African Roots III – Rhythm

 
“Africa is at once the most romantic and the most tragic of continents. Its very names reveal its mystery and wide-reaching influence. It is the ‘Ethiopia’ of the Greek, the ‘Kush’ and ‘Punt’ of the Egyptian, and the Arabian ‘Land of the Blacks.’ To modern Europe it is the ‘Dark Continent’ and ‘land of Contrasts’; [...]

African Roots II – Faith

(photo by Emilio Navarinho)
 
Oxalá que me guie                                   Oxalá who guides me
Por todo caminho                                    the whole way
Nâo deixe na rodaa fé me faltar              Don’t let my faith fail in the roda
Sou vento que sopra eu sou capoeira      I am the wind that blows I am Capoeira
A luta de um povo prá se libertar            The fight of a [...]

African Roots I – Ancestors

(Jean Baptiste Debret, 1835)
More than 3 million Africans were enslaved in Brazil before the abolition in 1888. The Portuguese did, for economical and political reasons, have only access to certain African people, which is the reason why most of the ancestral nations of today’s Afrobrazilians are known.
In this first post of the African Roots series [...]