areas of production by these artists and intellectuals. reveal. For example, special attention is paid to the role of brothers Odrico and Claudio Tavares in creating the image of Salvador and Bahia. Using public resources to fund intellectuals studying Bahian idiosyncrasies, the Tavares brothers wrote texts promoting Bahian blackness to Brazil and the world.
The book does not mention the intermediary role played by the Center for Afro-Oriental Studies (CEAO) in Bahia in the late 1950s. Under the leadership of Portuguese Agostinho Silva, the Federal University of Bahia founded his CEOO in 1959. It was also a gathering place for Salvadoran intellectuals and Candomblé leaders. For example, the CEAO was one of the places where scholars and journalists came into contact with Donna Her Olga de Araketu, the priestess of Candomble of Oia Her Humín. TerreiroRomo’s research was co-authored with the CEOO Teleiros, and the intellectual elite of Bahia. Including this would have reinforced the notion that “Black Salvador” was not simply imposed by the elite, but that state-mediated projects were the subject of debate between the mass sector and the white elite.
Another point to enhance the text is a deeper analysis of the differences in candomblé engagement. Teleiros And the capoeira group for this project that sells Blackness. Romo claims that Black Bahia’s rebranding involved various popular sectors to varying degrees. Her discussion focuses on reinforcing the prominence of candomblé, with little analysis of the influence of capoeira, a martial art and dance form with African roots. Candomblé had greater influence due to his elite connections that were shaping the rebranding. for example, Maes de Santos Like Dona Olga de Araketu (Mothers of Saints) frequented the CEAO, interacting with Brazilian intelligentsia to gain fame and negotiate their space in the Bahia Negra tourism project. Capoeira, on the other hand, was unorganized and therefore did not stand out as much in shaping the image of Black Bahia. It appealed to the supernatural or religious, as opposed to the physical, martial, or masculine world.
Overall, the book is a radical critique of the use of black people in Bahia. A quick look at the data on tourism policy and urban violence in the city of Salvador is enough to convince Romo he’s right. Bahia is the Brazilian state that celebrates blacks the most, but he is also one of the states that kills the most black Brazilians.annual report prepared by Rede of Observatorios da Segurança (Security Observatories Network) found that 96.9% of those killed by military police in Bahia in 2019 were black, and 474 of the 489 victims identified by police intervention were either black or black. indicates that Pada (brown) person. The book reveals how tourism, the arts, and elite politicians think about blackness, and how limited this thinking is. Romo shows how elites can take cultural policies and move to instrument them according to their interests. Unfortunately, Bahia’s exceptionalism often fails to comprehend that the Bahia Negra Project served as a policy to redeploy the local white elite in a national modernization project. Cultural policy in a symbolic or representative field is not sufficient if it is not accompanied by substantial economic and social benefits and transformation of the people whose images are marketed and sold.
Caio Fernandes Barbosa holds a PhD in History from the Federal University of Bahia and is a teacher at the Bahia Ministry of Education. Twitter: @Caiobarbo
