Formative Trajectories of Black Musicians in Post-Abolition (1890-1930)

Abstract

This paper seeks to construct visibility to black musicians’ memories about their own formative trajectories in post abolition Rio de Janeiro (1890-1930). Analyzing oral interviews from Museum of Image and Sound of Rio de Janeiro, we show some values and knowledges which those musicians considered important for their formation, as well as their comprehension and experiences of education. We focus on the strategies they used to access school and formal knowledge, their intellectual protagonism in this process, and situate their thoughts and experiences in the historiographic debates on school education in post-abolition Rio. The analysis shows: that these subjects were relatively successful in their attempts to acquire school knowledges even without having broad access to schools and that they never ignored the importance of such knowledge. It also presents evidence of enormous inequalities and racial barriers to their access to formal education.