The Black Diaspora Disproving the Single Chorus: Imaginaries of Time, History and Gender in the Rebellions of the Black People through Brazilian Popular Music (original) (raw)

Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies, 2024

Abstract

Inspired by Paul Gilroy’s O Atlântico Negro (The Black Atlantic; 1993/2001), this study sets out to interpret four renowned Brazilian popular music (MPB) lyrics: “Chico Rei” (Jarbas Soares, Djalma de Oliveira Costa e Geraldo Soares de Carvalho, 1964); “Zumbi” (Jorge Ben, 1974); “Mestre Sala dos Mares” (João Bosco & Aldir Blanc, 1975) and “Morena de Angola” (Chico Buarque, 1980). By examining the songs within the intellectual framework of The Black Atlantic, the analysis focuses on two main perspectives for interpretation: (a) the imaginary of time/history and (b) the gendered principles of enunciation. Following the methodological ap-proach proposed by Gilroy (1993/2001), music emerges as a public space for articulating and disseminating memories of the black diaspora. Informed by the historical struggles waged by black people, the lyrics reclaim narratives insistently invisible and challenge the supposed place of political “non-agency” of enslaved populations or those living under authoritarian regimes. These compositions, confronting the urgency to break free from the tiresome chorus of a single history, provide privileged access to memories of uprisings against enslavement and colonialism, spreading decolonial knowledge in the contemporary context. The production and inscription of an oppositional memory — one that claims space and place while contesting sedimented ver-sions — is a constant endeavour that is closely related to the establishment of new horizons for struggle in the present.

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