Black consciousness, samba reggae, and the Re-Africanization of Bahian Carnival Music in

Brazil.

The 13 may of 1988, Brazil was commemorating the centenary abolition of slavery with official
celebration all over the country. Therefore, not everyone was commemorating this date, as
there where several demonstrations against “the farce of abolition” and claiming against the
non-white Brazilian discriminations and inequalities that they still having. These
demonstrations made by carnival black groups In Salvador de bahia, the center of Afro
Brazilian culture, force the local government to cancel the abolition celebration.

After that, the black carnival group “Movimento Negro Unificado” had become a dominant
force in Salvador’s political and cultural life during the 80’s who seeks to change social,
economic and political structure of the country.

They were more of 600 linked organizations such as universities research centres, religious
associations, political groups involved in the fight against racism and with active campaigns in
favour of the term “negro” as it is the politically correct designation. These actions are
important in a country in where we find the myth of the “racial democracie”.

Therefore, it is important to say, that most of the participants of these organizations are well-
educated middle-class professionals, intellectuals and university students, while most
Brazilian’s colour poor people are unaware of those activities.

We called blocos afro those communities of working-class blacks that use their cultural
activities to make an impact on the black consciousness and fight against racial discrimination.
They were mostly concentrated in Salvador de bahia during the 70s and 80s and they have an
afrocentric musical style called afro-music also samba reaggae that is linked to the socio
historical African precedence. Some of them have now become million-dollar black
enterprises.

Brazil was the single larger importer of African slaves in the Americas and bahia one of the
primary centers of brazil’s slave trade and continued until the 19 th century. Those carnival
traditions began when the slave trade was ending.

After the abolition in 1888 the street celebration was Africanised for example with blocos as
Afoxes, embaixada Africana,pandegos de Africa in where they present and glorify African
history and religion accompanied with African instruments. Therefore, it shocked the Bahian
elite who lobbied the police to crack down on the African parades during 1890’s. Those official
and unofficial acts of repression persisted during the 20s century.

From 1960’s Brazilians were privy from world events and international music industry. As the
US with the soul music established links with the blacks, the younger Brazilian generation view
afro Brazilian music such as samba been appropriated by the dominant white society, another
form of cultural imperialism. In the rio’s working class neighbourhoods, you could already
listen to soul music.
Even if the traditional afoxes had not been commercialized like the rest of samba schools of rio
it was already irrelevant to many young blacks.

1970’s marked the beginning of re Africanization of bahian carnival rather than the return of
an idealized tribal Africa. In here the process involved a reinvention of Africa and the
construction of the images of black Brazilian identity but celebrating also the African heritage
and black distinctiveness.

“Ilê Aiyê” which means house of life, was founded in 1974 in salvador’s working class. It was
the first bloco afro which objective was glorifying the values of black race, and express black
pride, negritude and refute the myth of the racial democracy. Therefore they restricted the
members of it after a police attack by many whites responding to the charge or racism.

During the early 1980’s we could also find reggae records and a cult to bob marley and
Rastafarianism emerged in Salvador. Blocos as “muzenza” where linked to the afro-jamaican
culture.

In 1982 they counted more than 16 different blocos with more than 3000 members in total.

Even if “ilê Aiyê” was the first bloc afro, it is thanks to “Olodum” created in 1979 that the
movement expand into a national an international space. This new bloco mixing salsa,
merengue, reggae and candomblé rythms, brings a differentiation and innovation to this
movement which was the key of their success. They obtain a recording contract with
Continental records and has now recorder six commercially successful records and has
participated in international musical projects in Europe, North America, Africa with figures as
Paul Simon.

Olodum has served to inspiration to several blocos afro, coming from the poorest
neighbourhoods of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Recife, providing alternatives to gang life.

With the international recognition of the bloco afros and samba reggae there is now the
possibility of the commercial manipulation and appropriation to promote exotic images of
bahia. For example, the appearance of Olodum on MTV Saturday late night live didn’t mention
anything about the commitment on social issues and just presented it as an exotic group
around Paul Simon.