Warriors of the muddle: black drumming and boi-bumbá clashes in Belém do Pará newspapers in the post-emancipation of slavery (1888-1908)

This article deals with repercussions and senses related to announcements of the printing press concerning the clashes between boi-bumbá groups in Belém between the emancipation of slavery and 1908. These clashes were physical or chanted engagements between bands in procession through streets and squares in a ritual pattern, disposed to capture the ox-like-artifact owned by their challengers. The new social order defined by free labor, simultaneous to the decline the monarchy and the inauguration of the republic, endorsed the rearrangement of hierarchy regarding dominant and subordinate portions of the society. In this new context, bumbá troupes, samba and drumming events were disclosed by the press as police targets and examples of immorality and racial deterioration of black people. The changing moment in this situation was the creation of Boi Pai do Campo in 1908, which caught the press attention as an entertainment business, just as the other existing animals’ festive troupes.

Keywords:
Belém; Boi-bumbá; The Press