By OSNAN SILVA DE SOUZA*
Black consciousness repudiates May 13th, because of May 14th, that is, the post-Abolition and its developments in our days.
1.
“Your talent doesn’t get into MASP, [nor] Cacilda Becker/ May 13th is a joke by João Kleber”. This fragment ends the song Pact with the devil, by the rap group Facção Central. Despite its provocative title, the song's narrative does not emphasize a supposed agreement between man and an evil supernatural being, much less does it focus on conspiracy theories. In fact, there is criticism of the contradictions of capitalism, such as social inequality, unemployment, the promotion of consumerism and crime.
However, when reflecting on the lack of opportunities for the poor population and the obstacles to access to full citizenship, the aforementioned rhyme is announced. Thus, a relationship is established between the current problems and Abolition, or more precisely the post-Abolition: the fact that there are restrictions in certain spaces, whether explicit or veiled, on the presence of segments of Brazilian society – one could speak of social inequality and racism – makes Abolition a joke (perhaps in bad taste).
It is worth contemplating another part of the song – the servants' quarters are related to the facilities for captives during the slavery regime in Brazil:
No more servants' quarters, the slave quarters of the Angra apartment/
On Big my profile on the security guard's walkie-talkie (…).
It hurts to see my son waiting for the truck/
Of the businessman with a toy, pretending to do a good deed.
Spend a thousand on a doll and a ball, maybe the report will stick/
The company in prime time, fucking merchandising.
If I could, I would kill the bitch in the sandal commercial/
Cell phone, bracelet, but not for your daughter.
Do you want a certificate from SOS computers/
To shout on the ground floor, and I as an elevator operator.
Am I reading too much into the art of the rap group from São Paulo? Let's look at another song, from the same album – The circus of horrors show -, a Wooden Front. Right from the start, we hear: “hunger not only corrodes the flesh; it corrodes the Golden Law/ It makes you knock down the penitentiary gate with a truck”. If both the music Pact with the devil as for Wooden Front insert May 13th into the most varied discussions, that is, they do not summarize the post-Abolition period to racial themes, Circus of horrors show, a double album released in 2006, consists of tracks that deal with issues ranging from child abuse, to state neglect of the physically disabled, to crime.
The complex unfolding of black emancipation in Brazil is not a one-off or random presence, but a key and ongoing one in the rappers’ thinking. In fact, the song that gives the album its name begins as follows: “respectable audience, I proudly present/ The show that has been on since April 1500”. The songs are made up of several references to the slave past – “casa grande” (big house), “senzala” (slave quarters); “Zumbi” (zombie); “quilombo” (quilombo), etc.
The past is presented as a way of explaining the present – a problem dear to historians. There is a relationship between these two periods. Eight years later, after releasing his first solo album, we continue to glimpse this perspective in Eduardo Taddeo's thinking. Thus, we can hear in There are no civilians: “I trained myself not to believe in the unknown authorship/ That blames drug trafficking for deaths in the outskirts. To read in the skull of the GCM [Municipal Civil Guard] party/ That the Golden Law is as heinous as Slavery”. Even more so, this time in Voices of statistics:
I am the government's pillar of post-traumatic stress/
Functional illiterate who interprets text.
I disagree with the scholar's thesis on urban conflict/
Peace is not linked to a hook that opens the lid of a skull.
Where he writes about homicides and cultural deficit/
I read “post-Abolition fiction.”
Reading current events – events that expose crime, inequality, hunger, racism and other forms of violence in Brazil’s large outskirts – reveals the horror of May 13, or rather, the way it was conceived and its consequences. The law that championed freedom would be constituted by a perversity on a par with the slave regime itself. Let’s look at the music Poisonous Substance:
I didn't need Vox Populi to see that those with pt [pistol]/
What they have in common is the absence of the father's name on the ID.
That blows up the treasurer's armored Cherokee/
Because May 13th only comes into effect with mortars.
They still train us to be house slaves/
Thank you for serving smoked lobster.
We still languish where surgeons and orthopedists/
They give way to blood analysts and papiloscopists.
Eduardo Taddeo has never presented himself as a member of any specific black movement; his lyrics have never been exclusively dedicated to racial themes; his albums and lyrics have never had an “Afro” (or “Afrocentric”) perspective. This further highlights the importance that the post-Abolition period assumes in his reflections. The rapper points to the unfolding of Abolition in current political, economic and social issues. Both during his many years as a vocalist for the group Facção Central and now, singing individually, Eduardo helps us understand how the racial issue is intensely present in the most diverse social problems. Not only that: the problems of the present can and should – according to his thinking – be understood from the past; especially the slave and post-slave past.
In historiography, there is a great deal of discussion regarding attempts to explain the present as a direct and continuous unfolding of the past, that is, a supposed cause-and-effect relationship between the past and the present. Likewise, there is also intense debate about the meanings of May 13th. The aim is to demonstrate, with reason and lucidity, that the Lei Áurea was the direct or indirect result of a strong mobilization of various segments of society, especially its black population, whether enslaved or abolitionists.
No historian denies, however, that the Law was negligent and even perverse towards former captives. In fact, since May 14, 1888, the Lei Áurea, what motivated its signing and its meanings have been the target of fierce disputes and narratives by various (often antagonistic) groups in Brazilian society. Rap, in an artistic and eloquent way, enters this fight. Eduardo's perspective finds consonance with other groups and rappers, such as GOG, Racionais Mc's, A286, Inquérito and many others.
2.
But, beyond that, it is a movement that is significantly present in Reggae songs. We can glimpse this phenomenon in the lyrics of a great name in the musical rhythm, Edson Gomes:
I'll tell you
Certain history of Brazil
That's when Cabral discovered
This tropical country
A certain people arose
Coming from a certain place
Forced to work in this huge country
And it was the whip in the air
It was the whip cracking
And it was the whip that cut
It was the whip bleeding
One, two, three it still hurts today
One, two, three, it hit more than once
That's why we don't have a chance
That's why we are always
Outside
That's why we are always
There in the kitchen
That's why we're always doing it
The minor role
Or the worst role
The history of Brazil is also marked by the traumatic events of trafficking and enslavement of black people. It is a trauma (very painful) that is felt in many ways in the conscience, in memory and in society. The present carries the consequences of the past. The process of exclusion and socio-racial inequality can only be understood in the light of colonialism, the process of enslavement of Africans and their descendants. In this sense, history of Brazil, by Edson Gomes, is in full dialogue with Pact with the devil, by Eduardo Taddeo.
In both songs we see that the roles that black people occupy or are prevented from occupying are linked to slavery and the post-Abolition period. But, in both artists, we also find a return to the past to change the present. In the same way, Voices of statistics, we heard Eduardo Taddeo rhyme: “Ancestors did not burn sugarcane fields in the morning/ To make us a repository of media waste and trans fat. To make us turn into bionic amoebas/ That type suicide on the electronic ballot box”; and in Captured, by Edson Gomes:
We are children of slaves
We are not ashamed to admit it
We are children of the captured
We are not ashamed to admit it
We are children of slaves
And we're ready to take off that mask
Revealing the story
Of a people robbed, adulterated and denied happiness
A castrated, injured people denied the right to be happy
We are children of slaves
And we're ready to rip off that mask
Revealing the story
Of a people who live inside the ghetto
Capital of misery
Children who live circling the signs
They are apprentices of outcasts
We are children of slaves, we are, we are, we are and we are.
Not only is there a relationship between the slave past, Abolition and the post-Abolition that reaches our days. There is also – very proudly – a connection between the enslaved people of the past and the Afro-Brazilians of today, their descendants, who are called to tell their story. The violence of our days is denounced at the same time as the violence that occurred throughout the centuries. Justice is demanded for the black man and for his ancestor. This is the case in Consumed fact, by Edson Gomes: “All the misery that the people go through/ Who will pay? All this hunger that the people go through/ Who will pay? For all this blood spilled/ On the stones of Pelô [pillory]. Of each man whipped/ On the stones of Pelô [pillory]”.
Both Eduardo Taddeo and Edson Gomes – both Rap and Reggae – are dealing with rights and citizenship in the past and present. The artists are aware of the changes that have occurred over time, the transformations and achievements. But they intend to focus light on the racism that excludes black men from certain spaces, regardless of their talents and abilities; a racism that seeks to push black women into the white man's kitchen.
A racism that generates police violence, deaths of young black men, obstetric violence against black women, who often see their children killed inside their legs. A racism that is also constituted by various forms of hostility that brutally and cowardly affect the Afro-descendant population. Black consciousness repudiates May 13th, because of May 14th, that is, the post-Abolition and its developments in our days. It is fair to end with Black Adam, from Black Adam:
Apartheid in disguise every day
When I look at myself I don't see myself on TV
When I see myself I'm always in the kitchen
Or in the favela, submissive to power
I used to be a maid, but now I'm a black girl
“My little black girl, we like you”
Lift up your skirt, run to the room
At dawn, the little boss wants to see you
Will I ever be the boss?
I dream that one day this can happen
Stay in the living room and don't go to the kitchen anymore
Now I say what I see on TV
A black sound
A black God
A black Adam
Long live the black people!
*Osnan Silva de Souza is a PhD candidate in history at the University of Brasília (UnB).
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