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Culture region, Brazil

Salvador

The heart of Afro-Brazilian culture, with the turbans of the baianas, afros, braids and the Beleza Negra of Ilê Aiyê.

Salvador, capital of Bahia, is the centre of Afro-Brazilian culture, and its hair tells that story. The baianas who sell acarajé on the streets wear white dresses and white turbans, called torço, rooted in the dress of Candomblé. The carnival group Ilê Aiyê, founded in the Liberdade neighbourhood in 1974 as the first bloco afro, celebrates Black beauty, afros and braids with its Beleza Negra contest.

Turbans of the baianas

The baiana's torço is a long cloth wrapped around the head, part of the white dress worn by women of Candomblé, the Afro-Brazilian religion whose orixás came with enslaved Yoruba and other West Africans. Different ways of tying the wrap can carry meaning within the religion. The craft of the baianas de acarajé, the street sellers of fried bean cakes, was registered as part of Brazil's intangible heritage in 2005, and they are a familiar sight in the old centre, the Pelourinho.

Ilê Aiyê and Black beauty

Ilê Aiyê was founded in 1974 to celebrate African heritage at carnival at a time when Black Bahians felt excluded from it. Each year its Noite da Beleza Negra, the Night of Black Beauty, chooses a queen, the Deusa do Ébano, judged on dance and on how she carries Afro-Brazilian culture, with afros, braids and wraps, not straightened hair. The group helped make natural hair a matter of pride across Brazil.

Hairstyles of Salvador

Head tieThe torço of the baianasAfroCelebrated by Ilê Aiyê at carnivalBox braidsWorn widely in BahiaDreadlocksCommon in Salvador's music scene

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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