Bahia Brazil Summary

African-Brazilian Culture and Regional Identity in Bahia Brazil written by Scott Ickes takes the reader into a history of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia and the cultural politics the state faced between the years of 1930 through 1954, a time period that the nation of Brazil was going through a major change; Getulio Vargas, with some help, turned the government into a dictatorship. The people of Bahia, especially the African-Brazilians, actively sought to change the narrative of the culture of Brazil. Ickes uses a number of events to help cultivate the narrative of the establishment of African-Brazilian culture, to be the regional identity of Bahia. Among these events included the employment of African-Bahian cultural practices such
Before 1930 African-Bahian cultural practices were repressed and the elites favored a more Europeanized culture, something that did not only plague Bahia but could be found in other states of Brazil. The want for a more European state came from the idea of being modern, and the Bahian elites did not believe that inclusion of African-Bahian cultural practices in public life, fit into this modern idea. Although their practices were not accepted in public, and they were often persecuted for performing them at public festivals, Ickes argues, that the working class of Bahia were important to the reformulation of Bahian regional identity. It was through, “...insistence on the ownership and legitimacy of their cultural heritage through ritualized performances in public spaces...”[ Ickes, Scott. African-Brazilian Culture and Regional Identity in Bahia, Brazil. University Press of Florida: Gainsville, Florida. 2013. Pg. 3] that the men and women of African descent were important to the push into acceptance. Another important avenue that directly affected the acceptance of African-Bahian cultural practices was the image painted by print media, including works by journalists and authors. Ickes argues, that once the media starting paying attention to and embracing the African-Bahian culture, that the discourse on the subject also started to shift. Finally, Ickes
The use of these sources brought life to his claims. For example, his claim that print media played a direct role in changing the African-Bahian discourse was backed up by his mentioning the importance of a novel written by Jorge Amado entitled Jubiabá[ Ickes, Scott. African-Brazilian Culture and Regional Identity in Bahia, Brazil. University Press of Florida: Gainsville, Florida. 2013. Pg. 115]. Jubiabá was proof that a “modernist” like Jorge Amado could accept Candomble as part of Bahia regional identity and not all modern thinkers were opposed the idea. Further evidence that media played a vital role in re-calibration of African-Bahian discourse was the descriptions employed by journalists when writing about the aspects of culture found festivals of Salvador. Ickes writes, “In the mid-1930s, journalists typically referred to ‘the many stalls of food’ at African-Bahian festivals, but by the 1940s, it was common for newspapers to use the term ‘Bahian food’.” Ickes claims that this inclusion of African-Bahian culture not only intended to formulate a unique identity but underlying it was to make Bahia more attractive to not only other Brazilians but also foreign