Gender Fluidity and Yoruba Religion in the Construction of an Afro-Brazilian Identity: Karim Aïnouz's Madame Satã

Sarita Naa Akuye Addy,David Mongor-Lizarrabengoa

doi:10.23870/marlas.216

Abstract

Amid intense racial tensions in 1930’s Brazil, João Francisco dos Santos, rises to prominence as one of Rio’s most famous malandros. Simultaneously feared and persecuted by Brazilian authorities for his violent reactionary outbursts on the one hand, and his sensual incarnation of the afro-Brazilian mulatta on the other hand, this article analyzes Karim Aïnouz’s biopic Madame Satã, and examines the role that João’s religious beliefs plays on the conceptualization of his identity. This article contends that the concept of gender fluidity rooted in Afro- diasporic Yoruba religion provides a normative framework through which João contests the rigid ideations of gender and performance imposed on the black community by a patriarchal white society.

Highlights

João Francisco dos Santos (1900-1975), better known by his stage name “Madame Satã,” earned a reputation as one of Brazil’s most controversial figures of the early twentieth century
Subero argues that the film is reluctant to portray João as a woman trapped in a man’s body and instead presents the protagonist as a hypermasculine subject whose masculinity is not questioned. While these analyses offer alternate ways of reading João’s depiction in the film, we contend that João’s interpretation of his identity could be reviewed through the lenses of his conception of gender and identity rooted in his African religion
Madame Satã is preoccupied with deconstructing the myth surrounding one of Rio’s most famous and legendary malandros and with reclaiming agency from the biographical viewpoint

Summary

Sarita Naa Akuye Addy Department of Modern Languages and Literatures

Despite the widespread discrimination facing the Afro-Brazilian community in the early twentieth century, João Francisco dos Santos, rose to prominence as one of Rio’s most famous malandros. Yoruba religious practices demonstrate a gender fluidity in which roles were neither rigidly masculinized nor feminized. Patriarchal Brazilian society punished any deviation from the social prescriptions of normative gender behavior. This essay examines the role that João’s religious beliefs played in the construction of his identity. We contend that the concept of gender fluidity rooted in Afro-diasporic Yoruba religion provides a normative framework through which João contests the rigid ideations of gender and performance imposed on the black community by a patriarchal white society

Introduction

Conclusion