[Page 3: The Samba of the Crazy Black Man: Possessing the Mulata through a Choreography of Disidentity
by Carla Melo]

The actual lyrics of "O Samba do Crioulo Doido," as Monique Augras reveals, may be said to satirize Brazilian history and to point out to the impossibility of finding a true historical narrative, since they constitute a playful anachronistic juxtaposition of historical figures and events that lead to the abolition of slavery. Under this analysis, characterizing the sambista as black seems to be positioning the black sambista as subversive, as he undoes the romanticizing of the abolition of slavery as a noble act performed by the Portuguese crown. However, as Augras has also suggested, with the exception of the intellectual elites, the song's reception was not as sophisticated. Though the song's author claimed to be satirizing the then "current situation" that was the dictatorship, he did so by ridiculing the crioulo as well as the very "popular" performance of the samba schools (Augras 1998:217-218). Robert Stam, in his study of black stereotypes in Brazilian cinema, describes the crioulo doido as a kind of childish trickster figure that:

 (…) harkens back to folkloric figures like 'Sací,' the one legged black man who           smokes a pipe and performs devilish tricks (…) The crioulo doido conveys an infantilizing impression of blacks as mischievous 'eternal children,' a portrayal that indirectly justifies control by the more 'mature' elements of the population. (Stam 1997:335)

Although he is right about the infantilization, the trickster quality is more appropriate to the "malandro" figure, the wise-ass and street-smart character who was first a black stereotype but later became a stereotype for the low-life males of Rio. The crioulo doido of the samba discussed is here to entertain us with his idiocy as his absurd perception of reality takes on a proverbial connotation. By calling him "cuckoo," the agency of the trickery and its ambiguous and potentially critical character is taken away from him. Nonetheless, in spite of its racist implications, the song still stands as a mockery of Brazilian history and specifically suggests that slavery still continues. Abreu's appropriation disidentifies with a song that disidentifies with racism. By keeping it simply as a title—though those who were old enough in the '70s to remember it will have it playing in their heads—he disidentifies with both the stereotype that names the song and with the colorblindness of its proverbial usage. His disidentification with the crioulo operates through the exposure of the idiocy of a history forged through this hypocritical method of erasure that is the myth of racial democracy. In spite of the rejection of this myth among Brazilian intellectuals, and of the growth of the Afro-Brazilian movement in several fronts in the last decades, this myth is still pervasive in Brazilian racial politics. This is what lends such poignancy and courage to the work of Luiz de Abreu. Under the stigma of the crioulo doido he dares to possess and deconstruct the mulata icon, thereby carnivalizing the myth of racial democracy. His transgressive corporeal tactics engage in a dance with several systems of identification that re-possess the black body, bringing visibility to non-stereotypical versions of black identities, while questioning how and if they fit into the tropical landscapes symbolized by the colors of the Brazilian flag. His choreography of counteridentity and disidentity "sambas" itself beyond the self-indulgence of much performance art that only seeks to shock for its own sake. This samba does not imagine itself as occupying a stage outside of the system from which it can criticize and oppose it.  The stage The Samba of the Crazy Black Man occupies is at the same time a site of protest and celebration of identity and difference, which does not negate the hybridity of five centuries of interracial encounters—it only allows for more dancers to be involved in the choreography of its negotiations

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