Carnival in Brazil is not just a place for partying and pickpocketing – as many associate it with. In samba parades and street parties, various social problems are raised in creative ways.
- It's not just a street party. It is a force for self-expression and resistance, expresses the Afro-Brazilian organization Ilú Obá De Min in connection with its drum parade.
The air is hot and humid in Brazil's largest city São Paulo. It smells of big city smog and flowers that I don't know the name of. On the half kilometer long arena Anhembi Sambadrome in front of us hundreds, probably thousands, of colorful dancers dance to the beat of samba drums. The crowd cheers. Everything is just like on TV.
Carnival, which is held every year in February, is a holiday that many people mostly associate with uncomplicated parties, endlessly happy samba parades but also a high risk of being exposed to pickpocketing for the tourists who go there. Mone beneath the glamorous and sometimes dangerous carnival surface hides much more than that.
In the midst of the dancers in the parade, a giant Trojan horse rolls in - sort of wooden horse in which the ancient Greeks, according to legend, hid in order to enter the city of Troy and end the mythological the trojan war. A little later, another raft is seen where a violent battle between various animals and mythical creatures takes place. Songs about "independência" are heard in the loudspeakers and without knowing a word of Portuguese we understand that the samba parade is about more than just partying. It is also about independence, conflicts and the fight for rights in a Brazil whose history has been marked by both Portuguese colonization, the slave trade with Africans and the exploitation of indigenous peoples and rainforests.
About 450 kilometers away is the Cordão do Boitatá - one of Rio de Janeiro's biggest street parties with close to 50 participants. Just like the samba parade in São Paulo has this year's theme, democracy, close connections to Brazil's contemporary and history. In connection with the street party, just over a month has passed since the ex-president Jair Bolsonaro's supporters stormed the congress area in the capital, Brasilia. One of the street party's participants, Ricardo Andrade, tells Brazil Reports that the carnival is not only a party - but also a force of resistance.
- Dthere is nothing better than defending democracy at the street parties too, he says Brazil Reports.
Street party to spread Afro-Brazilian culture
A few days later, we are sitting in a taxi on our way to a street party organized by the Afro-Brazilian organization Ilú Obá De Min (IODM). Their purpose is to maintain and spread Afro-Brazilian culture and the empowerment of black women.
During the drive, the tropical rain patters loudly against the car windows. Luckily, it's just starting to subside until we get off at what looks like any street in São Paulo. Or almost anyway. In the middle of the road, where the queues of cars usually curl long, a large train of blue-clad women has lined up. Everyone carries a separate drum. The sound of rain is replaced by the murmur of the thousands of spectators who have come to the venue to watch the IODM's drum parade. But at the same moment that the performance begins with a capella singing, it becomes so quiet that the slightest clearing of throats would have been heard. A man on stilts walks slowly back and forth with fire in his hands. Then the train starts moving forward in time with the drums. The audience follows along.
IODM's street party, or bloco as it is called in Portuguese, is the organization's most famous project. As Ricardo Andrade from the street party in Rio de Janeiro, the organization believes that the party is about more than just fun.
- It is not just a street party. It is a force for self-expression and resistance, says IODM Social Media.
This year, IODM pays special attention to the activist Sueli Carneiro who co-founded Geledés - Black Women's Institute, which is one of Brazil's largest civil society organizations for black feminism.
Despite the fact that Afro-Brazilians and Brazilians of mixed ethnicity make up more than 50 percent of the Brazilian population, racism and discrimination against them is still a major problem today. The ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, who handed over power to the current president Lula da Silva in January 2023, gave for a long time no financial resources to the work to fight racism. In addition, he made several controversial statements that he supports Brazil's former slave trade.
According to Brazilian law, everyone, regardless of ethnicity, has access to the same rights. Even so, it can members within the same family have different socioeconomic opportunities depending on how light their skin color is. For a long time, for example, many job advertisements contained the phrase "boa aparência", which means beautiful appearance and that only light-skinned people were wanted, according to the organization Minority rights. Black households also earn an average of 43 percent less than white households and live an average of seven years less.
Men IODM, like many other actors in Brazil, is actively fighting for this to change.
- Our drum parade is a major cultural intervention where, through art, we promote the active participation of black women in society, writes IODM on its website.
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