Maracatu New York

CROWNING CEREMONIES

Maracatu de Baque Virado as any oral tradition has its historical path blurred by all the voices that have tried to retell it when facing the intricate process of recreating memory. Most researchers established a direct connection between the Maracatu de Baque Virado parades with the Crowning Ceremonies that occurred in colonial Brazil. The crowning ceremonies consisted on the election of a Black King in order to facilitate the administration of the enslaved Africans in Brazil as he became the one responsible for overviewing and keeping the order among slaves. The institution of the election of the Black Kings had already occurred in Portugal in the XVI century and other European countries (Spain and France). This colonial institution was connected to the Black catholic brotherhoods, particularly Nossa Senhora dos Homens Pretos (Our lady of Rosary) in Brazil and in Portugal.

The referential book “Maracatus do Recife” by Guerra Peixe states that the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary in Recife first recorded a crowning ceremony in 1674. Nonetheless it is possible to find an earlier description of crowning ceremonies that dates back to 1666 (by French traveler Urbain Souchu Rennefort) and even Guerra-Peixe himself inferred an earlier start for the crowning ceremonies (since there are records stating the death of well-known Black King Henrique Dias in 1662). During these ceremonies and other catholic festivities, black people were able to connect with their African culture through music and dance. The impossibility of using their own costuming determined the adoption of European traditional royal attire, fact that can also be interpreted as a perspicacious and disguised way of mockery of their oppressors. The crowning ceremonies in Recife took place in front of the “Nossa Senhora do Rosário” Church (Catholic Saint) and consisted on a great opportunity for the Black community to maintain their practices through singing playing and dancing under the cloak of Catholicism. The transition from the XVII century to the XIX century presents an increasing lack of leniency by the Catholic Church to the festivities and abolition of slavery in 1888 diluted any practical reasons for tolerating these celebrations. The always present link with the Afro-Brazilian religions became more explicit as their dance, music and singing were restricted to the social spaces of the black communities marginalized by Church and government.