This paper presents research about the carnival Cucumbis. These groups had reached their greatest notoriety in the second half of the 1880s, appearing more and more in the newspapers and conquering their space in the streets during the days of carnival. They were recognized as "Africans" by the journalists and other contemporaneous observers: with their "African dances", "African instruments", and "African costumes" parading through the streets. The main objective here is to try to understand the possible meanings behind the act of creating, preserving, and changing one festive action that has the African past as an essential element to the making of identity for their members. This African identity was strengthened precisely while the struggle for the abolition of slavery grew more intense and the debates about citizenship had become stronger than ever.
Carnival; Cucumbi; abolition of slavery; Rio de Janeiro