Entre le spectacle et le rituel: restaurations de la mémoire du roi Galanga

Abstract

Among the various African religious and cultural expressions in Brazil, the ritual performance of the Reinado or Congado deserves attention. Having emerged with the advent of symbolic kings and queens of the Congo nation, as an expression of the eighteenth century religious brotherhoods founded by enslaved Africans, this celebration constitutes a form of cultural resistance and preservation of «collective memory» evocative of their ethnic, racial and territorial origins. The Reinado or Congado tradition has expanded over time throughout different regions in Brazil, but, in Minas Gerais, particularly, it has come to be known as the predominant expression of the so-called Afro-Brazilian culture. Among the origin myths of this tradition, a special attention should be directed to the narrative versions of the story of Chico Rei, the African monarch who, having been brought to Brazil as a slave, subverted his subaltern condition. This story is retold in the musical Galanga, Chico Rei, which premiered in the capital of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, in 2012. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ritual dimension of this stage production as well as its political connections. Thus, we seek to demonstrate that the Galanga, Chico Rei musical can be seen as a performance genre which gives resonance to discourses and projects of Black movements historically held in Brazil. In support of this argument, we have sought to explore indispensable empirical data (field observations, informal conversations, and Internet sources), from the perspectives of the performance theories and ethnoscenology.