NEGRUME

The negrume, or tisnado face, represents for the Maracatu of Ceará a form of resistance that goes back to the various prohibitions that took place from the 19th century onwards, in which the manifestations of blacks were curtailed, among them the processions in homage to the kings of the Congo. Painting his face was a way of making his identification difficult and confusing. The painted face, originally a black mask produced with the ashes of burnt sugarcane that covers the faces of the jokers to escape the repression "was updated with the use of ink made of mineral oil, petroleum jelly, talc and black pigment. Between blackface and blackness, the affirmation of the identity of a culture of resistance, appears to be contradictory when representing the black with elements that originally would discriminate. The photographs were taken during the Maracatus parades that take place every year during the Carnival of Fortaleza.