Opinion – Cida Bento: Carnival gave the message about black protagonism in Brazil

If at some point we could have doubts about how much the voices of intellectuals and activists who fight for a country that recognizes the strength of the culture that emanates from its population echo in the peripheries and favelas, the Carnivals of recent years leave no doubt.

Most of the samba schools of the Grupo Especial in Rio de Janeiro (eight in 12 schools) and in São Paulo (seven in 14 schools) brought to the avenue themes that paid homage to black personalities, Afro-Brazilian culture and black leadership in history. from the country. And they made harsh criticisms of racism and the murder of black youth.

The message has been given!

This process does not start now and does not happen by chance, but it reaches a peak in this period of our history, in which, not coincidentally, we reached a level of racial violence that is the highest in the last 30 years, in cities like Rio de Janeiro , as shown by the Map of Violence in Brazil.

Black personalities dear and respected by the Brazilian population who had been attacked in the last six years by federal government agencies in an attempt to dishonor them were praised, honored in the streets, by thousands of sambistas. In one of the biggest and most beautiful shows we have the privilege to attend.

And this is how we see that what happens in the negative in the Legislative, Executive and Judiciary, often in the dead of night, has been accompanied by attentive and critical eyes from the periphery and slums.

Samba schools are a complex territory where we often do not have black people in leadership, as, incidentally, happens in most Brazilian organizations and where the struggle for power can repeat the same violent and excluding logic that we observe in other Brazilian institutions.

But it is also a space for quilting, for sharing cultural roots through music, dance and theater. And, in this sense, it is fertile territory for the expansion of social criticism and democracy, as multiple voices, LGBTQIAPN+, people with disabilities, black and indigenous people seek to express themselves.

And a striking differential in this context of Carnival has been the growing way in which the appreciation of Afro-Brazilian religions appears.

In a secular country, according to the 1988 Constitution, there could be no dependent relationships with any cult and, above all, there could be no persecution or impediment to the functioning of cults of any nature.

But this is happening!

Despite our Constitution having enshrined the principle of freedom of belief, worship, liturgies and religious organization, complaints of violations of rights in the field of religious belief against Jews, Muslims, and other groups are on the rise. And Afro-Brazilian religions have been hard hit by different forms of violence, such as physical and verbal attacks on religious, threats, graffiti in temples and public places, and hateful propaganda on the internet.

There are also frequent reports of invasions of temples, carried out by bad police, without a court order and at any time of the day or night.

This is how it was very encouraging to see samba schools, in 2022, bring the orixás to the street: narrating the story of Oxóssi, singing Exu or Oxalá, deities of religions of African origin.

This reminded us that the secular nature of the Brazilian state is not an element of restriction of religious belonging and expression, on the contrary, it is a wealth that marks our so diverse society.

​So that we can contribute to the fact that this criticism by a significant portion of our population of social violence, in particular the religious violence that took place on the avenue, also manifests itself in the elections. With the certainty that we can and will make a difference.