By Paulo Mileno
Photos: Paulo Mileno\Wikimedia Commons
“It’s time for the awakening of Black consciousness… We have soul… We have soul.”
Soundtrack of the documentary Wattstax (1973)
In the recent documentaries released in 2023, Dom Filó (above) takes center stage, exploring the Black Soul parties in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. These parties played a pivotal role in creating an identity bridge between the North American Black community and the Afro-Brazilian community in the 1970s.
However, the social memory of the Black masses presents a vague idea about this phenomenon. In this sense, making sure that era is correctly depicted is necessary through films like Clementino Júnior’s ‘Soul Train,’ Emílio Domingos’s ‘Black Rio!! Black Power!!,’ and even ‘Chic Show’ (also directed by Domingos), which portrays the Black music scene in São Paulo, the Brazilian New York.
I address here the productions released in the 2023 season. They certainly aren’t the only films about this period. Regardless of alternative or mainstream works, all documentaries with this approach provide a record of a pivotal historical time for newer generations to understand the influences on today’s racial debates. Because without these references, the roots are severed, and for ancestry, that’s death.
We need to continue the history.
The identity bridge between Brazil and the United States formed through the Black Soul party greatly bothered the political system. After all, it was the peak of the military dictatorship in the 70s.
The main piece of misinformation that was spread in schools, the press, and the arts was that Brazil was a paradise of racial democracy. As I said in The largest Black nation outside Africa and its racist politics, which was published by Ufahamu, a historical journal from UCLA:
“During the dictatorship, the color/race category was removed from the census in an effort to paint the country às a post-racial haven. The dictatorship issued a decree forbidding any publications addressing racial issues, as those could be interpreted as inciting hate or racial discrimination.
Moreover, state-sponsored espionage agencies “infiltrated entities dedicated to the study of Black culture through lectures, meetings and symposia” in order to monitor any potential connection with international movements such as the Black Panthers.
Likewise, the Bailes Blacks (or Bailes Soul), a mix of R&B, Blues and Jazz musicians, were monitored for theirs ability to generate effervescence by bringing together a large audience of young Blacks who demonstrate self-esteem, and thus arguably had the potential to politically organize and recruit.”
According Dom Filó,The rise of the Black population could lead Brazil into danger and incite a racial war similar to the one in the United States. Both political currents, even though antagonistic, have criticized the Black Soul parties.
On one side, the right claimed they were communists. On the other side, the left claimed they were imperialists. However, both agreed that the Blacks wanted to divide the working class.
Therefore, to prevent the outbreak of a revolution, there was national pressure to maintain the so-called National Security Law. It was time to put an end to the Black Soul parties.
The media bombardment began with the old tactic of divide and conquer. In this sense, the media used samba, the greatest Brazilian cultural product, to rival the movement. The idea was that samba was genuine culture while the Black Soul party was imported culture from the United States.
The most important newspaper at the time, Jornal do Brasil, published the fateful cover story titled “The (imported) pride of being Black in Brazil. Black Rio,” spanning three additional pages. Photo caption: An air of Harlem on the walls of Brás de Pina (North Zone of Rio), covered in slogans (in English) and the notices of joyful Soul Power team, written by Lena Frias, photo by Almir Veiga. Jornal do Brasil. Caderno B. July 17, 1976.
That report became a classic of Brazilian journalism, acknowledged as an investigative feature and referenced in Frias’s portfolio, as well as in the book by journalist Belisa Ribeiro, Jornal do Brasil: History and Memory.
Although it had been written by a Black journalist, Lena Frias, this article was biased and did not include Dom Filó or any other voice from the Black Soul parties. The aim was to portray the Black Soul party as a foreign culture in the land of samba and feijoada.
From one moment to the next, the divided city of Rio de Janeiro turned into an autonomous and anti-nationalist city. According to the reporter Lena Frias:
“The inhabitants identified themselves as blacks or browns; whose hymn is a song by James Brown or a tune by the Blackbirds; whose bible is Wattstax, the black counterpart to Woodstock; whose language incorporated the words ‘brother’ and ‘white’; whose flag brings the figure of James Brown or Ruff Thomas, Marva Whitney or Lyn Collins; whose motto is ‘I am somebody’; whose model is the African American, whose gestures they imitate, even though originalities are already being created over the imitation.
“A population that neither drinks nor uses drugs, carefully avoids conflicts, and gathers on weekends at the Black Soul party all over Greater Rio. It’s the Soul Power, one of the most intriguing sociological phenomena recorded in the country.”
Lena Frias, in her report, regrettably gave voice to people who claimed that racism began with the Soul Grand Prix (Dom Filó’s band), that whites were barred from entering the Black Soul party, that soul music was for Black people and rock music was for white people. It came across as that there was ‘disguised racism’ and that Black people themselves were being racist. One of the interviewees said, “From what I read, in the United States, they even massacre Blacks. We haven’t reached that point here yet.” Error upon error.
The horror show didn’t stop there. The interviewee, Maria Célia Rosa, said,
“I like Idi Amin Dada. He provokes with all those white faces. I also like the Jews. They’re discriminated against like us.”
The coup de grâce of orchestrated attacks against the Black Soul party was the launch of the soap opera Dancin’ Days in 1978, which had the discotheque as its backdrop. It symbolized the end of a golden era for the pride and self-esteem of the Brazilian Black community.
During the 1970s, Brazilian television held the hegemony of viewership in Brazil.
Paulo Mileno and Dom Filó
On the other hand, in my opinion, if we were to compare today’s times with the 1970s, it wouldn’t be in this scenario that we’d have a soap opera about discotheque.
Likely, it would be the Black dances, portraying life in the suburbs and the west zone of Rio, instead of the south zone as in Dancin’ Days.
The Black movement bothered many, provoked fear due to its massive representation of Black identity pride, the economic autonomy, and empowerment of the Black community through the ticket sales at the Black Soul party and record sales by the biggest labels in the market.
Indeed, the legacy of Black Soul party is evident in the social critique speeches of 80s Hip Hop, in the protest of funk, and in the identity expression of 90s pagode.
Like Carlos Dafé said in its interview on the documentary Black Rio!! Soul Power!! Ain’t nothing lost. The struggle continues!
Paulo Mileno is an actor, filmmaker, cultural producer, writer, editorial advisor of Africa and Africanities Magazine and he was researcher in the Nucleus of African Philosophy at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Mileno also writes to Observatório da Imprensa (São Paulo – Brazil), Brasil de Fato (São Paulo – Brazil), Jornal do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro – Brazil), Black History Month (London – England), Ufahamu: A Journal of Black Studies from Los Angeles University -UCLA (Los Angeles – USA), San Francisco National Black Newspaper (San Francisco – USA), Black Star News (New York – USA) and Africa Business (Cape Town – South Africa). Reach him via [email protected]
