News — Black Brazilian

Bahia’s treasured costume, Baiana de Acarajé, is an extravagant piece of clothing worn by the beautiful women of Bahia. This group of people is in Salvador, a town on the northeastern coast of Brazil. It is impossible to stroll through the streets without seeing a woman or a group of women in this special attire.

The Transatlantic slave trade has had so much influence on Brazilian pop culture. The clothing of the women of Bahia carries a piece of this history.

Their traditional dress is made up of the Camino (a type of white cotton trousers), worn underneath a long maxi skirt, made extra flowy, and which is usually white. The dress also comes with a bodice that sinches at the waist and drapes slightly over the top of the skirt.

Although most of the styles are similar, every woman is at liberty to make their style more unique and personalized. The style inspiration for the traditional dress is that of ancient European Baroque — white lace and tons of layers. The headwraps, which are made with white lace, can be traced to the dress’s Afro-Islamic roots. The accessories include colorful bead necklaces and rings stacked upon each other.

In other parts of Brazil, the traditional dresses come in different colors and patterns but when it comes to the Baiana de Acarajé traditional dress in Bahia, it is an all-white affair. This is because it pays tribute to the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé.

Candomblé was formed in the late 19th century in Bahia where most of the enslaved can be traced. People from Yorubaland, Dahomey kingdoms (present-day southwestern Nigeria and Benin), and Bantu Africa were the larger groups in the settlement at the time.

Yoruba and Ewe-Fon rituals have heavily influenced Candomblé from the language of incantations to their religious organization and their mythology. The Candomblé faithful believe in several deities referred to as orishas (orixás) that are sometimes even likened to Catholic saints.

The Baiana de Acarajé traditional dress is also worn by women in Bahia who sell Acarajé, a dish made from peeled beans formed into a ball and then deep-fried in palm oil or vegetable oil. The meal serves as both a religious offering to the gods in the Candomblé religion and as street food.

Aside from the Acarajé, which is variously made with fried beef, mutton, dried shrimp, pigweed, fufu Osun sauce, and coconut, the women wear the traditional attire to sell other tasty street foods as well. They stress that donning the Baianas de Acarajé traditional dress is an intricate part of their culture that warms the hearts of the locals and tourists alike.

Labor inspectors in Brazil have rescued a Black woman who was enslaved from the age of eight and worked as a domestic servant – without receiving any remuneration or time off – for a White family for almost 40 years.

According to local television news magazine Fantástico, in an exclusive feature, the victim, identified as 46-year-old Madalena Gordiano, was found living in a small room without any windows at the residence in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, Daily Mail reported. Gordiano’s poor parents reportedly gave her to the family of a university professor also identified as Dalton Cesar Milagres Rigueira. She was raised by the professor’s mother though she wasn’t officially adopted.

“I helped clean up the house, cook, wash the bathroom, wash the house. I didn’t play, I didn’t even have a doll,” Gordiano told Fantástico.

“They gave her food when she was hungry, but all other rights were taken from her,” the inspector in charge of the rescue, Humberto Camasmie, also told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Gordiano was rescued on November 27 following a tipoff from neighbors who said she sent them notes asking them to purchase food and hygiene products for her as she did not have any money. While in captivity, Gordiano was also forced to marry an elderly relative of the family so they could continue receiving his R$ 8,000 ($1,557) pension after his demise. She has since been allowed to receive those funds, and Labor prosecutors also said they’re in talks with the Rigueira family with regards to paying compensation to her.

“She did not know what a minimum wage was,” Camasmie said. “Now she’s learning how to use a credit card. She knows that every month she will be paid a substantial amount [from the pension].”

Following her rescue, Rigueira’s employers, Unipam, announced he has been suspended, and the university is taking all “legal measures”, Daily Mail reported. A lawyer for the Rigueira family, however, said Fantástico had presented the accused as guilty even before they could present their defense in court.

“The premature and irresponsible disclosure by inspectors and agents of the state, before a lawsuit recognizes … their guilt, violates rights and sensitive data from the family, and compromises their safety,” the lawyer said.

In Brazil, labor officials say domestic servitude has been a compounding problem, and alleviating it has been a major challenge as the victims seldom see themselves as modern-day slaves, Daily Mail reported. And though labor inspectors can go to workplaces and homes to investigate cases of slavery, they are required to obtain a permit from a judge to be able to enter, and victims must also officially notify them.