The Captains of the Sands and the Pirate Ship: Reflections on Forms of Social and Spatial Segregation in Salvador

Résumé

This paper draws a parallel between the song Duas Cidades (2015) by the band Baiana System and the novel Capitães da Areia (1937) by the writer Jorge Amado, in order to spark a discussion on the forms of social and spatial segregation in the city of Salvador, which are made invisible by the idea of happiness that permeates the state of Bahia and are hyperbolized in the capital by the tourism and carnival industries. Drawing on the reflections on representation by historian Roger Chartier (1990), the concept of cultural identity discussed by Stuart Hall (2006), Benedict Anderson (2008), and writings on the city by Renato Cordeiro Gomes (2008) and Jamile Borges Silva (2020), among other references, the text emphasizes how the myth of racial democracy that structures Brazilian and Salvadoran national identity influences the formulation of a local image that neglects the real social issues—such as social and spatial segregation in Salvador. In addition to the social critique, the paper also highlights the importance of the exchanges between literature and history and the selection of distinct texts in structure, but which can converge and complement each other—such as the case of the novel and the song.