Acting Boçal: Performance, Language, and Freedom in Brazil in the Age of Abolition

“Acting Boçal” discusses the lives of two West African men—Vicente and João—detained in Rio de Janeiro in 1856, based on their rare trans-Atlantic and internal slave trade accounts. Their freedom hinged on the shaky criteria by which law enforcement judged language fluency. The two likely “performed” as boçal (recently-arrived) Africans in order to try and circumvent their enslavement. They thus present us with a singular example of how enslaved Africans in Brazil used performance as a way to manipulate and beat the precarious freedoms and prejudices governing slaveholding society. This talk is part of the GLC Brown Bag Lunch Series. Bring your lunch and we’ll provide the drinks & dessert.