Thread by @phpacha

I recently wrote about how the Brazilian far right has weaponized medieval history, both to construct a false version of Brazilian past and as a model for its future. I finished my text saying that academia had to counteract this.

Mangueira, a samba school in Rio, just did it.

In a amazing parade last night, Mangueira not only deconstructed the conservative narrative about Brazilian history, but it also presented a new one - based on a a historiography that's not only wider and more diverse, but also more complex.

I do not know enough about the parades' technical aspects, but I want to highlight a few of the historiographical ones.

The Front Comission was amazing. It shows a car with some the national heros - all white - in portraits . Left out are the indigenous and black peoples. When the "heros" leave the car, they're much smaller. But they're still oppressing the indigenous and black peoples.

It all changes when the indigenous and black peoples take a book (the cover being the Brazilian flag) and rip off a page. Now there's a new book in the hands of a black girl and the indigenous and black peoples are the ones in the portraits.

Then she opens a banner with the word "Present", a reference to Marielle Franco - a black councilwoman murdered last year in Rio de Janeiro.

Here's the video:

https://twitter.com/passadorama/status/1102959352447676421?s=19

That was the tone throughout the whole parade: there were other sections about the complexity of indigenous and black culture, slavery and resistance (both the Quilombos and the Malê revolt).

The first allegorical car was named "More an invasion than discovery".

Another allegorical car was named the "The dark blood behind the framed hero". It denounced the "Monument to the Bandeiras" as a symbol of murder, slavery and colonialism.

The parade was both highly critical and propositive: it denounced a version of history, but it also proposed another one. In that way, it was depressing, but also full of hope. This would be an amazing and important act in any year. In 2019 it is revolutionary.

The samba is amazing and it's available here: m.letras.mus.br/sambas/manguei…

The whole parede can be seen here:

Here's my piece on the weaponization of the Middle Ages by the Brazilian far right:
psmag.com/ideas/why-the-…