The Field of Afro-Bahian Carnival Music Christopher Dunn, Brown University

Between Markets and Patrons: The Field of Afro-Bahian Carnival Music Christopher Dunn, Brown University I would like to begin by referring to a song soldiers, almost all black on the record, “Tropicália 2” (1993), by Beating on the napes of black Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, the two rogues most prominent figures ofBrazilian popular O f mulato thieves and other music for the last twenty five years. In a slow almost-whites rap, provocatively entitled “Haiti,” Caetano Treated like blacks describes witnessing state-sponsored vio Only to show the other almost- lence at the thirteenth FEMADUM, the blacks annual festival of the Grupo Cultural (Who are almost all black) Olodum in the Pelourinho district of Salva And the almost-whites poor like dor, Bahia:1 blacks How it is that the blacks, the poor Quando voce for convidado pra and the mulatos subir no adro And almost-whites almost-blacks Da Fundafáo Casa de Jorge from poverty are Amado treated. Pra ver do alto a fila de soldados, quase todos pretos Veloso’s privileged point of view from Dando porrada na nuca de the stage allows him to witness the brutal malandros pretos police repression of Afro-Brazilian youth De ladrdes mulatos e outros quase stigmatized as much by their blackness as by brancos their poverty. Despite the group’s consider Tratados como pretos able efforts to discourage aggressive behav Só pra mostrar aos outros quase ior, Olodum’s public rehearsals and festivals pretos in Pelourinho square have long been sites of (E sao quase todos pretos) petty crime, fist fights and violent confron E aos quase brancos pobres como tation with baton-wielding police who op pretos erate in groups often or more. But this time Como é que pretos, pobres e Veloso has drawn attention to the “eyes of mulatos the whole world watching the square,” E quase brancos quase pretos de especially when he says: táo pobres sao tratados. Nao importa nada: Nem o trafo When you are invited to ascend do sobrado the steps Nem a lente do Fantastico, nem o O f the Casa de Jorge Amado disco de Paul Simon Foundation Ninguem, ninguem e cidadao To see from up high the line of 47 Lucero Vol. 5, 1994 Nothing matters: Not even the power elite celebrates the symbols of Afro- outline of the sobrado Bahian culture as emblems of local identity Not even the lens of Fantâstico, in relation to the rest of Brazil and to the not even Paul Simon’s record world. The contradictions ofBrazilian, and par Nobody, nobody is a citizen. ticularly Bahian, society might be under stood in light of the paradoxes of muld- References to the majestic colonial villa culturalism in the U.S. described by Hazel housing the museum of Bahia’s most conse Carby in her essay, “The Multi-Cultural crated novelist, the presence of the film Wars” (1992). Carby raises questions about crew of a very popular nationally-televised the “cultural and political need” which is human interest program, and finally satisfied by raising up black women literary Olodum’s acclaimed collaboration with Paul subjects to the status of “cultural and politi Simon, underline the group’s relation to cal icons” in a society which has failed to persons and institutions which wield large integrate and provide equal opportunities amounts of both economic and symbolic for educational and social ascension to mi capital on the local, national, and interna nority groups, particularly African-Ameri tional levels. This network of media con cans (192). She argues that black cultural tacts, who have celebrated, sponsored, and texts and discourses on “difference” have appropriated Olodum’s work, has done very become convenient substitutes for social little to change prevailing attitudes and prac and political practices which might trans tices which degrade Afro-Brazilian youth. form apartheid-like social and economic The refrain compares Bahia, and later in structures which are sustained without re the song, Brazil in general, to contemporary course to segregationist legislation (192,195). Haiti which is controlled by a small elite of Discourses on “difference,” which celebrate light-skinned mulâtres who are allied with a the diversity of cultural practices with the mostly black military regime at the expense aim of challenging and reformulating the of the population: dominant literary canon, tend to emphasize individual or group identity while ignoring Se você for ver a festa do Pelô, e structures of inequality and exploitation se você nâo for (193). Carby’s discussion is particularly rel Pense no Haiti, reze pelo Haiti evant to this essay in that it shows how O Haiti é aqui— O Haiti nâo é subaltern groups are readily commodified aqui and symbolically appropriated by elite dis courses on “diversity” and “multi- And if you go to see the party in culturalism,” which often serve as corner Pelô, and if you don’t go stones for the construction of inclusionary Think of Haiti, pray for Haiti local and national identities. While the dis Haiti is here— Haiti is not here.2 cussion of American hybridity is a relatively recent phenomena—which obviously could By calling attention to Haiti, regularly cited not have begun to take place within domi as “the poorest nation in western hemi nant institutions until after the abolition of sphere,” Veloso denounces the contradic legal apparatuses premised on the convic tions ofBahian society. Over eighty percent tion that whites and blacks were radically of Salvador’s population is Afro-Brazilian, different and therefore constituted separate but the city is dominated politically and “nations”—, it has been the central feature economically by a small white elite, which of the “grand narrative” of brasilidade since relies on a mostly black police force to the 1920s.3 “maintain order.” Nevertheless, this same Particular identities based on social posi 48 Between Markets and Patrons tion, race, ethnicity, and region were sub the symbolic production of the work. The sumed under a universalist national identity meaning of any work is not a given; it is, as a matter of official policy under the rather, a process involving both producers authoritarian-populist government of and consumers and all of the other mediat Getulio Vargas (1930-1945). At the same ing agents in between, such as distributors, time, the ideology of “racial democracy” critics, promoters, official tourist agencies, emerged as a point of national pride and etc. W ith this in mind, I would argue that distinction in relation to a segregated United the field of popular music in Bahia ought to States. From then on, any challenge to this be studied with an eye on carnival— an “regime of truth” was interpreted as an event that provides the single largest source attack on the very foundation of of income for most local musicians— and “Brazilianness. ”4 one which receives wide coverage by the In this paper, I will discuss the field of electronic and print medias. Afro-Bahian popular music, particularly The carnival season extends more or less those groups, like the blocos afro, which from early December until Lent, and in emerged in the 1970s to challenge prevail cludes a host of neighborhood and religious ing notions about Brazilian racial equality festivals. Most musicians and groups which and harmony. I will follow their historic participate in carnival activities are subsi trajectory, from renegade carnival entities dized by state and local government agen to cultural producers for an international cies (such as Bahiatursa, the state tourist mass market. In this process, the blocos afro organization), or are sponsored by large have gained emblematic status as authentic local businesses, or by political office-hold representatives of Bahia’s “pluri-cultural, ers and seekers. participative” carnival (Gomes 182). A sig The Bahian carnival is widely defined by nificant portion of Brazilian popular music producers and consumer-participants in is produced for, or related to, carnival. In opposition to the super-produced, interna Rio, samba composers and interpreters of tionally famous carnival of Rio de Janeiro. ten begin their careers as participants in Bahians distinguish their own “participative large escolas de samba and then later establish carnival” from the “show” in Rio (Gomes themselves as individual artists. Yet they 172), where spectators pay to enter the occupy a subaltern position in relation to Sarnbódromo stadium to watch the topescolas Rio-based artists producing eclectic, cos de samba parade down the artificial “av mopolitan pop (a category known as MPB— enue. ” This is not just a matter oflocal pride Musica Popular Brasileira) for the national or parochial rivalry between two historic and international markets. In Bahia, the cities. Both are vying for the lion’s share of career trajectories of carnival artists are very domestic and foreign tourism which is cru similar, with the difference that nearly all cial to local economies. This competition musical production relates to the field of reached new heights in 1993 when the carnival. Bahian artists are famous for pro mayors of each city engaged in a fair share of ducing a very distinctive regional sound that mudslinging, with racist subtexts, in the is readily associated with Afro-Bahian cul weeks leading up to carnival.6 The Bahian ture. promoters tend to emphasize “participa French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, ar tion” and “authenticity,” while those from gues that art must be understood as a “mani Rio tout the “sophistication,” “grandeur,” festation of the field” in which agents, and “comfort” of their carnival. institutions, critics and consumers produce I would like to briefly outline the history the meaning or value of the work (“The ofBahia’s carnival, with special attention to Field” 37).5 A sociology of art must analyze the last twenty years.

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