The new blacks from Bahia: Local and global in Afro‐Bahia

Abstract

Focusing on the metropolitan area of Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia, the Brazilian state with the highest percentage of blacks in the population, this paper describes change in colour terminology, the development of a new black Baian culture and the way in which new international black symbols and youth culture in general are merged with the Afro‐Baian tradition. Our focus is on young people. Change in black‐Baian culture and, or as much of the Brazilian mass media phrase it, the “re‐Africanisation” of Bahia show international and internationalizing tendencies, but continue to call our attention to many of the specificities of Brazilian life. The Baian case shows that a new usage of black symbols need not be associated automatically with an increase in racial polarization along Northern American or Northwestern European lines.