Música, memória e negritude: a estética do pensamento radical negro dos Blocos Afros de Salvador-BA

Abstract

This thesis entitled “Music, memory and blackness: the aesthetics of black radical thought in Blocos Afro of Salvador-BA” had to analyze some lyrics from four blocos afro in Salvador (Ilês Aiyê, Malê Debalê, Olodum and Os Negões) focused on compositions produced and/or re-recorded in the 21st century. By highlighting black composers. It sought to understand how the textuality of Afro blocks is configured as an instrument of black enunciation and resistance. Based on the concept of blackness proposed by Aimé Césaire (2010), and followed by aesthetics of the black radical tradition proposed by Fred Moten (2003) - fundamental concepts for this work – this research also dialogued with other black intellectuals, such as Abdias Nascimento, Alberto Guerreiro Ramos, Beatriz Nascimento, Lélia Gonzalez, Leda Martins, Florentina Souza, Paul Gilroy, bell hooks and Jônatas Conceição. As a result of the song lyrics analysis, this work figures out that the Literature of Blocos Afro in addition to other ethical-aesthetic elements that make up these Blocos (dance, African ringtones, singing, costumes and spirituality) shaped a space for the preservation of memory, aquilombamento, insurgency, improvisation and valorization of blackness. In this sense, this literature has been inserted into the aesthetics of black radical thought. This work also highlighted that, through their literary works, black composers and composers from Blocos afro has acted as intellectuals and agents of social transformation that has shaped black generations for almost five decades.