The massive presence of samba-plots about Afro-Brazilian religions at this year’s Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is not a mere “coincidence”, but rather “a movement”, according to songwriter Cláudio Russo, who wrote this year’s samba-plot for the Paraíso do Tuiuti Samba School, paying tribute to Brazil’s first Black trans woman, Xica Manicongo. Of the 12 samba schools in the special group, the elite group of Rio’s Carnival, at least nine will sing about this subject.
According to Russo, from the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival was fueled by samba-plots sponsored by “the istration of cities and Brazilian states that bankrolled the parades.” “Then it went to big companies. There was a year when Salgueiro and Beija-Flor [other two of Rio’s top samba-schools] sang about the same subject, the history of aviation, each sponsored by a major airline,” he explains.
“That’s over. Sponsored samba-plots are now scarce. This made possible the movement we are seeing today, not only among samba schools but also among Carnival designers in Rio de Janeiro. Most of them have a degree in fine arts, usually from the School of Fine Arts at UFRJ [Federal University of Rio de Janeiro], with an academic background that makes it possible to come up with this kind of plot,” adds Russo.
BdF Entrevista, one of Brasil de Fato’s shows, interviewed Russo at the end of January, before the official parades of samba schools in the special group of Rio’s Carnival. Russo explained that the school presidents liked to talk about Africa and its religions because they supposedly required “much less in-depth research and were cheaper since the materials were made of straw, costumes, etc.”
“But then this movement grew and got to where we are today. We realized that the judges [who assess the samba schools during the parades] like this kind of plot. The ‘Carnival bubble’ loves this kind of plot and, generally, it doesn’t make for bad samba-plots. They are deeply related to our history. And I think this movement is very important because it brings Carnival back to its African roots,” he added.
In the conversation, Russo also revealed the process of writing Tuiuti’s 2025 samba-plot and how he discovered the story of Xica Manicongo, Brazil’s first non-Indigenous trans person, who was kidnapped from the Congo region and enslaved in the Brazilian state of Bahia. As one of her people’s quimbanda, colonizers perceived her as a man with feminine features.
“I have a degree in history from UERJ [State University of Rio de Janeiro], a post-graduate degree in African history and, through some oversight, I didn’t know the story of Xica Manicongo. Before Tuiuti’s plot came out, Carnival designer Jack Vasconcelos called me and said ‘You have to tell this story, but I have to be with you, I have to be by your side,'” says Russo.
In the 16th century, Xica Manicongo worked as a shoemaker. For resisting the standards of the time, she was persecuted by the Holy Office of the Catholic Church, better known as the Inquisition, under penalty of being burned alive in a public square. Manicongo’s story has no record in Brazilian history and only gained visibility when anthropologist Luiz Mott discovered the Holy Office’s writings about Manicongo’s presence.
Russo also commented on how Carnival culture has changed in recent years. “For a while now, the event has become a ghetto culture, a culture of resistance,” he said. “The Carnival was once much bigger than it is today. Nowadays, it’s only two months before the Carnival takes place. Before, it wasn’t a spectacle, it was popular culture. The schools paraded because they existed. Today they exist for the parade,” he points out.
Watch the full interview with English subtitles:
