It has long been observed that the black movement in Brazil, as in the rest of Latin America, has not achieved the kind of mass identification and mobilization that other ethnic and racial movements have achieved--the usual comparator being the U.S. Civil Rights movement, although the successes of parts of the indigenous movement in Latin American also bear comparison. Selka’s book takes up this theme by examining the relationship between religion and the Brazilian black movement and, more widely, that between identity and politics, based on his fieldwork in the town of Cachoeira and the city of Salvador, both in Bahia province.
His central argument is that, while there is a strong connection in Bahia between Afro-Brazilian identity and Candomblé religious practice, contrasted to the widespread opposition to Candomblé (perceived as devilish) among evangelicals, especially Pentecostals, these connections are not so simple. Only a minority of Afro-Brazilians are involved with Candomblé and about half of the religion’s initiates are white. Many Candomblé practitioners are not particularly active in the black movement or see their involvement as something rather separate from their religion--and their views are reciprocated by local black activists in the Movimento Negro Unificado. On the other hand, many black people are active in the various evangelical movements and, while some demonize Candomblé and others are politically conservative, other more progressive elements open spaces for radical stances on class inequality and racism.
Selka develops this argument against the backdrop of two useful introductory chapters that give historical context and elegantly summarize recent debates on race and religion in Brazil. Drawing on fieldwork, the central chapters then look at Catholicism, Candomblé, and evangelical Christianity in Bahia. In each case, Selka, persuasively supported by ethnography that is multilocal and illustrative rather than “thick,” argues for the diversity and multiplicity of ideology and practice in relation to Afro-Brazilian culture and identity, and anti-racist stances.
Catholic instances such as the Irmandade da Nossa Senhora de Rosário dos Pretos do Pelourinho (a lay brotherhood) and the Church’s Pastoral Afro tend to separate religion and politics, although both are involved in promoting Afro-Brazilian culture (e.g., in enculturated masses) or have a pragmatic foot in both camps (e.g., many brotherhood members also participate in Candomblé). Although there are a variety of views on racism and the black movement within these organizations, in the end many black activists see the Church as essentially conservative, elitist, and merely co-opting Afro-Brazilian culture.
Candomblecistas also tend to separate religion and politics and are often preoccupied with defining Candomblé as a religion in its own right that needs to be re-Africanized and de-syncretized: one terreiro (religious centre) created a museum display for its displaced Catholic images. But Candomblé remains central to the popular expression of Afro-Brazilian culture and identity in Bahia, for example in Carnaval. And attacks on Candomblé from Pentecostals provoke accusations of racism.
In evangelical Christianity, the fundamentalist and fast-growing Igreja Universal Reina de Deus is hostile to Candomblé, denies the issue of racism, and would not let Selka do research with them. In contrast, the Movimento Evangélico Progressista--admittedly a marginal force on the evangelical scene--held conferences in which the issue of racism was much discussed. Even so, some MEP members say that this interest in race comes into evangelism from outside--from their own experience at university, for example.
In a stimulating and theoretically sophisticated conclusion, Selka argues for the inadequacy of a simple split between culture and politics (although I thought here he could have built more on Alvarez, Dagnino, and Escobar [1998] who make this argument in some detail). Not only does this split not work in the general sense that cultural identity is inherently a political animal and the analytic divisions once made between identity-oriented and instrumentalist new social movements are outdated, but the Bahian examples Selka gives show how deeply religion and race intertwine--despite the attempt by many religious practitioners to keep them discursively separate.
One classic critique of the black movement in Brazil is that it too often focuses on promoting Afro-Brazilian culture and thus lays itself open to co-optation by capitalism (via tourism), the state (via nationalism), and the Church (via enculturated masses). Instead, the argument goes, the movement should concentrate on real politics, such as anti-racism, the job market, and political representation. What such an argument misses, in my view, is the profoundly political nature of both the promotion of Afro-Brazilian culture--which has many implications for anti-racism, jobs, and political representation--and the co-optation that simultaneously affects it. A focus on “real politics” is just as likely to suffer co-optation, undermining, tokenism, glass ceilings, and all the usual battery of obstacles. What matters is the effectiveness of a given discourse for producing identification. If “culture” is that discourse, then fine. Fry (2002) may have been overstating the case when he argued that the beauty products industry and associated marketing, by targeting Afro-Brazilians, achieved what the NGOs had failed to do in terms of creating an inclusive “black” identification; but the point remains that this type of discourse may prove effective in Brazil.
Selka has produced a well-written, concise, and intellectually stimulating book that will make a very welcome addition to the literature on race in Brazil. Selka’s wide-ranging coverage and consistent placing of his work in relation to current ideas and debates will make the book very useful for students and scholars alike.
Works Cited
Alvarez, Sonia, Evelina Dagnino, and Arturo Escobar, eds. Cultures of Politics, Politics of Cultures: Re-visioning Latin American Social Movements. Boulder: Westview, 1998.
Fry, Peter. “Estética e Política: Relações entre ‘Raça,’ Publicidade e Produção da Beleza no Brasil.” In Nu e Vestido: Dez Antropólogos Revelam a Cultura do Corpo Carioca, edited by Mirian Goldenberg, 303-26. Rio de Janeiro: Record, 2002.
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[Review length: 952 words • Review posted on August 5, 2008]