“What Makes Us Human”: Everyday Life and Female Afro-Brazilian Resistance in Allan da Rosa’s Reza de mãe

Abstract

In her article “Doente de Brasil” (2019), Eliane Brum reveals how Brazilians have gotten mentally and physically sick due to the increasing socio-political authoritarianism since 2016 and its consolidation with the new president. Brum discusses how to fight this state of affairs that is sickening individuals and the collectivity. Her answer argues for culture as an antidote. Not the culture of elitism, but one “that makes us human”, utilizing the word as a mediator and reestablishing ties to build community. Daily acts of resistance, so recurrent in Afro-Brazilian history, compose one of the thematic areas in Reza de mãe (2016), a short story collection by Allan da Rosa. While the stories revolve around Afro-Brazilians’ harsh everyday life in poor communities in São Paulo, two short stories address the female reappropriation of everyday life not only as a means of resistance, but also as a search for that which “makes us human”. Given this context, this article dialogues with the theory developed by Michel de Certeau in The Practice of Everyday Life (1980) to analyze the Afro-Brazilian female characters in the stories “Pode ligar o chuveiro?” and “Reza de mãe”. By granting central stage to the characters, the stories establish a locus of enunciation in which black and peripheral women become agents of their own story/history. I also raise considerations regarding the formative role of distinct literary genres, as the opening poem “Desculpa perguntar” and the apologue “O barco” provide a thematic frame for addressing oppression and resistance.

Keywords:
Afro-Brazilian women; everyday life; resistance