XVII Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association

A Didá Banda Feminina: Afrofuturismo, Empoderamento Feminino, e Samba-Reggae

• In Event: Drumming communities and the Popularization of Brazilian musical traditions

Abstract

For the 2023 Carnival in Salvador da Bahia, bloco afro A Didá Banda Feminina paraded to the theme Afrofuturismo: O Algoritmo dos Búzios (afrofuturism: the algorithm of the cowrie shells). An African symbol of spirituality, wealth, fertility, ancestry, and Afro-Bahian resistance, cowrie shells continue to play a common role in Afro-Brazilian religious divination in the present day. Didá’s algorithm of cowrie shells illustrates an Afrofuturistic convergence between Afro-Bahian ancestrality and technological paradigms to recreate the future—a future of Black, Amefrican, Afrofuturistic feminist empowerment. Didá is the first all-women’s bloco afro of Salvador founded in 1993 and since their inception, legions of all-women’s samba-reggae bands formed locally, nationally, and even internationally. Based primarily on ethnographic ethnomusicological fieldwork from 2022-2023, this paper includes original audio-visual excerpts of Didá’s Carnival theme reveal event, rehearsals, interviews, and Carnival parade performance. Ultimately, I analyze how Didá deploys principles of Afrofuturism through their foundational values of empoderamento feminino in the performance and embodiment of samba-reggae music. In reference to Ytasha Womack’s work Afrofuturism (2013), the paper contributes to this discourse by comparing and contrasting these theoretical underpinnings to Didá’s conception and application of Afrofuturism. Reminiscent of Lélia Gonzalez’ Amefricanidade, which promulgates shared Black experiences and histories throughout the Americas, Didá’s Afrofuturism acts as a Black radical feminist and Afrodiasporic manifestation of the “power of creation,” the original meaning of Didá in Yoruba.

Author

• Cody Case, University of Florida