Washington, DC, USA: Afro-Brazilian Panel Discussion

  
A panel discussion about the status and struggle of Afro-Brazilians for equality will be held at Sankofa cafe and bookstore, right around the corner from FICA-DC. Looks very informative.

A panel of black Brazilians leaders and activists discuss the status and struggle of Afro-Brazilians for equality.

They will discuss the work they are doing in Brazil with Afro-Brazilian communities and the resistance of Afro-Brazilians to racism, poverty, police homicides and other issues. The panel also will discuss potential alliances between Afro-Brazilians and African Americans.

The panel will include:
Ms. Luiza Bairros (Salvador da Bahia, Brazil)
A long-standing national leader of the black movement, Ms. Bairros has been active with the Unified Black Movement since the late 1970s eventually becoming the chair. She was also active in organizing black Brazilian participation in the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism. She is currently the Secretary to Promote Racial and Gender Equality in the State of Bahia.

Dr. Sueli Carneiro (São Paulo, Brazil)
Dr. Carneiro is the director and founder of Geledes (Institute of Black Women), Brazil's leading black women's organization. Geledes has been a leader in fighting for women's rights, human rights, against police brutality and murder, and justice for workers. She also created the Rappers Project, promoting youth activism and leadership development through hip hop.

Elias de Oliveira Sampaio (Salvador, State of Bahia, Brazil)
An economist, Dr. Sampaio is President of the Data Processing Company of the
State of Bahia (PRODEB) and is also a licensed economist of the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management. He has studied and been active around economic issues confronting Afro-Brazilians. He has also been consultant for the Brazilian government's International Development Department Program Against Institutional Racism.

Presented by: Levantamos and US Civil Society Committee of the US Brazil Joint Action Plan for the Elimination of Racism JAPER

Free and open to the public

Sankofa Video, Books & Cafe
2714 Georgia Ave NW
Washington, DC 20001
202-234-4755
Near Howard University/Shaw Metro Station

Enjoy. Thanks to Syvlia for the link.
  

Never-Before-Seen Photos of Capoeira & Brazil!

  

Elina, who has trained with FICA-Chicago and FICA-Bahia and is currently completing her PhD thesis on candomblé, sent out this link. Enjoy these great images:

Dear friends,

The Helinä Rautavaara Ethnographic museum in Finland has uploaded a large part of its collection of photographs on Candomblé, Capoeira and Afro-Brazilian culture in general from the 1960s and 1970s on the online portal of the Finnish National Board of Antiquities for public access.

Having received the link to the digital archive through Katri Hirvonen-Nurmi of the Helinä Rautavaara museum, where I used to work as well, I wanted to share it with with you.

The photos digitalized so far consist of black and white photographs taken by Helinä Rautavaara over her trips to Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s.

Primarily taken in Salvador, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in connection to her PhD research on Candomblé, the photo archive contains some real gems. I imagine that as the museum continues with the digitalization of its archives, more materials will be added to the portal.

Click here to access the archives.

I am also happy to pass on any questions or comments to her.

Enjoy!

Very best wishes,
Elina

The best way to search is to use free search field (On the top left corner). You can use boolean searches and cut the search word with an asterisk * (try: capoe*).

Thanks, Elina! These images are really amazing.
  

Dois de Julho: Heroes of Bahian Independence

   

Dois de Julho (July 2nd) is a big holiday in the city of Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. The center of the city shuts down to make room for a parade celebrating the Caboclo, street parties, and capoeira rodas. On this day in 1823, Brazilian troops definitively expelled Portuguese troops from the country.

The Bahian newspaper, O Correio, published a special edition to celebrate this special day. The edition included a section on the heroes of the battles for independence. Today, streets and neighborhood squares across the city are named after these baianos in honor of their patriotism.

Caboclo
Nobody defeats us: A symbol of the Brazilian people. The caboclo raises the country’s flag and combines all the cultures that make up the nation. He is a mix of the major ethnicities: blacks, whites and Indians, together in a single representation. It was the Caboclo who led and inspired the Bahians in the struggle to liberate their country: tyrants do not have Brazilian hearts!

Maria Felipa
Warrior lioness: Maria Felipa was a capoeirista and led a squadron of forty women on the Island of Itaparica. One of the leading soliders, she set fire to 42 Portuguese ships with her friends. A fearsome woman, she beat captured enemy soldiers. .

Maria Quitéria
A worthy woman: She dressed as a soldier so that she could go into battle. She fought at the Battle of the Parakeets on the Island of Maré, Pituba and Itapuã. In the battle at Pituba, she was one of the best on the battlefield: she attacked trenches and escorted prisoners to the camp.

Antonio Rebouças
Black leader: Antonio Pereira was an abolitionist. A warrior against racism. His favorite saying came to be on battlefield: “anyone brown or black can be a general”. In fact, commanding the battles were many afro-descendents, sertenejos, and even indigenous people.

Encourado de Pedrão
The claws of the sertão: Pedrão is a small city, located near Feira de Santana, that all Brazilians should visit. The warriors dressed in leather came from Pedrão, and are represented in the parade in Salvador every year in this traditional garb.

Corneterio Lopes
Vuvuzela of victory: In the Battle of Pirajá, the Brazilian troops were under pressure. In the kill-or-be-killed battle, the Commander Barros Falção ordered a retreat, but the coronet player Luís Lopes played the signal to advance and kill. It worked: we won!

Other heroes included in the commemoration are Joana Angélica, Lord Cochrane, João de Botas and many more.

Parabéns, Bahia!
   

May 13: A Big Royal Rubberstamp

   
Why did one straw break the camel’s back?
Here’s the secret: the million other straws underneath it
– mighty mos def

Unlike abolitionist movements in other countries of the Western hemisphere like Haiti and the United States, the Brazilian drive to end slavery was successful without a large, bloody war. In 1888, Princesa Isabel signed into law the Golden Law, and with that, slavery in Brazil officially ended.

But was it really so simple and bloodless?

Unlike other major slaveholding nations of the New World, Brazil was a relatively peaceful, stable and prosperous country, with few major internal disputes that would allow abolitionists a chance to undermine the status quo of slavery.

Andrew George Reid, in his book “Afro-Latin America” shows us that the end of slavery in Brazil was actually a result of prolonged, small struggles over decades and across the country. Abolitionists and slaves worked within the system - suing slaveholders, defending their liberties and demanding equality in the Brazilian court system – as well as against it.

By the time May 13, 1888 rolled around and Princesa Isabel finally picked up her feather pen, slavery “had already collapsed in most of the country” due to the efforts of many brave men and women who hungered for justice.

(It’s a long excerpt, but worth reading!)

Only in Brazil did war not play a major role in slave liberation. The first step in that process was the ending of the African slave trade to Brazil in 1850. The elimination of the slave trade set off a chain of consequences. With no new Africans entering the country, the slave population declined at a rate of 1 to 2 percent per year between 1850 and the late 1880s. Its numbers were still substantial – 1.5 million in the 1872, the year of the first national census – but no longer sufficient to fill the ever-growing demand for workers on the nation’s plantations, farms, and ranches in its towns and cities… this meant the transfer of slaves from urban areas to the plantation zones; and as coffee cultivation in the southeastern provinces continued to expand while sugar production in the northeast stagnated, slaves were also sold southward in a vigorous interprovincial trade.

.. Slaves accustomed to the freer, more open conditions of urban slavery were now forced into the harsh conditions of plantation labor, and slaves who had grown up in the north and northeast were ripped out of familiar surroundings and sold away from their families and friends. Not surprisingly, slaves responded to the violence with violence of their own.

At the same time, slave resistance in the 1860s and 1870s showed clear differences from such resistance earlier in the century. By 1872 the national slave population was over 90 percent Brazilian-born, and even the relatively few Africans had lived in the country for 20 years or more. Those slaves were familiar with Brazilian law, culture, and politics, especially laws and procedures governing slavery. They were more likely to appeal to the law in defense of their rights, and even to obtain freedom. As hundreds were able to do in São Paulo during the 1860s and 1870s when they proved they had been brought to Brazil illegally – in violation of the country’s anti-slaving treaties with Great Britain – from African decades before.

Changes in the law, and Creole slaves’ greater ability to learn about and take advantage of those changes produced some surprising new developments in slave criminality. Earlier in the century, when slaves had attacked masters or overseers, they invariably fled into the forests in an effort to escape. Now, the governor of São Paulo observed in 1878, slaves who had attacked their masters “neither hide nor try to conceal the proofs of their crime – placidly and tranquilly they seek out the authorities and offer themselves up to the vengeance of the law,” convinced, as one such group of slaves argued in an 1861 murder case, “that justice is one our side.”

.. a committee of São Paulo planters, in 1871… Gathered to consider a case in which a slave had murdered his master and then sought to justify his act by saying that, “he did not know why he had to work hard all his life for the exclusive benefit of a man who was his equal,”…

.. the Brazilian Parliament finally passed its own Free Womb Act in 1871. As elsewhere in Latin America, this law spelled the eventual extinction of slavery. But unlike the rest of Latin America, peace and political stability continued in Brazil, greatly reducing opportunities for slaves to further undermine the institution by fleeing to join rebel armies or guerilla bands. In the absence of such pressures, it was conceivable that Brazilians might continue to hold slaves in significant numbers through the 1920s and 1930s and that slavery might not disappear from the country until the 1950s and 1960s.

Faced with the impossibility of achieving final emancipation through parliamentary means, abolitionists now moved completely outside the political and legal system, engaging in open civil disobedience and defiance of the laws governing slavery. In the northeastern state of Ceará, black portworkers under the leadership of former slaves Francisco do Nascimento and José Napoleão organized work stoppages and refused to load slaves on cargo ships headed for the southeastern coffee zones. In response to their campaign, slavery was abolished in the province in 1884. Meanwhile, radical abolitionists… organized networks of activists and agitators to circulate through the countryside, urging slaves to flee the plantations. Here, finally was the opening that slaves had been waiting for, and they immediately seized on it. By the end of 1887 some 10,000 runaways had made their way from the coffee plantations of São Paulo to the gigantic quilombo Jabaquara, outside of the port city of Santos. Others took refuge in the state capital or in smaller quilombos scattered around the province. During the early months of 1888, mass flights spread to Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and Paraná, and Bahia.

By May 13, 1888, when Parliament approved and Princess Regent Isabel signed the Golden Law finally extinguishing Brazilian slavery, the institution had already collapsed in most of the country. “Slavery ended because the slave didn’t wish to be a slave any longer, because the slave rebelled against his master and the law that enslaved him,” observed the São Paulo newspaper Rebate ten years after the event in 1898. “

The May 13th law was no more than the legal sanctioning, so that public authority wouldn’t be discredited, of an act that had already been consummated by the mass revolt of slaves.”

Just as in Spanish America, slavery was overthrown in large part by the slaves themselves. But while correctly pointing to “the mass revolt of slaves,” Rebate glossed over the fact that such revolts had occurred regularly throughout Brazilian history, and with much greater intensity during the early 1800s, for example than during the 1880s…

A cross-racial, cross-class alliance of this sort, bringing together blacks and whites, free people and slaves could hardly have been predicted from the centuries-long history of Brazilian slavery. Yet it happened.

There you have it. The historical proof of what so many capoeira songs insist: the Golden Law was just a big royal rubber stamp to save face in light of the demise of slavery. Was it just easier to say that slavery ended on May 13th? Did it take up less room in the history books than actually explaining really what happened?

Take it upon yourself to learn everything that your high school textbooks left out when telling the histories of the Americas. You can check out other posts on this date, here and here.

Again, this whole book is worth reading. It gives a concise yet thorough understanding of the history of the African Diaspora in Latin America.

“Afro-Latin America” is available in the FICA-DC library thanks to the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
   

Eparrei!!: celebration in Pelourinho

 

Today in Salvador, hundreds of people will pour into Pelourinho to pay hommage to Santa Bárbara, who is syncretized with Iansã in many terreiros. Here are some pictures from the festival last year, courtesy of Fabricio and some other folks.

Enjoy!

By the way, its probably not a good day to go shopping for those capoeira pants you saw in Pelourinho...
 

Sarapatel with Samuel Querido de Deus

In 1944, the famous Bahian author Jorge Amado wrote a guidebook to the city of Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos. Not your ordinary guidebook with hotel ratings and maps, this guidebook focuses on the soul of the city. Amado writes about the streets, neighborhoods, mysteries, and characters that give life to the wonderful city that Amado loved. The book was published a year later.

In the chapter, "Personagens" (characters), Amado writes about some of the capoeiristas who roamed the city and the bay, including Samuel Querido de Deus. This capoeirista is a favorite of Amado’s (as was Mestre Pastinha), and appears in other books by the author, including "Capitães de Areia".


The Capoeirista

White hairs are already appearing in the hair of Samuel Querido de Deus. His color is undefined. Mulatto, certainly. But dark-skinned or light-skinned, tanned by an indigenous lineage or with traces of Italian in his angular face. Who knows?

The ocean winds that blow on his fishing trips have given Querido de Deus this color that is different than any known color, new for all artists. He departs in his boat for the waters of Southern Bahia where there are plenty of fish. How old would he be?

It is impossible to know on these docks in Bahia, but many years have passed since Samuel’s boat crossed the breakwater to return, days later, with fish for his stand in the Mercado Modelo. But the old boatmen can tell you that more than sixty winters have passed since Samuel was born. But are those white hairs on his head that always looks like it is wet with sea water? More than sixty years, certainly.

However, even still, there is no better capoeirista than Querido de Deus at the Festa da Nossa Senhora da Conceição da Praia, during the first week of December. Here comes Juvenal, a young man of twenty years, the most celebrated of all, the most daring, the most agile, the most technical. Whoever comes, Samuel, the darling of god, still can show that he is the king of capoeira in Bahia de Todos os Santos. The rest are his followers and still look frightened when he throws a rabo de arraia because they have never seen such elegance. And he already has white hairs.

There are many stories about Samuel Querido de Deus. Many stories that are told at the Mercado Modelo and the docks. North Americans have already come to watch him fight. And they pay a lot to see the old fighter.

Once, his friend was looking for him. Two filmmakers wanted to film a capoeira game. Samuel had just arrived from ten days on the ocean, fishing, and he still had a bit of blue in his eyes and on his face a bit of the south winds. He got ready. We went to find Juvenal. And with the sound and film equipment, we went off to the Feira de Água dos Meninos. The fight started and it was superb. The filmmakers went around with their equipment. When it was over, Juvenal was laid out on the sand. Samuel was smiling, the oldest filmmaker asked how much they owed. Samuel told them a ridiculous sum in his confusing way of speaking. It was what the Americans had paid to watch him fight. The writer explained then that these were Brazilian filmmakers, poor folks. Samuel Querido opened his mouth in a big smile. He told them that it was nothing and invited everyone to a meal of sarapatel in the bar at the front.

You can see him from time to time at the docks. Returning from a fishing trip on his boat. But certainly at the Festa da Conceição da Feira knocking down other capoeiristas, because he is the best of them all. His name is Samuel Querido de Deus.

Passages and stories like this, about the velha guarda da capoeira, are wonderful. It is imperative for younger generations to preserve them as best we are able and pass them on, especially today, as capoeira spreads rapidly around the world and not all groups have a mestre to orient and guide them.

Do you have a story that you would like to share with the international capoeira community? Send it along and we will post it.

History in the Making as the Past Continues to Haunt Us

As recent economic tides demonstrate, what happens in the United States- for good or for bad- resounds deeply around the world.

Intrinsic to the future of the world economy, the 2008 U.S presidential race electrified the world even before the banking crisis hit. In Brazil, the potential of a black man at the helm of its powerful and influential northern neighbor - and truly the world- has caused great excitement.

The Bahian newspaper Folha de Salvador recently asked some prominent black leaders in the community to reflect on what a black American president would mean for Brazil. Here's what they had to say:

Lázaro Passos Cunha (Director of Projects, Steve Biko Cultural Institute)
“Brazilian society has always accused the United States of practicing a more radical racism than exists here, but Brazil is a much more exclusive nation. With the election of Obama, I believe that the changes, in terms of our nation, will come about through pressures that will be put upon the elites that question the politics of affirmative action such as the implementation of quotas in the universities, but are not concerned about the quality of our public elementary schools."

Cláudia Santos (Professor of Ethnic African Studies and militant of the newspaper Irohín – which means “news” in Yoruba)
“The idea of a black president is something that has already been considered in our society since the beginning of the last century. The 1926 novel The Black President by Monteiro Lobato touched upon the possibility of the rise of a black man in the political arena. Lobato chose the year 2228 for his character to campaign and win the presidency of the United States. Today, we see Obama as a revision of all the stereotypes of ineptitude associated with being black and this is the fruit of the public political process. He is an inspiration for us in all senses, but we are part of a different history. It is necessary that we recognize and valorize our origins and fight to strengthen our ethnic-racial debates at the center of our political discussions so that we have a chance to arrive at that point."

Gilvan Assunção (Founder of UNEGRO – Union of Blacks for Equality, União de Negros pela Igualdade)
“Obama is a man who is rising but maintaining one foot on the floor, avoiding to become a star. He was able to surpass all the accusations that they made against him unscathed. Today, he is qualified to be a great leader of blacks all over the world. Even though he has not won the presidency, he is already a very positive influence, in large part for the youth. In our movement here in Brazil we are on the right path but we cannot reflect upon ourselves only in that which they are doing outside the country. We need to be aggressive because things here are a bit slow, due to the historical process in which blacks were placed.

Antônio Carlos dos Santos, Vovô (Founder and President of the Bloco Afro Ilê Ayê)
“The visibility that he [Obama] has due to the fact that he may be the first black man to govern a major world power certainly makes us re-think our situation. However, we have a culture that prejudges us and it needs to be changed; many blacks still suffer under mental slavery and do not vote for the black candidate. In South Africa, when given the opportunity to vote for a black man, they elected Mandela and changed their situation. Here, we have always had this instrument, but we don’t know how to use it. It is embedded in our culture to believe that only whites can solve our problems.”

You can read the whole article here (in Portuguese).

And despite the progress in the United States, the fact that a letter like this needs to be printed in a major American newspaper shows we still have a long long way to go. Thanks to Njoli for the link.

Build Your Own Archives: Mandinga, Manha & Malícia

Torpedeira Piauí
Coraçada na Bahia
Marinheiro absoluto
Chegou pintando arrelia
Quando vê cobra assanhada
Não mete o pé na rodia
Que a cobra assanhada morde
Se eu fosse a cobra eu mordia
Mataram Pedro Mineiro
Dentro da Secretaria

Adriana Albert Dias, a.k.a Pimentinha in the rodas of Salvador, is the author of the book Mandinga, Manha & Malícia: uma história sobre os capoeiras na capital da Bahia (1910-1925). It is a work that grew out of her masters thesis in history with the Federal University of Bahia.

Pimentinha does an excellent job documenting life in Salvador during this time, examining where the capoeiristas lived, with who they spent their time, what jobs they performed, and how they interacted with the authorities. Through her careful research of primary sources, journal articles, and interviews with people who lived during this time, she shows us how capoeiristas used mandinga and cunning in their everyday dealings as well as in capoeira rodas- and how this permeated the practice of capoeira, from its play to its songs and rhythms.

The above ladainha opens the chapter of the book that examines the life and times of the famous Pedro Mineiro. Here’s a bit of what Pimentinha writes about him:

He was not a native of the state of Bahia, having been born around 1887 in the city of Ouro Preto, in the state of Minas Gerais, because of this he was known by the knickname Pedro Mineiro. When he was around 20 years old he was already living in Salvador; he knew how to read and write, he lived in the Pilar neighborhood, and he worked as a porter and seaman. He was known among the authorities due to his bullying behavior and his exploits around the city of Salvador. His name often appeared in the police column of the Bahian newspapers, being referred to as thief, troublemaker, criminal, and celebrity rabble-rouser. The main stage of his adventures was the Cais Dourado, but he also often visited the “27 of Tabuão” and Galinho’s Bar. He caused trouble with all sorts of people; other capoeiras, women, troublemakers, regular folks, sailors, and principally, the police.

One of his many exploits inspired the above ladainha. In what became known as the “crime of Saldanha” (o crime do Saldanha, because it happened on Rua do Saldanha), Pedro Mineiro and some of his buddies confronted a group of sailors:

On December 26, another shoot-out occurred between some capoeiras and a group of soldiers from the torpedo boat, Piauhy that had arrived from Rio de Janeiro three months before. The scene of the trouble was Galinho’s Bar, where the sailors were eating dinner when they were attacked by the capoeiras Pedro Mineiro, Sebastião de Souza, and an individual named Antônio José Freire, also known as Branco…

… The shoot-out lasted about fifteen minutes, causing a huge commotion and much panic. All of the bars, stores, warehouses, and residences in the area closed their doors and windows. In the fighting, two sailors were killed…

The rest of the sailors, all wounded, escaped and made their way back to the boat. Pedro Mineiro, Sebastião, and Branco tried to flee through the streets of Sé, but were captured by the police and by-standers, and then taken to the nearest police station and from there transferred to the Secretary of Public Safety.

No one knows for certain what drove Pedro Mineiro and his friends to go after the sailors; was it a fight over a woman? Did the local police chief contract the capoeiristas to attack the sailors to avenge a past slight? In any case, a few days following the fight, there was a public inquisition of the three capoeiristas at the Secretary of Public Security. While they were answering questions about the attack:

… the unthinkable happened: one of the Piauhy sailors, feeling insulted, shot Pedro Mineiro right inside the police headquarters, in front of the authorities. As such, the accused, Pedro Mineiro, also became a victim with serious wounds...

Apparently, the attack provoked enormous confusion, with more than twenty police soldiers, sailors, justice officials, and the deputy falling over themselves in the rush, a situation which allowed for the escape of Branco and Sebastião… [Sebastião] was chased by a sailor until the Rua da Faísca, where he was stabbed so deeply in the back that his kidneys were reached.

It seems that Branco made a successful escape. The sailors involved were not taken into custody because they were subject to maritime law, and therefore, it was the responsibility of their captain to decide their fate.

The attack on Pedro Mineiro and Sebastião made headlines in the local papers, and the city was kept abreast of Pedro Mineiro’s deteriorating condition. In the meantime, the police chief and the captain of the Piauhy exchanged angry letters accusing each other of incompetence. After a thwarted attempt at suicide, reported in the local papers, Pedro Mineiro succumbed to his wounds and died on January 15.

Pedro José Viera passed away at the Saint Isabel Hospital due to a bullet that was impossible to remove from his body… He was 27 years old, and was buried in the Quinta dos Lázaros cemetery.

And there you have it. A significant story in capoeira history thanks to the efforts of Pimentinha.

This is a great book that is packed full of information. Its written in Portuguese, but don't be intimidated if your Portuguese is not perfect. Pimentinha has written in a very readable style that is easy on the brain. You are going to be amazed at all the great information that Pimentinha provides through her thorough research.

Capoeira is (Officially) a Cultural Patrimony

It is something that capoeiristas have known all along, and now, after centuries, the Brazilian government agrees: capoeira is an important cultural and artistic patrimony of Brazil.

On July 15, Iphan (O Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional, The National Institute of Historic and Artistic Patrimony) voted to register capoeira as an official cultural patrimony of Brazil in the Palácio Rio Branco. As the vote was taken inside, hundreds of capoeiristas played in Angola and Regional rodas in the square outside of the building.

Click on the link below to read the whole article (in Portuguese), published in the magazine História, and to watch some videos of the FICA-Bahia/ Grupo Nzinga roda, as well as interviews with Mestres, including Mestre Janja and Mestre Russo.

Here is a little bit of the article translated for your enjoyment:

Mestres on all sides. Each one is a celebrity, not instantly, but created over the course of decades of experience and dedication.

Consecrated by the people for their knowledge- expressed through movement, music, words or in a look- the cultural mission of capoeira mestres in the world has now been officially recognized by the Brazilian government.

July 15, 2008 is the historic date. On this day, united in the Palácio Rio Branco, in Salvador, in a ritual more formal than their irreverent rodas, dozens of mestres from all over Brazil testified as to why capoeira should be registered as an immaterial cultural patrimony of Brazil by the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Patrimony (O Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional, Iphan)

Members of the Consultative Council of the Cultural Patrimony of Iphan voted on the registration, in the presence of the Interim Minister of Culture, Juca Ferreria; the governor of Bahia, Jacques Warner; and the President of Iphan, Luiz Fernando de Almeida, among other authorities.

Outside, in the Praça Tomé de Sousa, in the Cidade Alta, rodas hummed on all sides. Between the zum-zum-zum and the isquidim-dom-dom, hundreds of capoeiristas mingled in a atmosphere of peace and mutual respect. The old guard showed that youth is a state of the spirit, while the younger generation already showed its malandragem.

Click here to read the whole article (in Portuguese) and watch some great videos.

Thanks to T Gege for the link.

Edison Carneiro: Os Moleques de Sinhá na Bahia

Edison Carneiro (1912 - 1972) is a well-known Brazilian intellectual and writer who dedicated his life to preserving Brazilian culture. He wrote a number of studies on different aspects of Brazilian culture, which he published in short books called cadernos. Because he focused on aspects of culture associated with "black" Brazil, such as capoeira and candomblé, he had a difficulty publishing his work.

In his book, Cadernos de Folclore - Capoeira, he presents basic information about the art form. Here is a little bit from that notebook, as he talks about capoeiristas of the time and the places they hung out:

The preferred places to vadiar were Boa Viagem on New Years, Ribeira on the Monday of Bonfim, the Terreiro during Carnaval, and the Mercado Modelo during the Festival of Senhora da Conceição, but today the moleques de sinhá practice in designated areas, the academies of old Pastinha in Pelourinho, of Waldemar, Canjiquinha, and others…

… The famous capoeiristas of Bahia were, until recently, the fisherman Samuel Querido de Deus and the longshoreman Maré, both from the capital, and Siri do Mangue, from Santo Amaro. Other well-known capoeiras are the “captain” Aberrê, Juvenal, Polu, Onça Preta, Barbosa, Zepelin… Some of their students have moved to Rio de Janeiro and are trying to continue vadiando there.

The book was published in 1975, a few years after his death. Today there is a fantastic musuem in Rio de Janeiro dedicated to Edison Carneiro in regards for his contributions to Brazil.

Mãe Menininha do Gantois

Just like Besouro Preto, Mestre Pastinha, and Princess Isabel, Mãe Menininha is another important figure from popular Brazilian culture who makes regular appearances in Capoeira Angola music. Her presences also demonstrates further the links between capoeira and candomblé that Mestre Poloca talked about in his article.

In February of this year, viver Bahia! a magazine that promotes the popular culture of Bahia, published and article about Mãe Menininha. Here, we present an excerpt from that article “A Oxum mais linda tá no Gantois” (The most lovely Oxum is in Gantois):

Admired for her wisdom, grace, knowledge, humility, and firm hand, for 64 years, the incomparable Mãe Menininha held the highest rank in the Candomblé hierarchy, that of Ialorixá, or Mãe de Santo, a position that combines religious guidance, political leadership and therapeutic power at the Terreiro do Gantois… with great spiritual powers and rare personal charisma, Mãe Menininha was largely responsible for the diffusion and popularization of Candomblé in Bahia.

With her immaculate lace skirts in turquois blue, golden yellow, and eyeglasses with strong lenses, she was na eloquent woman, sought out by politicians, celebrities, regular folks, and non-believers, by anthropologists, sociologists who in her found a precious font of information for their academic studies. She was a friend and spiritual guide for artists such as Pierre Verger, Carybé, Gal Costa, and the Mãe-de-Santo of Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil...

… A daughter of Oxum, the goddess associated with fresh water and love, the religious leader had various characteristics of her orixá.

… Granddaugher of slaves from Nigeris, she was named Maria Escolástica da Conceição Nazareth upon her birthday, February 10, 1894, in the neighborhood of Saldinha, in Salvador. She came from a family devoted to Candomblé. Her grandmother, Maria Júlia da Conceição Nazareth, founded Ilê Iya Omin Axé Iyamassê, the Terreiro do Gantois, in the middle of the nineteenth century. The Terreiro was later led by Mãe Menininha´s mother…

... When Mãe Menininha became an Ialorixá, the times were not easy for practitioners of Candomblé. There was much prejudice, and practitioners suffered great persecution and violence. “There was not freedom to practice our religion. The houses were persecuted and invaded by the police. They came in mounted on horses, with their swords drawn they would cut the skins of the drums and destroy everything in their path,” said her daughter and current Mãe de Santo of Gantois, Carmen Oliveira da Silva.

Mâe Menininha died on August 13, 1986 at the age of 92 of natural causes.

This is a great article with a lot more information on Mãe Menininha, the Terreiro of Gantois, and its followers. The article is available in English and Portuguese in the library of FICA-Bahia.

"Quem não pode com Besouro..."

Besouro Preto de Mangangá is one of the most prevelant, yet also one of the most mysterious personalities in the history of capoeira. There are many capoeira songs that mention him, end even more legends that surround his life. Born in the city Santo Amaro de Purificação in 1885, Manoel Henrique Pereira, also known as Besouro Preto de Mangangá, or Besouro Cordão de Ouro, became a mythic figure and distinguished himself as one of the greatest capoeiras ever even though he died before he reached the age of thirty.

In the book, “Bimba, Pastinha e Besouro de Mangangá, três personagens da Capoeira Baiana” (Bimba, Pastinha and Besouro de Mangangá, three personalities of Bahian Capoeira), the author, Antonio Liberac Cardoso Simões Pires documents the changes that capoeira undergoes (largely from the street to the academy) at the start of the twentieth century through the lives of three great master capoeiristas: Mestre Bimba, Mestre Pastinha, and Besouro Preto.

The author also charts in detail the studies that he undertook to find information, especially in regards to the legendary figure of Besouro Preto. At times, the author even doubted the existence of the man because the stories surrounding him were so fantastic – that he escaped the police by turning into a beetle and flying away, or that he could not be wounded because he had a corpo fechado.To ascertain the truth as best he could, the author examined the registry books at the docks of various cities in Bahia, as well as the police records. He also interviewed citizens of Santo Amaro to piece together the history of Besouro Preto. Much of the information presented in the book comes from interviews done with a friend of the famous capoeirista known as Noca de Jacó. Here is an excerpt from the book that talks about them both:

Noca de Jocá became the principal informant regarding the life and work of Besouro de Mangangá; he guarded the memories and followed the life of the mestre, in the most tranquil times and the most intimate, like when he was working on the boat “Deus Me Guie”, meeting with women, and playing in capoeira rodas. Essentially, in both his moments of war and of peace. In this way, it is with good reason that Noca de Jocá was known in the city as one of the oldest capoeiristas still living when this study was done. According to him, Besouro was a person who did not like the police, street riots, nor cowardice. He was a good man, but also a valentão. When he was in Santo Amaro, he usually stayed around the warehouse. Sometimes he would travel by sailboat. He had to deliver merchandise, crossing the Bay of All Saints. Besouro challenged anyone who was well-known, or who could increase his reputation, as it is with all valentões, and at times, he also had to confront the police, who also had valentões in their ranks, and that is what happened during the time that Besouro worked on the docks:

“It happened in the Largo da Cruz. The solider challenged Besouro (Besouro responded) come back, come back. I’m not going to do anything. Besouro grabbed the revolver of the solider.”

… Besouro ran through the Beco do Xaréu, crossing the bridge. José Costa [the solider] who was a good runner, was able to get close to Besouro, but he was hit by shots from the revolver. The bravada of Besouro is remembered by all. In this case, he shot two bullets in the arm of the policeman. The fact that he had confronted the police turned him into a hero, a mestre for all the kids at the warehouse known as Trapiche de Baixo, where they played capoeira barefoot and plain clothes. His reputation turned into legend. People created stories about his in which he performed impossible stunts in impossible situations, mixing it all with the possible. An air of mystery surrounds this figure. They told me that at some times, he had the power to disappear, transforming himself into a beatle and flying from his enemies. His fantastic escapes from the police are one of the defining characteristics in his adventures, kept in the memory of the public…

This is a great book. Especially interesting is its description of the relationships between capoeira and the street, violence, and the police in the beginning of the twentieth century, and how these relationships influenced the development of capoeira.

You can find this book (in Portuguese) in the Center for Afro-Oriental Studies at the Federal University of Bahia, or if you want a copy for yourself, in many of the book stores around the center of the city of Salvador.

Today, One Hundred & Twenty Years Ago...

   
One hundred and twenty years ago today, Princess Isabel signed into law the abolition of slavery in Brazil. Since that day, the meaning and importance of the event have been a matter of dispute in Brazil. Last year, we talked about the history of the law, and its significance in Brazil today. This year, Professor João José Reis, in an article written for Ìrohìn, a Brazilian newspaper, discusses early celebrations of the date and its importance now and then:

On May 13, 2008, one hundred and twenty years will have passed since Princess Isabel signed the decree abolishing slavery in Brazil, the last American country to do so. Abolition was not a negotiation resolved only by the parliament and the royal palace. The slaves contributed, in individual and collective struggles, towards the decline and fall of the Empire which supported slavery. The mass escapes that they undertook in the early stages of abolition defined the end of the institution. And when the slaves learned of the victory, they celebrated along with free blacks and those sympathetic to the cause. They celebrated with such enthusiasm that the authorities and former slave owners grew scared, thinking that abolition could be followed by revolution.

… In a recent lecture, [Walter Fraga Filho] discussed his new research which deals with, among other subjects, the memory of slavery and the celebrations of the 13th of May in the years that followed emancipation. He observed that the black community pledged each year to renew the celebrations and take advantage of the occasion to demand that which was not conceded to them upon abolition. He shows that little by little these commemorations were attended by fewer people, and he explains that those in power and the dominant white class searched for way so to keep people from attending these festivities…

The reader should recall that twenty years ago, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the abolition of slavery, the government and the media tried to create a moment of national pride. It was the blacks groups that ended the celebratory feeling and demanded public policies that favor blacks…

… and here we are, one hundred and twenty years following abolition and the silence has “opened its wings over us”… it is necessary to make noise, it is necessary that we do not let this date simply pass because this is a good opporunity to think about racial inequality, racism in our country, and the means that we should take to remove, as the abolitionists said, this “cancer” among us.

How do you think May 13 will remembered one hundred and twenty years from now?

The article, entitled, “Realeza portuguesa e escravidão negra” (Portuguese Royalty and Black Slavery) was published in the March 2008 issue of Ìrohìn, along with other interesting articles, and is available to read in Portuguese in the FICA-DC archives. It discusses in depth the state of Brazil upon the arrival of the Portuguese court as well as the aftermath, both violent and celebratory, of the abolition of slavery in Brazil.
   

Cultural Connections: Capoeira Angola & Candomblé

This excerpt comes from an article written by Mestre Poloca entitled, “Capoeira and Candomblé” that was published in the fourth edition of the magazine Toques D’Angola (a magazine created by Grupo N’Zinga). The article examines some of the connections between the practices of Capoeira Angola and the Afro-Brazilian religion of candomblé, using as an example the death of the famous capoeirista, Besouro Preto. It also reflects on their parallel histories of persecution by the Brazilian government. Here is a taste:

... There is much syncretism in capoeira, as it is common to hear references to the orixás, nkisis, caboclos, and Catholic saints in its musical repertory…

… The three berimbaus of capoeira are saluted and revered by the mestres, contramestres, and students exactly as the three atabaques of candomblé are revered by the Taata Dya Nkisi, Makotas, Mwaana Nkisi, and other faithful. In their own way, each has the liturgic function that expresses the messages that extrapolate the conscious dimension of existence, creating a link between the sacred and secular. On the part of the songs destined to capoeira corridos, there are the songs of opening, developing, and closing the ritual, which correspond in candomblé to the songs for the santo to “descer” [come down] and to “subir” [go up]. The pé do berimbau is a space where the gesture is sacred. It is in the roda that the sacred dimension expresses itself in the most clear way in the corporal repertory of the capoeirista. In Capoeira Angola, dancing, playing, joking, and fighting translate into possibilities to establish communication on a more subjective and abstract level. This sacred dimension requires a long process of teaching-learning. In the African culture, the body and the spirit are not viewed as different or separated entities. In candomblé, for example, the spiritual entity needs a “body” (material) to express itself. In Capoeira Angola, it is the body that needs the ngunzo to attain its highest form of expression.

Before initiating a game, capoeiristas, through their gestures, invoke sacred protection (the sign of the cross, the five points of Saloman, and others). The roda is the ritual space and the body is the sanctuary of the sacred. Within this is the dynamic of communication, of the redistribution of ngunzo, of the existence and vigor of the cosmic rules contained with capoeira. The secret should not be the privilege of the mestre alone, but students must deserve it…

… In closing, just as in candomblé, in capoeira, the learning process never ends. According to Makota Valdina Pinto, “one can only truly be great when one knows how to be small.”

Very interesting! The article also includes a glossary of religious terms used in candomblé that are also used in many capoeira songs.

The whole magazine is excellent, and offers great insight into various aspects of Capoeira Angola. You can find it in the library of Grupo N’Zinga.

Carnival Edition: The Tradition of Maracatu

Maracatu is a rich and beautiful tradition found in the Northeastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco. Maracatu is a major cultural component of carnival in Pernambuco. Maracatu shares many similarities with capoeira, including its connections to African culture in Brazil, its preservation by poor Brazilians, and its recent surge in popularity in Brazil and around the world.

There are two types of maracatu: maracatu nação or maracatu de baque virado and maracatu rural or maracatu de baque solto, maracatu de orquestra, or maracatu de trombone.

The rituals of maracatu nação derive from the coronation ceremonies of the Reis do Congo, enslaved Africans who held leadership positions in the black community in colonial Pernambuco. The Portuguese overseers approved of these leaders as a way to control the Africans and their descendents, but the rituals involved also served to mask preserved African religions of which the colonizers disapproved and allowed the Africans a measure of freedom of expression. Today, secret rituals associated to Afro-Brazilian and indigenous religions of Northeastern Brazil persist in maracatu and are not necessarily discernable by the uninitiated.

A maracatu nação consists of about 80-100 dancers, a singer, chorus and a percussion section, as well as a court of royal characters, including a king and queen, which represent the Portuguese courts of the Baroque era. Maracatu nacões parade with calunga, small sacred dolls usually made of wax or wood and held by the damas do paço (ladies in waiting). On the Sunday night of Carnival in Recife, all the maracatu nações parade in front of the Carnival judges, vying for the first-prize award.

Today, a few of the nações can trace their history back to the nineteenth century, however most were recently formed due to the surge in popularity of maracatus.

The maracatu rural is a more recent development, and is rooted in the traditions of the interior of the state of Pernambuco.



The most colorful costumes associated with the maracatu rural are those of the caboclo de lança or lance-bearers (pictured). These are mostly men (some women have participated in the last few years) who lead the maracatu rural processions in a wild dance of leaps, twirls, and sweeps of their lances. Their elaborate costumes may weigh up to 50 lbs and include sunglasses, a flower clenched in the teeth, and yards of brightly colored cellophane paper. In rural Pernambuco, many of the caboclos de lança work in the fields during the day. It is a great honor to be a caboclo de lança.

Maracatu was close to dying out in the early 1980s, but interest was re-kindled when women and children were allowed to participate, when local authorities cracked down on the violence associated with rival maracatus (who would steal each others costumes), and when popular Brazilian musicians, like Chico Science and Naçao Zumbi, began incorpating the rhythms of maracatu into their music. There are now maracatu groups in the United States, Canada, England, Sweden, and other countries around the world. Some are concerned that the sudden growth in popularity of the maracatus have brought people to the tradition who are more interested in dancing and playing music than learning the history and traditions of maracatu.

Watch this video. You will like it!:

This is just some information I put together from articles I found. If you have some further insight on maracatu that you would like to share, please feel free to comment.

Celebrating Carnaval 2008

Carnival has begun and Brazil is in full-party mode.

Here is some news about the three biggest Carnaval parties in the country. Click on the city name below for more information about its particular celebration:


Rio de Janeiro
The samba school Viradouro was forced by a judge to re-do part of its planned "Goosebumps" theme after a lawsuit by a Rio de Janeiro-based Jewsih group. To represent the Holocaust, Viradouro had constructed a float that looked like a pile of naked dead bodies and planned to have a dancing Hitler. After the ruling, the school chose to re-model its float to a "freedom of expression" theme, while many questioned the school's taste.

Per usual, the Rio's famous massive Carnival floats will parade in the Sambódromo, while street parties will take place throughout the rest of the city.



Salvador
By popular vote, the theme of Salvador's 2008 Carnival is Capoeira, and the symbols are Mestre João Grande, Mestre João Pequeno, and Mestre Decânio.

A minor blip in Carnival protocal occured when a thin Rei Momo was selected. Clarindo Silva weighs only 128 lbs, while historically Rei Momo weighs in at about 265 lbs! Looks like, after some back and forth disputing, the thin Rei Momo won out.

This year, a Festa de Iemanjá also falls within the Carnival celebration.


Recife / Olinda
Ruled by the Guiness Book of World Records to be the largest Carnival group in the world, o Galo da Madrugada bloco parades through the streets of Recife tomorrow. The police estimate that a million costumed revelers will parade with the traditional gigantic rooster and its 28 trios electricos.

Have fun, be safe, and keep your money in a secure place.

Today in Salvador: A Lavagem do Bonfim

Today is the Lavagem do Bomfim, one of the most important and largest festivals in Salvador da Bahia.

On this day, hundreds of women dressed in typical baiana garb and carrying vases of scented water and flowers parade through the Cidade Baixa (Lower City) to the Igreja do Nosso Senhor do Bonfim to wash the stairs of the church, a ritual that has gone back almost 250 years and reflects the powerful blend of Catholicism and candomblé that distinguishes the Northeast of Brazil. Nosso Senhor do Bonfim is synchronized with the orixá Oxalá, the father of all orixás.

Follwing an early morning mass at the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Conceição da Praia, located in the Comercio neighborhood, on the road that connects the Cidade Alto (Upper City) to the Cidade Baixa, the baianas set out for the approximately 10 kilometer walk to the Igreja do Nosso Senhor do Bonfim.

In their wake follows a happy jumble of hundreds of thousands of locals, tourists, politicians, musical acts, street merchants, capoeiristas, reporters, tv cameras, and assorted others having a good time under the hot summer sun. The streets of the pathway are lined with barracas selling traditional Bahian food and drinks. And if you are a fan of fitas, the colorful ribbon bracelets associated with Nosso Senhor do Bonfim, you’re in luck because there is no dearth of them today in the streets of Salvador.

Once the baianas arrive at the Igreja do Bomfim, they sing songs praising Nosso Senhor do Bonfim and Oxalá and set to washing the stairs of the church with their scented water and brooms. When the religious ceremony is complete, the party continues in the Largo do Bonfim outside of the church. Everyone is in a good mood because they know that when the Lavagem do Bonfim hits, Carnival is around the corner!

If you are in Salvador today, have a blast! If not, there is always next year…

Film & Lecture at FICA-Bahia

We all know that Capoeira Angola is more than simply movements and music, but also philosophy, knowledge, history, malícia, and a responsibility to the greater community, among many other things.

In this spirit, FICA-Bahia and the film club CINEMAFRO have been presenting a series of films and lectures at the FICA-Bahia school that deal with Africa and the African diaspora. Here are the details for 2 events in Ocotber:

The film club Cinemafro in partnership with the Fundação Internacional de Capoeira Angola (FICA) will present and discuss the film A Negação do Brasil by Joel Zito Araújo. This documentary film analyzes the presence of black actors on Brazilian television.

Date: October 19, at 7:00 pm
Place: Av. Carlos Gomes, Ed. Esther Moura Franco, nº 111, 5th floor – Centro
Tel: 71 3321-7365
Free admission

The film club Cinemafro in partnership with the Fundação Internacional de Capoeira Angola (FICA), presents L'envol d'un Masque?, by Phillippe Cassard, produced in Burkina Faso. The film deals with the relationship between tradition and modernity through the fable of an African mask. Following the exhibition, there will be a discussion with the anthropologist Maria Paula Aldinofi.

Date: October 21, at 7:00 pm
Place: Av. Carlos Gomes, Ed. Esther Moura Franco, nº 111, 5th floor – Centro
Tel: 71 3321-7365
Free admission

Build Your Own Archive: As Sete Portas da Bahia

      
Interested in creating an archive for your school, or perhaps one of your own? As Sete Portas da Bahia (The Seven Doorways of Bahia), with text and drawings by the famous artist Carybé, is an essential inclusion.

Carybé was born in Argentina, and began drawing when he was 10 years old. He studied fine arts in Rio de Janeiro, and at 27, he visited Bahia for the first time. When he was 49, he moved to Bahia and began to document the everyday lives of the people of Bahia through drawings and paintings.

In As Sete Portas da Bahia, Carybé presents different aspects of Bahian culture, including capoeira, the Largo do Pelourinho, the Festa de Yemenjá, candomblé, and more through his unique drawings and some very lyrical Portuguese prose. Here he talks about the fishermen and the songs they sing as they haul in a net heavy with fish:

The sand is white; they, dark. From the intense morning light rises a song.. .hundreds of voices respond.

Their feet are planted in the sand. When the suction increases the weight of the net, they cede a step and curve more their muscular backs:

A baleia me pediu
Aderecô Aninha
Pra fazê uma devoção
Aderecô Aninha
Vou pegá na jangadinha
Aderecô Aninha
Vou me embora velejá
Aderecô Aninha
O vento pegou de proa
Aderecô Aninha
Até da volta do má
Aderecô Aninha
Vou me embora que é noite
Aderecô Aninha
Eu não quero navegá
Aderecô Aninha
Fazê dos óio candeia
Aderecô Aninha
Até hora de vortá…

Recognize this lovely song? It’s one of the corridos that Mestre Moraes sings on the Grupo de Capoeira Angola Pelourinho CD “GCAP Tem Dende”.

For a capoeira practitioner, As Sete Portas da Bahia is a great book not only for its look into capoeira and Bahian culture, but also because of the wonderful connections one can discover in the book that tie the two together (like the one above).

This book is available for your perusal (in Portuguese) in the FICA-DC Archives.
      

Bahian Independence Day

On July 2, 1823, the forces of the state of Bahia expelled the Portuguese armies to confirm the independence of Brazil. Bahia was the last of the Brazilian states to drive out the Portuguese.

Today in Bahia, baianos commerate this day as the Independence of Bahia and if you are lucky enough to be in Salvador, there will be a roda hosted by FICA-Bahia, N’Zinga, ACANNE, Zimba, and others. Enjoy!