Gender Fluidity and Yoruba Religion in the Construction of an Afro-Brazilian Identity: Karim Aïnouz's Madame Satã

Amid intense racial tensions in 1930’s Brazil, Joao Francisco dos Santos, rises to prominence as one of Rio’s most famous malandros. Simultaneously feared and persecuted by Brazilian authorities for his violent reactionary outbursts on the one hand, and his sensual incarnation of the afro-Brazilian mulatta on the other hand, this article analyzes Karim Ainouz’s biopic Madame Sata, and examines the role that Joao’s religious beliefs plays on the conceptualization of his identity. This article contends that the concept of gender fluidity rooted in Afro- diasporic Yoruba religion provides a normative framework through which Joao contests the rigid ideations of gender and performance imposed on the black community by a patriarchal white society.