Brazilian Black Theatre: A Political Theatre Against Racism

Christine Douxami

TDR: The Drama Review, Volume 63, Number 1, Spring 2019 (T241), pp. 32-51
(Article)

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 Brazilian Black Theatre
A Political Theatre Against Racism
Christine Douxami

Figure 1. Sangoma, by the As Capulanas company. São Paulo, 2013. Herbs and fruits from the Candomblé
ritual are given to the audience. (Photo by Guma)

The oppressive restrictions that took shape in the 1940s during the Estado Novo period
(1930–1945) of the Vargas presidency and dictatorship1 influenced Brazil’s foundational black
theatres: the Teatro Experimental do Negro and the Teatro Popular Brasileiro. The politics
of that period also influenced Rio’s Teatro Ação in the 1960s and Salvador’s Grupo Palmares
Inãron in the late 1970s. When democracy returned to Brazil in the late 1980s, black theatre
was revitalized by theatres such as Bando de Teatro Olodum, active in the early 1990s in
Salvador. Today’s many black theatres, a few of which I discuss here, are widely recognized for
their artistic and activist works in Brazil. My investigation of black theatre in Brazil is based on
10 years of fieldwork in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Salvador in the state of Bahia.

  1. Getúlio Vargas was Brazil’s interim president from 1930 to 1943, constitutional president from 1934 to 1937,
and dictator from 1937 to 1945, when he was ousted by a communist military coup. He returned to power after
his election to the presidency in 1951, serving until his suicide in 1954.

TDR: The Drama Review 63:1 (T241) Spring 2019. ©2019

32 New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 But first some historical and anthropological background.
Abdias Nascimento founded the first black Brazilian theatre company, Teatro Experimental
do Negro (Black Experimental Theatre; TEN) in 1944 with the aim of fighting racism.
Understanding the history of race and racism in Brazil is, therefore, crucial to comprehend why
the TEN was created and why black theatre developed as it did. There are both historical and
political reasons for the lack of integration of Afro-Brazilian culture within Brazilian society.
Black people, although today admired for their artistic and sporting talents, were not socially
rehabilitated subsequent to Brazil’s belated abolition of slavery2 (see Ianni [1978] 1988; Mattos
2013). Blacks continue to be discriminated against in the law, in the job market, and in access
to housing, education, healthcare, means of communication, and leisure (Agier 1992, 1994;
Guimarães 1999, [2002] 2012; Guimarães, Maruani, and Sorj 2016). As black Senator Paulo
Paim explained in May 2014:
126 years after the signing of the Aurea Act, the abolition of slavery has not been com-
pleted. Racism persists; the black population is the majority among Brazilians with low
income, low education, and poor access to education. Young black men are more likely to
be victims of violence in this country. Yesterday’s whip cannot be replaced with today’s
bullets. (tvpaim 2014)3
Brazilian elites, a holdover class from the colonial system, assume the invisibility of blacks
and Amerindian people (Azevedo 1955; Da Matta 1993), ignoring their differences in everyday
life on the basis of the concept of racial democracy. This concept, which was made popular by
Gilberto Freyre ([1933] 1992) and was institutionalized in the 1940s during the Vargas govern-
ment, affirmed the equality of all citizens and all cultures regardless of their ethnic origins, can-
celing in one stroke their differences, at least on a theoretical level. Nevertheless, there is still a
real economic gap, and the situation of Afro-Brazilians remains unstable today, especially in the
wake of the 2018 election (Bastide and Fernandes 1955; Fernandes 1978; Sansone 2003).
Brazil is a multicultural and mixed-race society of over 190 million people, officially made up
of 47.51 percent whites, 43.42 percent mulattos, 7.52 percent blacks, 1.10 percent Asians, and
0.43 percent indigenous4 (see Guimarães [2002] 2012). The statistics show that people of color
are in the majority; however, this should not blind us to the harsh reality of a society in which
the ranking of races places whites at the top of the socioeconomic ladder and blacks and indig-
enous at the bottom. By including mulattos ( pardos) in the category for blacks ( pretos)5 and by

  2. Slavery ended in 1888 in Brazil when a law known as Lei Aurea (Golden Law) was signed by Princess Isabel.
Brazil was the last country to abolish slavery in the Americas.
  3. All translations unless otherwise indicated are my own.
  4. These figures come from the most recent census, provided by the Brazilian Census Institute (IBGE), on the basis
of self-identification, where individuals are asked to choose one of five skin colors after having been asked an
open question on the same subject (IBGE 2013).
  5. Ibrahim Sundiata (1996:54) estimates that the minimum number of Afro-Brazilians is 33 percent (53 million
individuals) and cites Phillips (in Minority Rights Group 1995:xiii) for whom the maximum would be

Christine Douxami is a researcher at the Institut des Mondes Africains IMAF (EHESS-IRD-CNRS-
Paris 1) and Assistant Professor in Performance Studies at the Université de Franche-Comté. She lived
Brazilian Black Theatre

in Salvador da Bahia from 1997 to 2005 and from 2012 to 2014 lived in Rio de Janeiro, carrying
out research in association with the Universidade Federal Fluminense. She completed her doctoral
thesis in 2001 on Afro-Brazilian Theatre at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes (EHESS, Paris) and is author
of “Théâtres Politiques,” (En) Mouvement(s) (MSHE, 2011) and Le théâtre noir brésilien, un
processus militant d’affirmation de l’identité afro-brésilienne (l’Harmattan, 2015). She codirected
the documentary Fesman 2010, De l’Est à l’Ouest, du Nord au Sud (2012).

33
 classifying all “non-whites” as “black,” excluding, of course, Amerindian and Asian populations,
Afro-Brazilian activists claim that blacks in fact represent between 33 percent and 75 percent of
the population, instead of the official 7.52 percent. This strategy makes perfect sense from the
perspective of combatting racism, since the majority of mulattos also suffer from discrimina-
tion. However, it is interesting to note that it is rare to find Brazilian mulattos who accept being
classified as “black” (Schwarcz 1998; Sansone 1996, 2003); and many are considered “white” by
extremist members of the black movement. Black theatre in Brazil is a mirror of this complex
understanding of what it means to be “black” in Brazil.
Thanks to many black movements and their struggles for equality, racism was criminalized,
first in the Lei Alfonso Arinos (a law proposed by Alfonso Arinos, a lawyer and politician) in
1950 and again in the 1988 constitution. Moreover, the huge participation of Afro-Brazilians in
the Durban Symposium in 2001,6 and the media coverage of this event on many Brazilian tele-
vision channels, triggered a nationwide reflection on the possible introduction of a quota system
for university admissions and federal hiring in Brazil. Since the 2000s, the existence of racism
has been recognized at least in the political sphere, and the Brazilian federal government did in
fact introduce a quota system based on racial self-identification in both many federal universi-
ties (since 2003) and in federal employment (since 2014) and has conducted campaigns geared
towards protecting Afro-descendent youth who are at risk of violence and homicide on a daily
basis (Cicalo 2012).7
Unlike in the United States, in Brazil the classification of white and black can be flexi-
ble. Because Brazil never had apartheid or segregation as in South Africa or the United States,
racism may be less overt depending on the person’s socioeconomic situation (Degler 1971;
Hamilton et al. 2001; Sansone 2003). Brazilian racism is also very different from the type of rac-
ism found in France or England, which involves belittling a supposedly inferior culture (Arabs
in France, West Indians and South Asians in the UK). In these cases, those who consider them-
selves of the national culture refuse to identify the people who are hypothetically foreigners
as part of the culture. In contrast, Afro-Brazilians are considered Brazilians. Gilberto Freyre,
in his key yet controversial Casa Grande e Senzala (1933), wrote that Afro-descendent people
were totally Brazilians8 even though they suffered from social oppression based on the color of
their skin.
Michel Wieviorka (1993) has delineated the various logics within the practice of racism and
determined two main ones: racism by inferiorization, and racism by differentiation. The first is
profoundly inegalitarian: the group has a place in society, but its members must always adopt a
posture of inferiority. The person who is the target of racism must devote herself to the most
arduous work, without great visibility. This logic results in an attitude of discrimination that is
“justified” by positing an inferiority understood as “inherent.” The other version of racism does

75 percent of the population (or 120 million people). Others, such as the Criola association in Rio de Janeiro,
for example, according to its May 1998 bulletin, believe that Brazil has the second largest black population in
the world (68.1 million, or 42 percent of the Brazilian population), after Nigeria (112.12 million) and before the
Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire, 45.3 million).
  6. This conference against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and intolerance was organized by the United
Nations in Durban, South Africa in 2001.
  7. As explained by Larissa Borges, Coordinator of the Projeto de Articulação Nacional do Plano Juventude Viva
(Federal Plan for the Fight against Youth Mortality since 2012), a young black person (aged between 15 and 29)
Christine Douxami

dies every 30 minutes in Brazil, corresponding to about 18,000 deaths a year. 76.6 percent of young people killed
by homicide in 2010 were black (Geledés 2014). There is currently an Amnesty International campaign titled
Jovem Negro Vivo (Black Youth Alive) condemning this situation (Amnesty International 2018).
  8. About racism in Brazil, refer to: Freyre ([1933] 1992), Parker (1991), Douxami (2001:95–166), Sansone (2003),
Schwarcz (1996), Guimarães (1999, [2002] 2012, 2016).

34
not grant any space in society to the ostracized group. The discriminated community is con-
sidered a threat to the dominant culture because of its “irreducible” cultural specificities. This
logic shows a desire for rejection, exclusion and, in the worst case, expulsion or destruction of
the group; it gives rise to apartheid and segregation (see Wieviorka 1993:10–12).
Brazilian racism operates as inferiorization, whereas in the United States and South Africa
racism is by differentiation. Indeed, in Brazil, black and mixed populations are not excluded
from society: their culture is not considered a threat; they are not perceived as foreigners.
However, they continue to be understood as inferior and they are limited, at least in the collec-
tive imagination, to being chauffeurs, housekeepers, masons, or at best musicians or footballers.
This is reflected in the roles assigned to black characters in the majority of soap operas or in the
plays of the commercial theatre (Costa 1988; Acevedo, Nohara, and Ramuski 2010). Brazilian
Negroes or mulattos, to quote Da Matta (1993), “know their place,” are “entreated” to be satis-
fied with it, and to continue smiling (Rodrigues 1995).

Promoting Black Theatre

A Political Choice
When theatre companies decide to assert themselves as proponents of black theatre in Brazil,
this is a political engagement that most of the global media often misunderstands and criticizes
as being “racist.” Even if today the Brazilian Federal government acknowledges there is racism
in Brazil, denouncing it through theatre continues to be difficult. Referring to one’s company as
a “black theatre,” therefore, reflects a political engagement: it is about differentiating the theatre
and tactically positioning the work in the face of discrimination and racism, which persist but
have continued to manifest differently from the mid-20th to the 21st century.
When Abdias Nascimento founded the TEN in 1944, the political commitment was as clear
on stage as in political life. The TEN presented more than 20 plays even as it organized various
explicitly political events such as the National Conventions for Black People (1945 and 1946)
and the First Conference for Black Brazilians (1950). The purpose of the TEN’s action was to
change social attitudes. According to Nascimento, the group wanted to “question the aesthetic
alienation from mainstream society” ([1988] 2010:278). While being integrationist — especially
in the beginning — one of the TEN’s strategies was to invert the basic principles of racial
democracy. For TEN, it was the black man who represented the Brazilian person, and not the
white. Towards this goal, Nascimento highlighted the importance of politically engaged the-
atre: “For me, politics is totally involved in any cultural activity, and of course in theatre. And
political activities are not independent from cultural activities, there can’t be any separation”
(Nascimento 1998).
Nascimento asserted the relevance of Bertolt Brecht, specifically his concept of
Verfremdungs­effekt, in a 1997 retrospective analysis of the TEN experience. In directing TEN,
he wanted to use Brechtian distancing techniques to show black people in all their diversity:
We can confirm that no situation ever needed Bertolt Brecht’s distancing effect as much
as ours. A web of delusion, fossilized by tradition, had been placed between the observer
and reality, distorting it. It was urgent to destroy it. Otherwise we would not be able to
reconsider our approach to the question, freeing it from deception, paternalism, vested
interests, dogmatism, sentimentalism, bad faith, obtuseness, good intentions, and a host of
stereotypes. To see everything as though it were for the first time, this is the irreducible
imperative. (1997:72–73)
Brazilian Black Theatre

The Brechtian influence on black theatre in Brazil persisted throughout the 20th century
and is still evident today. Indeed, Bando de Teatro Olodum in Salvador, founded in 1990 by the
Afro-Bahian carnival group Olodum, and part of the black cultural movement that began in the
1970s in Salvador, performed many plays by Brecht. Bando de Teatro Olodum links epic and
ethnic theatre. In fact, most black theatre companies in Brazil follow the same Brechtian line,

35
 transformed and adapted to refer
no longer to the flaws of cap-
italism but to the aberrations
of racism. The Tragedy of King
Christophe by Aimé Césaire, as
staged by Zozimo Bulbul and
his company the Grupo Ação in
Rio de Janeiro in 1967, is clearly
inspired by the Brechtian dis-
tancing effect, seeking under-
standing and action rather
than catharsis.
Today, Lucélia Sergio of the
Os Crespos company from São
Paulo (founded in 2005) advo-
cates for a political theatre in
which not only the actors are
black but also the set designers,
lighting designers, and photog-
raphers. As she explained in an
interview for the local newspa-
per A Cidade-Riberão Preto, “We
work with black actors, black
photographers, black design-
ers, black actors, because we
want to see the play through
their aesthetic.” In the same
interview, the journalist Regis
Figure 2. A Ópera de três reais by Bando de teatro Olodum with Lázaro Martins asked Sergio if her work
Ramos (foreground) and a picture of Brecht in the background points to the was racist, a question that had
corruption in Brazilian society. Teatro Vila Velha, Salvador, 1999. (Photo by already been asked of the Teatro
Christine Douxami) Experimental do Negro in the
1940s. She replied:

If a theatre company works only with white actors, is it racist? Racism is a tool used by
the ruling class to exclude a specific ethnic group. We are not the dominant class. [...]
Black theatre is by necessity political theatre. (in Martins 2012:1)

The Beginning of the Movement

Staging Integrationist Plays
How did black Brazilian companies confront this racism onstage? In the 1940s, the TEN
looked to the US staging of Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones as no Brazilian play was suit-
able at this time. The play in itself portrays an exoticized view of black Africa and focuses on the
importance of religion, seen as African “magic.”9 When Nascimento published a theatre anthol-
Christine Douxami

  9. At the beginning of his work with the TEN, Nascimento did not identify with Afro-Brazilian religions;
the African setting of the play would serve as a distancing from what was considered as savage in the 1930s
and 1940s. At the time, the members of Frente Negra, one the first black movements in Brazil in the 1930s,
sought to project an image of respectability, which may have influenced Nascimento’s position regarding
Afro-Brazilian religions.

36
ogy in 1961, he included black
and white Brazilian authors he
worked with while at the TEN.10
Leda Martins highlighted the
beginnings of the TEN in her
seminal work, A cena em sombras
(1995), comparing it with black
theatre in the United States.
In my PhD dissertation (2001)
I proposed a complementary
approach that looked at black
characters in Brazilian literature
considering the topics featured
in this anthology, such as inter-
racial relations, Afro-Brazilian
religions, and maroon revolts
against slavery. I highlighted,
from a broad historical perspec-
tive, the thematic continuities in
other companies that followed
the TEN.
According to Roger Bastide,
the beginning of the TEN was
“a mulattoism as negrifica-
tion and not as aryanization”
(1961:11). The word “aryaniza-
tion” refers to the Brazilian
practice of branqueamento, which
might be translated as “turn-
ing white,” inspired by 19th-
century European racist theories
Figure 3. The Os Crespos production of Além do Ponto. Directed
that encouraged white immi-
by José Fernando de Azevedo, with Lucélia Sergio and Sidney
gration in order to “whiten”
Santiago. São Paulo, 2011. (Photo by Roniel Felipe)
the Brazilian population.11 The
TEN, in its political works in
the 1940s, however, put forward the view that mulattos should not be seen as half white but, on
the contrary, as half black. For the TEN, this new approach enabled a vision of Brazil as a black
nation. The TEN organized political events, in addition to its artistic work, with the aim of
introducing new laws, denouncing concrete cases of racism and raising black people’s awareness
of discrimination. These included the two black conventions in the mid-1940s and the 1950

10. See Nascimento (1961). This book features plays by three black authors: O Castigo de Oxalá by Romeu Crusoé
(1961), Sortilégio by Abdias Nascimento (1951), and Auto da Noiva by Rosário Fusco (1946). It also includes
O Filho Pródigo by Lúcio Cardoso (1947), Aruanda by Joaquim Ribeiro (1946), O Emparedado by Tasso Da
Silveira (1949), Anjo Negro by Nelson Rodrigues (1946), Alem do Rio (Médée) by Agostinho Olavo (1957), and
Brazilian Black Theatre

Filhos de Santo by José de Morais Filho (1948).

11. Mulattoism is a theory that was developed at the beginning of the 1930s by Gilberto Freyre ([1933] 1992),
among others, who, in the context of the construction of a racial democracy, valued Brazilian mixed races as
one of the nation’s founding elements. In the long term, this mixing was to make the Brazilian nation white, or
lighter at least, and therefore better. But black militants saw the reverse: the mixing of races would lead to the
nation becoming more black.

37
 Black Congress. The TEN members created literacy courses — enrolling more than 600 people
from 1944 to 1945, supplemented by courses on Afro-Brazilian culture and, of course, theatre
workshops. The TEN founded the newspaper Quilombo in 1948. It organized beauty contests to
enhance black people’s self-esteem — Concurso Boneca de Piche (Black Doll) and Rainha das
Mulatas (Queen of Mulattoes). In 1949, the TEN founded a National Black Institute; in 1950,
under the direction of Guerreiro Ramos, Abdias Nascimento’s partner, it organized group ther-
apy ­seminars along the lines of Jacob Moreno’s psychodrama. In 1955 the TEN organized
Semana de Estudos Negros (A Week of Black Studies). In the same year, the TEN held a fine
arts competition on the theme of the “colored Christ.”
Despite their desire for integration into Brazilian society, these intellectuals — particularly
Abdias Nascimento and his political partner in the TEN, Guerreiro Ramos — sought to
strengthen their African roots. They introduced Aimé Césaire and Léopold Senghor’s con-
cept of negritude (so named in 1935 by Césaire in Revue l’Etudiant Noir and developed in his
key work Cahier d’un retour au pays natal [(1939) 1983]), transforming and adapting the concept
to the realities of Brazil. According to Nascimento, it was essential to “celebrate the values of
Negro-African culture in Brazil, degraded and denied by the violence of White European cul-
ture: we propose to improve the social standing of the Black man through art and culture [...],
by denouncing the misinterpretations and the alienation that exist in studies on Afro-Brazilians
and by ensuring that the Black man himself becomes objectively aware of the situation in which
he finds himself ” (1968b:198).
In short, an imaginary Africa was often to be found at the heart of Brazil itself. The TEN’s
1948 production of Joaquim Ribeiro’s Aruanda placed mythical Africa in Bahia, at the geograph-
ical heart of the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé religion.12 According to Olga Gudolle Cacciatore,
Candomblé is an Afro-Brazilian religion whose adherents follow “spirits of nature,” orishas, rep-
resenting water, wind, thunder, rainbows, leaves, and which represent the vibrations of these nat-
ural forces and phenomena (1977). The priest ( pai de santo), or more often the priestess (mãe de
santo), worships a particular orisha. Aruanda tells the story of Rosa Mulata, a mixed-race black
woman who cheats on her husband with his orisha. Rosa falls in love with the orisha the day it
enters her by mistake, no longer feeling anything for her husband while the orisha is not inside
him. The whole play centers on the Candomblé tradition and its African origins, demonstrat-
ing the presence of Africa in Bahia, an Africa supposedly “preserved intact” through the collec-
tive memory of the slaves. The set shows a completely exotic Bahia, far removed from the reality
of Rio de Janeiro where the play was staged. The play tries to demonstrate many ways in which
Africa has been “transplanted” to Brazil.13
Other plays such as Filhos de Santo (Adepts of Candomblé, by José de Morais Filho, 1948) or
Rapsodia Negra (Black Rhapsody, by TEN, 1952) also address the theme of finding Africa within
Brazil, drawing upon the numerous performative forms of Afro-Brazilian popular culture and
religion: Candomblé, maracatu, jongo, samba de roda, and samba.
Solano Trindade, another stage director from Recife in the state of Pernambuco, living in
Rio de Janeiro in the 1950s, collaborated with the TEN. He included samba, jongo, m­ aracatu,

12. Candomblé is the product of diverse influences from the regions of Africa the slaves came from, and was also
influenced to a certain extent by medieval Catholic and indigenous religions. Today there are several kinds of
Candomblé, differentiated by the various influences. The Candomblés considered the most “traditional” by reli-
gious people and militants of the Black Movement are the specific forms Nago or Jéjé Candomblé (strongly influ-
enced by Yoruba culture or the Fon, found in Nigeria and Benin), but there are also Candomblés Caboclos, and
others that show a Bantu influence, from central Africa. A truly parallel society exists around these religions, with
Christine Douxami

its own laws and obligations. Candomblé is notably found in Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, and Porto Alegre. In Recife
it’s found under the name of Xango, and in São Luis of Maranhão it is called Mina. See notably Bastide (1973,
1985); Braga (1998); Pares (2007).
13. Aruanda is published in the anthology compiled by Nascimento (1961).

38
and Candomblé in his pro-
ductions. A member of the
Brazilian Communist Party,
Trindade founded the Teatro
Popular Brasileiro (Brazilian
Popular Theatre), where he
introduced political and social
issues linking communist ide-
ology and the race struggle.
For him, “race” was explic-
itly linked to “class.” But the
Brazilian Communist Party did
not allow him to call his theatre
“black theatre,” preferring “pop-
ular theatre” in order to avoid
dividing the Brazilian “proletar-
iat” (Douxami 2011; Guimarães
2016). Trindade’s theatre was
Figure 4. Rapsódia negra by Abdias Nascimento, produced by Teatro Experimental
inspired by Brazilian black folk-
do Negro (TEN). Benedito Macedo and Léa Garcia (center) in the “Imagens do
lore, recognizing the value of
Recife” scene. Rio de Janeiro, 1952. (Courtesy of the IPEAFRO archives)
every black person in Brazil. He
refused to restrict the movement
to a handful of black artists or intellectuals looking towards a mythical Africa. For Trindade,
Africa existed within Brazil, not only in Africa itself. His theatre mixed syncretic popular mani-
festations with contemporary theatre highlighting the African contribution to folk culture.
But in 1964 the antiracist strategy of the TEN, Teatro Popular Brasileiro, and many other
Afro-Brazilian activist organizations, was severely curbed by the military dictatorship. The new
regime targeted all black activists, accusing them of being communists. Although this was true
of Trindade, it was not true of many black theatre workers. Actually, the communists were wary
of black activists, believing that the struggle of Afro-Brazilians was modelled on that of North
American Blacks, and therefore “Yankees.”
During the military dictatorship (1964 –1985), some black activists went into exile (US,
France, England), whereas others fought against authoritarianism and for democracy. Taking
advantage of the weakening of the dictatorship towards the end of the 1970s, the successful
struggle of several African nations for decolonization, and especially the North American Black
Power movement, Afro-Brazilians — many actors and directors — mobilized to create their own
new black movement.14

Looking for Markers of Ethnicity Onstage

In the late 1970s a new movement emerged, unified in 1978 as the Movimento Negro
Unificado Contra o Racismo (MNUCR, later MNU; United Black Movement against Racism)
(see Rufino 1988; Cardoso 1988; Agier 1992; Nascimento and Nascimento 1997; Preira 2012;
Alberti and Pereira 2016). This movement was different from that of the 1940s to 1960s: the
black struggle no longer sought integration for blacks within Brazilian society. A “black atti-
tude,” one of celebrating difference, constituted the basis of this new movement. Many black
actors and directors participated in the foundation of the MNU.
Brazilian Black Theatre

14. In Brazil, just as in the United States, there was a trend to go “Back to Africa,” not to settle but with the aim of
getting to know Africa better. Abdias Nascimento, Antonio Pitanga (a renowned actor), and Mestre Didi, among
others, made the trip.

39
 It was important for the MNU to racialize its discourse and define Brazil as a multiracial
nation, not a racial democracy. From the 1980s onwards, Brazilian society slowly began to rec-
ognize that racism existed in Brazil (with racism defined as a crime in the new 1988 constitution,
as mentioned earlier). President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, in 1994, was the first president to
question Brazilian racial democracy by admitting the existence of social inequality between races
and promising a model of affirmative action inspired by North America. But he did not act on
his words (Cicalo 2012). A move toward social equality for ­Afro-Brazilian people was made in
2003 by President Lula da Silva (of the left-wing Partido dos Trabalhadores) and by his succes-
sor Dilma Rousseff when they created quotas in federal universities in 2003 and federal employ-
ment in 2014. In 2012, some black theatre actors and directors, particularly the Cia dos Comuns
from Rio de Janeiro, demanded a specific “call for projects by the Ministry of Culture” for Afro-
Brazilian artists as part of federal quota policy so these companies could also benefit from pub-
lic funding. Although Afro-Brazilian companies were selected for funding, they had to fight to
receive the money because this public funding was determined by the courts to be unconstitu-
tional. Designated funding for Afro-Brazilian work became a reality in 2014 after the selected
companies won their appeal in court and finally received their grants.
In the late 1990s, there was a proliferation of T-shirts with the words “100% Black” and in
1996 the monthly magazine Raça15 was launched with an intended black middle-class reader-
ship, demonstrating the spread of concerns over race into mainstream everyday life. The media
and the market economy began to recognize the black consumer. The market for black aes-
thetics (Afro haircuts, Afro magazines) gradually expanded in the 1990s, leading to a defi-
nite improvement in the self-image of black people as well as their day-to-day public image.
The concept of Afro beauty
thus began to change the neg-
ative view that Afro-Brazilians
had of their own bodies with-
out, however, reaching all social
classes, populations, or states in
Brazil. Bahia was the center of
this trend. Issues surrounding
black beauty became important
themes in black theatre. Black
beauty, especially hair and how
to care for it, is a central topic in
many plays.
For instance, in Cabaré da
Raça (Race Cabaret, 1997), by
Bando de Teatro Olodum, every
character represents something
about being black in Brazil in
1997, from religion to fashion,
from the perspective of a student
Figure 5. Cabaré da Raça, Bando de teatro Olodum. Salvador, Teatro Vila Velha, to that of a critic who is the arbi-
1997. (Photo by Christine Douxami) ter of taste and trends.
The previously mentioned
company Os Crespos, from São Paulo, does not speak directly about fashion but highlights,
onstage, Afro-fashion beauty through a “Black Power” Afro or Rastafarian dreadlocks, or by
Christine Douxami

choosing very colorful contemporary costumes as seen in the fashion magazine Raça. Indeed,

15. About the Raça magazine see Tavares (2010).

40
contemporary black theatre in
Brazil puts significant emphasis
on self-esteem for black people.
Some black actors joined
black theatre companies with-
out knowing Afro-Brazilian cul-
ture; they learned a way of
being black within the the-
atre in workshops where they
slowly affirmed their identity
and learned about their culture.
Figure 6: Engravidei, pari Cavalos E Aprendi a Voar Sem Asas,
They became proud of being
directed by Lucélia Sergio of the Os Crespos company. São Paulo,
black.16 Black companies func-
2013. (Photo by Roniel Felipe)
tioned as small laboratories
where many actors shed both
their own prejudices about themselves and those of Brazilian society as a whole. Together with
performers from other genres (religious or musical for instance), and in addition to their expe-
rience of interpreting black theatre characters, actors made changes in their own lives, taking on
an “Afro” style in dress and behavior.
Moreover, the emphasis on very specific elements of Afro-Brazilian culture in black Brazilian
theatre is on traditions of African origin that were subsequently transformed through contact
with Iberian and Amerindian cultures and retain a strong presence in Brazil. When building a
black dramaturgy that seeks to demonstrate its ethnic alterity, black activists promote elements
from African cultural matrices already present in Brazilian society. They do not promise a new
revolutionary society. Most black theatre in Brazil is less a call for recreating a new black society
as the Black Panthers did in the US than the celebration and promotion of an Afro-Brazilian
culture already present in Brazilian life.
Some themes are therefore frequently brought to the stage in an effort to define black the-
atre within Brazilian culture. In addition to black popular culture as a frequent topic in black
dramaturgy, history is often dramatized, especially the history of the quilombos (maroon com-
munities) (Mattos and Abreu 2011; Munanga 1999) and specifically the mythic hero Zumbi
from the Quilombo dos Palmares (16th–17th century) as a reference to the slave revolts. Plays
about a mythical Africa still exist today, with subjects similar to those featured by the TEN in
the 1940s, including representations of the Quilombo dos Palmares in contemporary society by
Bando de Teatro Olodum (Zumbi, 1995) and by the company Etnica (Mulher Zumbi, 1995).
Another common topic is the position of black women in society. Their difficult situation is
enacted in love stories where black women are respected neither by black nor white men. Love
relationships have been central to black theatre since the 1940s; featured are heterosexual rela-
tionships between people of different colors. More recently, homosexual relationships have been
put onstage, in the works of the Os Crespos company, for instance.

The Case of Religion as a Marker of Ethnicity

in Black Theatre
Candomblé is a very important ethnicity marker in black theatre. This Afro-Brazilian religion
has been present in Black theatre since the 1950s but has become progressively more important.
Brazilian Black Theatre

In Abdias Nascimento’s 1961 anthology of black theatre, Dramas para negros e prólogo para bran-
cos (Plays for black people and a prologue for white), all of the plays feature Afro-Brazilian reli-
gions in their multiple versions either as a backdrop or as a main element in the dramaturgy,

16. See interviews with actors in Douxami (2001:367– 444), including an interview with Valdinéia Soriano (373–88).

41
 with the exception of O Filho Pródigo (The Prodigius son) by Lúcio Cardoso (1947), based on a
biblical legend, and Anjo Negro (Black angel) by Nelson Rodrigues (1946), about a relationship
between a black doctor and a young white woman.
According to Roger Bastide:

Recognition of the Brazilian Negro — no longer as a man but as the bearer of his own
culture — was made possible by the transformation of Afro-Brazilian rituals and ceremo-
nies into theatre, in a similar way to that followed long ago by Greek theatre, then by
medieval theatre, and more recently by a certain type of theatre of Cuba. But the sociol-
ogist has the right to wonder whether, by recognizing the Brazilian Negro as the vehi-
cle of an African culture, one did not cut him off from what seems to me the key to the
­creation of a new dramaturgy, namely from his daily life, thereby relegating him to exoti-
cism; in short, to see in “negritude” only its spectacular aspect, not its profound message.
(1974:559)

It is important to note that Afro-Brazilian rituals have a theatrical quality that, when translated
onstage, lends real force to the performance. Therefore, such rituals are used in many plays — so
much so that this recourse to Afro-Brazilian religion became almost ubiquitous in black theatre.
This explains the “drift toward spectacular theatre,” as described by Bastide (1974:559).
Yet, beyond the undeniable theatricality of various Afro-Brazilian rituals, the presence of
Candomblé in black theatre often confers a mark of “authenticity.” Moreover, in the interviews
I carried out with actors and directors between 1996 and 2001, 109 of the 115 people inter-
viewed stated that Afro-Brazilian religion was indispensable for black theatre.
It is important to note that Afro-Brazilian religions are numerous and distinct from each
other. Many variations exist, particularly in Candomblé. These variations depend not only on
the origin of slave populations, but also on priests’ and priestesses’ ideological choices. For
instance, there is no way to predict which attitude towards Afro-Brazilian culture a pai de santo
from a terreiro (location where the ritual is enacted) in Salvador might adopt. One might claim
to defend his “African purity” and take an attitude of “resistance” to former slavery, adopting
an Afro-centrist ideology today. For example, the late Mestre Didi, a pai de santo of the Eguns
(spirits of the ancestors) religion, claimed to follow the African tradition to the letter. Mestre
Didi, like other Afro-Brazilian intellectuals, traveled to Africa in order to find his ancestors and
to recreate his lineage. In the eyes of these intellectuals, Africa is only Nigeria17 (and for a few,
Benin), and characteristically they have refused to admit that many of the pais and mães de
santo of these terreiros are not proponents of purity since they have accepted their mixed ori-
gins, blending Catholicism and Spiritism, and their Amerindian and African origins.18
Therefore, another Candomblé community might claim Brazilian syncretism as their inheri-
tance and recreate a collective memory that brings together Amerindian, Christian, and African
culture, as with the Candomblé de Caboclo, which has been the subject of only a few aca-
demic studies with little involvement from black activists (who dismiss it for not being “pure”)

17. The movement in Nigeria that only recognizes Yoruba culture as “pure” has influenced Cuba and Brazil to recog-
nize only those religions in the diaspora that believe in this Yoruba-centrismo (Capone 2005).
18. According to anthropologist and Candomblé specialist Julio Santana Braga, this “re-Africanization” of
Candomblé worship comes from the desire “to use Africa as a producer of sacred symbols able to fill the gaps left
by the fragmentation of religious knowledge from Africa” (1988:85). Yet, despite the fact that Candomblé draws
from many different African traditions, the renewed interest in African religion focuses on Fon and Yoruba tradi-
Christine Douxami

tions only. Indeed, it is a strategy on the part of the Nago Candomblés to claim that they have maintained “Nago
purity” in order to increase their power, authority, and prestige. As Dantas (1987) explains, “what underlies this
thinking is the idea that the ‘pure nago’ model–the continuity of transplanted African cultural institutions, pre-
served thanks to the collective Black memory — was reproduced intact, faithful to its origins and original mean-
ings, thus transforming itself into a sign of resistance” (122).

42
but which continues to grow in popularity.19 There exist, therefore, many different ways of
approaching Candomblé onstage. Most black theatre companies tend to use as a source of inspi-
ration the more “African” Candomblé, since it supposedly carries with it an African “purity.”
Since Brazilian black theatre clearly seeks to affirm a distinctive identity, the more different they
are from the rest of Brazilian society, the better.
In Abdias Nascimento’s Sortilégio20 (written in 1951 and first performed in 1957) the Macumba
(a form of Afro-Brazilian religion most widely practiced in Rio de Janeiro state), became a symbol
of cultural resistance. In the play, the stage directions clearly describe the regular police invasions
of the terreiros and the resistance by the religious followers. The play promotes the Afro religions
as pillars of authentically African culture, in step with the political black movement.
Nascimento argues that Sortilégio is not a “simple folkloric reproduction of black rituals”;
that a special emphasis must be placed on “the poetic and phantasmagoric aspect of the atmo-
sphere” ([1958] 1966:163–64). However, Sortilégio is closer to the reality of Afro-Brazilian
religions than any previous play. Indeed, the theme of the play — banned by the Brazilian
authorities from March 1951 until August 1957 — is the acculturation of Emmanuel, a black
lawyer who finds his true identity only by entering into the Macumba religion.
The play also reflects Nascimento’s ideological transformation. This transformation was
progressive, as can be seen from the gradual change in the themes of his plays, and Sortilégio is
the culmination of years of reflection. The notion of “tragic destiny” (found in classical plays) is
incarnated by the Afro-Brazilian gods in Nascimento’s plays. Fate as determined by the African
deities in his plays encourages the catharsis of the spectator, even though Nascimento declares
his admiration for the distancing effect of Brechtian epic theatre.
The TEN clearly defined itself as activist theatre that sought to denounce the normaliza-
tion of racism within Brazilian society, and used Brechtian distancing to this effect. The com-
pany also introduced brief musical extracts and dances in some plays, reflecting Brecht’s notion
of “interruption” to enact a certain distancing effect. The discourse of Sortilégio itself is militant,
rejecting white acculturation. The “power of the Orishas” replaces “tragic destiny” to the same
end as the catharsis of classical tragedy, whereas the content of the plays and their staging are
closer to epic theatre.
Perhaps we can conclude that Brecht’s historical materialism, which views religion as Marx’s
“opium of the people,” could not be adapted to a culture as religious as Brazil’s. Brazilian play-
wrights and directors would interpret Brecht’s concept differently, derived as it is from Chinese
and German aesthetics. Moreover, the introduction of religion is an indication of Africanness
creating a special mythic universe that reflects the identity affirmed by this Brazilian ethnic the-
atre. Sortilégio’s form is therefore at a crossroad between classical theatre and epic theatre — 
Sortilégio is simultaneously tragic, political, and militant.
Sortilégio’s set, by Enrico Bianco, as well as the costumes by Júlia Van Rogger, reflect the
desire to incorporate the ritual universe of Afro-Brazilian religion. Indeed, the entrance of
the terreiro, a door of straw, is relatively realistic. The statue of Exu, the main deity of the Rio
de Janeiro macumba, is present onstage throughout the play. Other Afro-Brazilian deities are

19. The term caboclo designates a specific mixed race: Indian black. The Candomblé de Caboclo is the result of a mix
of different religions: indigenous religion dating from before the arrival of the Portuguese colonizers; and popular
Brazilian Black Theatre

European religion, particularly a popular form of Catholicism with a dose of Kardecism (belief in the life of spir-
its). The amalgamation of these religions is called pajelança. This type of pajelança, combined with the nago tra-
dition of a strongly Yoruba form of Candomblé, gave birth to the Candomblé de Caboclo practiced in Bahia (see
Cacciatore 1977).
20. Published in Nascimento (1968a), Sortilégio draws from an experience of Aguinaldo Camargo, a Teatro
Experimental do Negro actor.

43
 also represented onstage, nota-
bly Omulu, with his ritual cos-
tumes replaced by a garment
drawn from the artist’s imagina-
tion. The ritual sacrifice of the
lawyer Emmanuel is represented
by the terracotta dishes, which
are identical to those used in the
cult. Members of the macumba
(  filhas de santo) who perform the
sacrifice are dressed in tradi-
tional clothes, with the pitchfork
of Exu as is used in the ritual.
The liturgical music was
performed by Abigail Moura,
inspired by the scores writ-
ten by Abdias Nascimento that
come with the text of Sortilégio.
The choral songs that are inter-
spersed were played by the
Orquestra Afro-Brasileira,
directed by Abigail Moura. The
ritual dances were performed by
a professional dancer, Italo de
Oliveira, who also drew inspi-
ration from dances performed
in the terreiros. Together, these
gave the piece a realistic tone, in
contrast with the supernatural
religious universe it also incor-
porated. The play premiered in
1957 at the Teatro Municipal do
Figure 7. Kal Santos (center) in a circus tent performing Ajaká, with Grupo Rio de Janeiro to critical acclaim
Palmares Inãron. Salvador, 1978. (Photo by Henrique Lyra; courtesy of Antonio both for its dramatic quality and
Jorge Godi) for its staging, including the
actors, the set, costumes, dance,
and choir. The critic Augusto Maurício also noted “the authenticity of the representation of the
­terreiro” (in Müller [1957] 1988:224 –25).
In this quest for authenticity using Candomblé as an ethnicity marker, Antonio Godi, direc-
tor of the Grupo Palmares Inãron (founded in 1973), worked with Mestre Didi to create Ajaká,
iniciação para liberdade (Ajaka, Initiation to Freedom, 1978) in both Yoruba and Portuguese. This
play narrates an African legend about Ogum, the god of metallurgy. It represented a complex
artistic challenge, because everything was supposed to be “authentically African” for Mestre
Didi, even though Godi was expected to keep the ritual of Candomblé secret. Many rituals are
known only by those who have been initiated. What could be performed and revealed onstage?
Mestre Didi canceled the run of the play after just a few performances because, as he
explained to me in an interview, “Godi wanted to represent the Eguns [spirits of the deceased
Christine Douxami

ancestors in Candomblé] and this did not respect the religion” (Santos 1997). Godi said: “My
choreographer Firmino Pitanga adapted the dance of the Eguns, just as in a documentary Juana
Elbein [Mestre Didi’s wife] filmed the ritual of the Eguns. I found that an adaptation of the

44
 Brazilian Black Theatre

Figure 8. Bença, Bando de teatro Olodum. Teatro Castro Alves, Salvador, 2010. (Photo by
João Milet Meirelles)

45
 dance was not exceptional and I let him do it” (Godi 2000). In other words, since Juana Elbein
had the permission to show part of the ritual in her film, he thought his play might do the same.
Godi explained that he did not want to replicate the ritual. He stylized the performance
using elements of profane dances such as capoeira. Musical rhythms were adapted from
Candomblé but those had already been secularized by afoxés, black carnival dance groups, and
others who used some rhythms of Candomblé such as the ijexa or the abata. It is worth noting
that Ajaká is an example of the combination of theatre, dance, and percussion that is character-
istic of almost all Brazilian black theatre.21 Godi emphasized in an interview that the production
was not folklore but stylized Candomblé (A Tarde 1983:3).
Bando de Teatro Olodum is also very interested in Candomblé as an identity marker.
Despite the fact that the leaders of the carnival group were brought up in the heart of Afro-
Brazilian culture (the mother of Olodum’s director, João Jorge Rodrigues, is a Candomblé
mãe de santo), this type of cultural activist discourse is very close to that of the political activ-
ists of the Movimento Negro Unificado. The very prolific company often highlights the
importance of Candomblé as a source of pride, beginning with Onovomundo (New World) in
1991. For instance, in 2010, the company created Bença (a shortened word for “blessing,” usu-
ally used when asking elders for protection). The play sought to acknowledge the contribu-
tions of both the elderly and the ancestors to society. Ancestors, according to the actors, are
seldom heard. The word “elder” includes the grandfather and the grandmother like the older
priests of Candomblé and the so-called ancestral African gods. The multimedia performance
brought together videoed testimonies of Candomblé’s personalities — such as the famous mãe
de santo Mãe Estela — and projected live parts of the play as they were filmed onstage. During
parts of the performance, the
group placed onstage a pic-
ture of Mario Gusmão, one of
the first black actors in Bahia
and a trainer of many stage per-
formers. The choreography
of Zebrinha, who has been to
Africa numerous times, was fea-
tured. Actors wore white cloth-
ing, similar to that used in
Candomblé, especially for the
women who wore very loose
dresses. These costumes were lit
with deep blue, giving a timeless,
ethereal feel to the performance.
Two parts of the stage protruded
Figure 9. Exú, a Boca do Universo, Núcleo Afrobrasileiro de Teatro de into the audience. On each stood
Alagoinhas. Teatro Castro Alves, Salvador, 2013. (Photo by Andréa Magnoni) a row of immobile actors. Each
character received from time
to time a shower of white light
revealing their presence. This contrasted with the black-and-white filmed interviews projected
onto the screen at the bottom of the two stages bathed in blue light. Photographs were also
projected onto the ramps and the actors’ bodies.
The priest’s superiors in the Candomblé hierarchy in Salvador accepted the play Bença. The
priests, such as Mãe Estela, acknowledged that Candomblé was directly relevant to the politi-
Christine Douxami

21. On the theatre-dance-percussion combination, see editorials in A Tarde (1982:11), Tribuna da Bahia (1983:9),
and A Tarde (1983:3). See also Zeca Ligiero (2015) on this association.

46
cal discourse of the black move-
ment. Up to the 2010s, as
previously noted, the priests did
not want their rituals presented
on the stage.
The company Núcleo
Afrobrasileiro de Teatro de
Alagoinhas (Alagoinhas Afro-
Brazilian Theatre Nucleus,
NATA), founded in 1998 in
Alagoinhas, Bahia, also draws
strongly from Candomblé. For
example, in the play Exú, a Boca
do Universo (2013) the proper
ritual is shown. The production
uses numerous ritual pots, foods,
and ritual drawings; unexpect-
edly, all of this was accepted by
most of Candomblé pais de san-
tos in Bahia.
Some plays do not directly
highlight the Candomblé aes-
thetic (white clothes or rit-
ual music for instance), but
rather draw on specific ritu-
als within Candomblé that are
linked with food or nature.
Leaves, for example, are con-
sidered to have magical and
medicinal powers. The group
As Capulanas (founded in 2007
in São Paulo), deeply inspired
by Solano Trindade’s experi- Figures 10 & 11. Sangoma, by the As Capulanas company. São Paulo, 2013.
ence and the integration of Afro- (Photos by Guma)
Brazilian popular dances, created
Sangoma. The play uses leaves,
fruits, music, and ritual foods in a performative way. For this performance staged in 2013 the
public moved throughout a small house, discovering in each small room something directly
linked with Candomblé.

Imagining True Racial Democracy

The companies I discussed in this article are just some of those that Afro-Brazilian artists them-
selves consider the most emblematic of the contemporary black theatre movement. Brazilian
black theatre groups have organized a number of symposia in their efforts to come together as
part of a political and artistic movement. I took part in the first meeting in 2005 of the Black
Performance Forums. These forums also took place in 2006, 2009, and 2015 in Salvador (see
Brazilian Black Theatre

Tavares Lima 2010). Issues discussed in this article featured prominently in these forums, which
undoubtedly helped reinforce the legitimacy of black theatre. Through these events actors
gained awareness of their number and the prevalence of black theatres throughout Brazil.
Information circulated among the various companies and they gained a greater understanding
of the need for this kind of theatre.

47
 The experiences and words of the founders of black theatre, Abdias Nascimento and Solano
Trindade, are regularly quoted today (see Douxami 2015). Prior to the forums, there was lit-
tle knowledge of their work. Only the first generation of black actors consistently referred to
the two pioneers of black theatre; the generation of black theatre makers from the 1950s, 1960s,
and 1970s were very familiar with the TEN and Teatro Popular, but by the 1990s, very few
actors of the new generation knew Abdias Nascimento and Solano Trindade.
Of course, ideological differences between companies still exist. Brazilian black activist the-
atre directors oscillate between being “Afro-centrist” and being “integrationist.” NATA tends
towards Afro-centrism, while As Capulanas is comparatively more integrationist. A few ama-
teur theatre groups, often closely affiliated with the MNU, consider theatre to be more a means
of expression than an end in itself. They have given more importance to the Afro-centrist dis-
course in everyday life than to the aesthetic or artistic aspects of the movement.
But most of the professional Black theatre groups in Brazil use Afro-Brazilian culture as a
basis for their activist art. The use of theatre enables a syncretic medley between the formal
­elements of Western theatre (the proscenium stage, Brecht, or Peter Weiss–style documentary
theatre) and a specifically Afro-Brazilian theatre. These “foreign” influences are mixed with spe-
cifically Afro-Brazilian dance, music, language, and references to the gods. The result is syn-
cretic, leading to the creation of a unique mythical world that belongs to Afro-Brazilians. By
reaching out to the symbolic imagination of the black or white spectator, this black theatre fos-
ters a positive image of black populations, serving as a kind of identity laboratory.
Moreover, despite the fact that racial democracy has yet to be realized, black Brazilian the-
atre takes place within a society profoundly marked by its African heritage. Black Brazilian the-
atre offers a truly fertile means of promoting the Afro-Brazilian creative mind, consequently
empowering Afro-Brazilians.
In an interview with Abdias Nascimento, I asked him: “Do you feel you have created a black
theatrical aesthetic?” He replied:

In fact this was the goal of our work, creating a different aesthetic, especially for the play
Sortilégio. We really wanted another aesthetic. I know that today young black directors
put forward this notion of aesthetics, but I’m not aware of everything that happens and
nothing is ever static. [...] We tried to realize an African theatre aesthetic including dance,
theatre, pantomime, mime, music. [...] At the First Festival of Negro Arts in Senegal
in 1966, we were excluded. And the magazine Présence Africaine published an open let-
ter that clearly showed this attempt to define a new aesthetic in the staging of the play of
Agostinho Olavo, Além do Rio. We had prepared this piece, and we had insisted on a Black
aesthetic, for the festival. (1998)22
Black theatre in Brazil is unique not only because of its diverse forms but also due to its spe-
cific context. It exists in a political situation where regimes officially proclaim “racial democ-
racy” (supposedly without ethnic or racial differentiation) but do not take steps towards making
this democracy a reality. As briefly noted earlier, for many Afro-Brazilian actors, true racial
democracy is still in the future (see Pereira 2012), and that future seems to get further and fur-
ther away as evidenced by the 2018 election.
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