Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Resistance and Citizenship in the Songs of Ilê Aiyê and Olodum

2010; Volume: 29; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

2327-9648

Antonio Luciano de Andrade Tosta,

Race, Identity, and Education in Brazil

The carnival festival u»as the primary channel for the affirmation of mestizo youth. And it substantially modified Bahian life in particular. Several scholars have already recognized this reality, underscoring the political importance of the new afoxes and blocos afro on the road toward blacks achieving full citizenship in Brazil.-Antonio RiserioThe creation of Ile Aiye in the area of Liberdade known as Curuzu was a milestone of contemporary Brazilian negritude and the struggle against racism.-Joao Jorge Santos Rodrigues[OJrganizations such as ... are composed of highly capable young people who are politically aware and astute and who represent new, emergent forces in solidarity, concerned with a new social and political project that will build a more just and egalitarian society.-Maria Jose do Espirito Santo FrancaSince it was founded in 1974, the Associacâo Cultural Bloco Carnavalesco Ile Aiye has been a major participant in the present-day movement towards the preservation, valorization, and expansion of Afro-Brazilian culture. Ile Aiye's work encompasses social, educational, and cultural arenas. Bringing African and Afro-Brazilian history together and emphasizing the connections between the AfroBrazilian and African American condition, Ile Aiye has campaigned against racial discrimination and educated Afro-Brazilians about their history, identity, and rights. Antonio Riserio notes that the Bahian carnaval took on a black character in the 1970s with the expansion of the afoxes and blocos afro.' Riserio explains that although grounded in Bahian black-mestico tradition, this new carnaval pointed not toward the past, but toward the future of Brazilian race relations (Carnival 249-50). Riserio and others have called this movement the re-africanization of the Bahian carnaval (Carnaval 17). Ile Aiye was and continues to be at the forefront of this movement towards racial consciousness. The creation of Ile Aiye has led to the appearance of comparable groups in the city of Salvador and has ultimately marked a turning point in Afro-Bahian music and the Bahian carnaval. This is how Valdeloir Rego describes it: lo] Ile foi uma revolucâo no comportamento do negro baiano. Foi quando o negro deixou de alisar o cabelo, assumir sua beleza e comecou a retomar sua tradicâo ritmica (qtd. in Guerreiro 106). Although there is still a lot for Afrodescendants to conquer in the social, economic and political arenas in Brazil, groups such as lie Aiye have without a doubt made a great difference and impact for their communities and for many of the Afro-descendants in Bahia and all over Brazil that have had contact with their art and their social, educational and political work.One of the groups that followed in lie Aiye's footsteps was the now worldfamous bloco afro Olodum. Olodum's music, though deep-rooted in African rhythms, makes ample use of technology, incorporating many Western instruments and rhythms. As Christopher Dunn reminds us, Olodum has attempted to strategically preempt trio [eletrico] appropriations by recording their local, street-consecrated hits with highly orchestrated and stylized arrangements for a mass market (Between Markets and Patrons 52).2 lie Aiye, on the other hand, remains more loyal to more traditional African musical sources, and thus sounds less contemporary and more ethnic. Since its founding on April 25,1979, has maintained an agenda that promotes citizenship. The group was created durante o periodo carnavalesco como opcâo de lazer aos moradores do Maciel-Pelourinho, garantindo-lhes assim, o direito de brincarem o carnaval em um bloco e de forma organizada (Olodum Officiai Website). Some blocos in the city of Salvador are extremely expensive to be a part of and affordable only to the middle and upper classes. allowed the lower-class dwellers of the Maciel-Pelourinho area a privilege that to some extent has been limited to the elite. …