Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part III of a three part pancocojams series on the history of Afro-Brazilians in Lagos, Nigeria.
Part III showcases a YouTube video entitled "CNN Inside Africa: Afro Brazilians From Slaves to Returnees-July 2017". Selected comments from this video's discussion thread are also included in that post.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-history-of-afro-brazilians-in-lagos.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. Part I provides three online excerpts about the history of Afro-Brazilians in Lagos, Nigeria.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-history-of-african-brazilian-careta.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. Part II provides an excerpt of a 2007 pdf by Alaba Simpson (Covenant University, Ogun State, Nigeria) on the history of the Careta (Fanti) Carnival in Lagos, Nigeria.
The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
I was motivated to publish this pancocojams post after watching Nigerian singer Davido's video "1 Milli". That video features elements of traditional Yoruba orisha/Afro-Brazilian culture.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/04/youtube-discussion-thread-comments.html for Part II of a pancocojams series about Davido's "1 Milli" song/video. That pancocojams post is entitled "YouTube Discussion Thread Comments About Orishas & Afro-Brazilians Influences In The Official Video Of Nigerian Singer Davido's Song "1 Milli" ".
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO: CNN Inside Africa: Afro Brazilians From Slaves to Returnees-July 2017
Brazilian Descendants Association Lagos, May 27, 2018
A CNN Documentary On Afro- Brazilians In Lagos Which Aired In July 2017
****
SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THIS VIDEO'S DISCUSSION THREAD
(with numbers added for referencing purposes only)
1. citrenoogeht, 2018
"Wow, I never knew. I am Nigerian and lived for many years in Lagos and in fact grew up knowing people that had sir names such as Coker Martins and Dasilva and have been to most of the places in this documentary but I was unaware that there was a connection to Brazil. I salute those Brazilians who live in Nigeria and hope that more people from the Diaspora come home."
**
2. Pedrinho Neri, 2018
"I am a Brazilian and I salute and respect my African brothers and sisters. We love you, especially the Portuguese speaking countries."
**
REPLY
3. citrenoogeht, 2018
"@Pedrinho Neri: Hi, I am so excited to reach out to you because for some reason (possibly language) the connection seems to be broken between Africa and Brazil.
I have had many positive conversations with brothers and sisters from North America but at the back of my mind I have always been aware that there is another group of family that live in South America that should be part of the conversation. My first question is how is life, in general, in Brazil?"
**
REPLY
4. Pedrinho Neri, 2018
"@citrenoogeht Hi brother / sister. It is too bad we Brazilians only speak Portuguese, it is a big country and as most big countries we are monolingual. The people are different in each part of the country. In the northeast and southeast (except for Sao Paulo state) the black people very present, especially in my home state Bahia. I think about 70% of the population is black in the capital of the state. Most brazilians are mixed race, we have all the shades from the whitest to the blackest and everything in between, and I really love that.
even though we live in a continent, I normally explain to foreigners that it seems as if we live in an island because of geographical barriers. By far the big majority of the people live near the coast, and almost all the big cities are in that area... Then we have a Huge land and forest separating us from the other countries,, as a result the regular Brazilian dont have much contact even with the spanish language and the surrounding countries, unless you live close to the frontier.
I'd say the only latin country we get some culture from is Mexico, because of Mexicans telenovelas, some bands but especially because of an old tv series for children that never gets old here, everybody loves it even adults, it is called "Chaves" here, in Mexico "Chavo del Ocho".
In our portuguese there are lots of words originated from African languages, and we have 3 african religions, they are Umbanda, Candonble and Quimbanda, . A great deal of our music comes from our african roots, I will send you some links.
More and more people are identifying themselves as black now, we dont have the american culture of black n white thing, we say that we are "moreno" (brown, mixed) but if it is for me to identify black or white,,, no doubt I'd say black. I am a descent of African, Portuguese and Amerindian, it is VERY comom in a large are of the country.
We are multi religious, Catholic, Protestant, African religian, some people atheist and there are other minorities, they all live in peace, even arab and jew can live peacefully in the same place. The bad thing about Brazil is unequality and corruption, and unequality I mean in many ways... By gender, by skin color, by reagion of the country. It was sad for me to study in one of the best private universities and see pretty much only white and Japanese people there, like in the USA white people have a better income here, it is sad but true.
I've been to the US and got the impression that people are culturally segregated there, in Brazil our culture and people are much more fluid, everybody is friend with everybody and interracial marriage is very common, the inequality remains mostly to economical issues.
But I can see and feel that more and more peope are reconnecting with their African roots and proud of it, some youtubers from Portuguese speaking countries make success here, I think this digital era makes the world smaller, and now I see in the comment sections of those channels that Brazilians in General, from all kinds of ancestry follow those channels, so little by little we are reconnecting. How is life in Nigeria? What do people there know about Brazil or South America?"
-snip-
This comment has been reformatted to increase its readability.
REPLY
5. Yahstar Arawak, 2018
"Pedrinho's personality, thoughts and music what is the african roots"
**
REPLY
6. Pedrinho Neri, 2018
"@Yahstar Arawak Our religion with deities sucu as Yemanjá, music such as Axé and its style of dance, food like acarajé, the happy way of living live. And now people are more and more Brazilians are identifying themselves as black and valuing african culture and language. Brazil as a whole is moving in this direction but you can see this more clearly in the state of Bahia, especially in the capital Salvador and in Rio de Janeiro. However if you go to South Brasil. I think people from other countries like us because we are a happy and party people and this trait Id say we got it from our african's ancestors side."
**
REPLY
7. citrenoogeht, 2018
"@Pedrinho Neri:
Thank you so much for your comprehensive reply that has literally blown me away with the level of detail. You explained many themes that I have always been curious about pertaining to the Afro Brazilians family. For instance the racial mix, the geo spread of the population, issues of racial equality and the level of “consciousness” modern Brazilians have pertaining to their heritage. I found it particularly interesting that you have lived in the US and you made a contrasting distinction between the American view in race and heritage and the Brazilian view on race and heritage. The image I get from you about Brazil is of a progressive Afro people that has held on to the positive aspects from its heritage from the different historic influences, be they from Africa or from Europe, and celebrates them as a strength.
One thing that you explained was that Afro Brazilians have a greater connection with African countries that have a Portuguese history. This makes sense as having a common “language” as well as common heritage will go a long way to strengthening ties. Unfortunately however, to my knowledge a vast majority of the Africans that were taken to South America, in particular Brazil, were from West African countries like Nigeria but the language barrier over the centuries has practically alienated us from each other. I once heard that some Brazilians still practice Yoruba traditions in a temple in Brahia in Brazil. Do you know anything about this?
At heart, I am a Pan Africanist and in my own little way I try to reach out and network with family of African decent from the diaspora to make that connection. I have been aware that for the most part I have had conversations with “conscious" family from the diaspora who are from English speaking countries. My only agenda is to open up a dialogue and break down barriers. Happily, things are really beginning to happen. Conversations have led to actions and a trickle is leading to a more fluid flow of people from the diaspora returning home. To my knowledge many of these people are from the US, Caribbean and Europe who are tired of the grind and injustices of the west. But the question that has been at the back of my mind is what about the South American family? In my opinion Africa is your birth right too. Central to my belief as a pan African, I believe that it is not essential that all people of African decent return to Africa to live but a unity of purpose for us as a group is the only way we will progress as a people. Are there any out reach groups that you know of in Brazil that focus on Pan Africanism?
At the moment I am working in the UK. Nigeria is a growing country plagued with some avoidable problems such as corruption and tribalism which in my opinion are the legacy of colonialism but it is blessed with natural resources, skill and ambition.
On a lighter note, I looked at your channel and noticed that you are an accomplished musician. I loved your videos of you busking and entertaining. I too play the guitar, and was once in a band in the UK with guy from Sao Paulo. At one stage I entertained the ambitions of going professional but sadly I was shit so that was not to be.
Peace my brother."
**
REPLY
8. Arusha Yitxhik, 2018
"@Pedrinho Neri i love Brazil especially the soccer team and the cultures greeting from East africa(Tanzania)"
**
REPLY
9. Pedrinho Neri, 2018
"@citrenoogeht Heeeey brother, it feels like I we are friends already. I can see that you are really curious about Afro heritage, culture and movements in Brazil. The world needs people who are interested in culture, who want to bring people together and who advocate for justice and rights. Are you a historian or antropologist? Of not, you could perfectly be a great one.
Let's explore a bit further the depths of being Afro in Brazil, shall we? Just few people speaks Ioruba or any other African language, the few ones who speak are surely from Salvador and must be the leaders of the Afro-Brazilian religion. I think most things tend to be more mixed here then everywhere else, for instance there is something called "sincretismo religioso", it is a deeper step into coexistence of Afro and Christian religion. In the city of Salvador most people go to the a Afro-religion temple and they go to the Catholic church as well, even in the same day, for these people one thing does not exclude the other. This mix in religion is very common and well-known in Salvador but it can also happen in other places. By the way, the Afro religion is not practiced only by black people, many white and brown people also practice the Afro religions and those religions are scatterered throughout the whole country. Some deities, such as Yemanja every single Brazilian knows, and some parties such as Yemanja Day is celebrated by a vast part ot the Brazilian population. However, those religions and deities are not seen well by most Christians, especially by the evangelical ones, a few incidents happened some years but I'd say we live in peace and the people are more and more educated and intolerant to religion discrimination. From what I have seen this discrimination is purely related to religion, not to race, I think that most evangelicals are Black or maybe half of them.
I saw a video from a Brazilian girl who lives England and she explained that when people ask where she is from she just says "Brazil" but then people want to know where her ancerstors are from (she is a white Brazilian)... She finds it strange that we Brazilian just identify ourselves as Brazilians in other countries, regardless of their descent. From my own experience in the USA...it was common for me to hear "I'm a Mexican-american, Italian-american, etc"... Here in Brazil people dont say that.
People normally have friends from all races, interracial marriagd is very common, even our Japanese colony mingles here, haha, but we need to have more black people in our TV as actors/actresses and hosts and commercial ads, also our politicians are almost all white. We have a long way to go in this regard, and I feel very sorry for that. One great thing is that the people do not tolerate racism, so those who are racist that have to remain in silence, or they will face the oposition of the big majority of people and also face prision... We have laws, racist comments can lead to prision, even in the whitest places that I've been to, like my university and some multinational companies I've never seen any racist comment, and I did not get the impresion that this was due to coersion by the people or the law, the feeling I got and get was/is of genuine respect, especially younger generation, but there is always some idiot. Because of the social segregation $$ my university is attended pretty much by white people only, and in a rare situation for the whole country, one student recorded a video saying something agains black people ... Oh boy... This went to the news, the other students (all white) protested against him with rallies in the street and everything, the guy was expelled from the university and lost his job... But it was the first time I saw any Brazilian record any video with racist comments.
As far as I heard when slavery was abolished in the USA every new free person received some money from the government, this did not happen in Brazil, when slavery was abolished here people did not receive any money and because of that they were basically obliged to keep working for very low wages or they would die from starvation, I think this led to a level of inequality that was kept over generations and we still have a long way to go to education and income equality. Our public universities have quotas (affirmative actions) to ease up the entrance of Afro descent people, I dont know about private universities in this regard, but both public and private have programs to easy up the entrance of poor people in general.
I saw on youtube yesterday that some Afro-American ladies visited Salvador, then they liked the culture there and decided to stay there for good, and I saw a video about Afro-males in the USA who would come to Brazil to meet Brazilian woman, I dont know if it is bad or good.
I do not know of any Brazilian wanting to leave the country because of racism here, some people of all heritages want to go to the developed contries in search of better economical and political conditions (we hate our politicians).
Maybe the black people dont feel oppresed because of out mix of races with family and friends, if any open racism happen then most people in general (white / brown /black) will stand up, so you dont get the feeling that the white people want to deliberantly fuck up with your life. Maybe that's why the black people dont fancy about living back in Africa.
There are some movements that denouces the inequality and want to promote e better life for the black people, I am not in any of those movements but one friend of mine is very active in it, if you'd like I can say to him what you've asked me and then I can tell you his opinions, views and knowledge.
There is a youtuber from Mozambique that makes success here and the subscribers of his chanel had a whip-around to pay for his trip to Brazil, and some people hosted him in their house. I send you a link to his channel, I don't think he speaks English but who knows, I encourage you to write anything in the comment section and see if you receive a feed back, he was here in Brazil last month.
I see many immigrants from African countries and it is really sad that they are not integrated in our society, it is sad but true... And there might be a few reasons for that,.... maybe because they dont look like the black Brazilians (you look at them and you know right away they are not from here), maybe because of the language barrier and I only hear them speaning other languages, maybe because they are not rich and many people only care about rich people, maybe because of the religion most Brazilians dont see the muslim religion with good eyes. I saw a Muslin party downtown Sao Paulo once (of people from Senegal), I went up there to talk to them and they did not se very friendly/open. Brazilians were curious coming to see the party and they did not make any effort to interact with the people, invite or say what the party was about. I asked to guys and they seemed uncounfortable to talk to me, maybe because they spoke little Portuguese.
My what's up is +55 11 9 5453 9633, I am Pedro, please be welcomed to say hi, ask anything or let me know then there are new discussions on these type of subject or just to be a new friend"
**
REPLY
10. Pedrinho Neri, 2018
"@citrenoogeht I know I am being Ignorant but I never new Brazil had any ties with Nigeria, from what I remember, in our schools we only learn that the slaves came from the Portuguese speaking countries, especially Angola and Mozambique. So when we hear "Nigeria" it does not mean anything to us, when we hear Angola... Then it means a lot. Many Brazilians hate Portugal because they robbed our gold and many things from our land, and it is kind of common to see some stupid Brazilian arguing with some Portuguese in the internet, more inteligent people dont waste time in this way, appreciate the differences and make friends from all over."
**
REPLY
11. Pedrinho Nerim 2018
"@citrenoogeht This is the channel of the guy from Mozambique that I mentioned that visited Brazil last month. https://youtu.be/SFgvbCY2Ma8
**
REPLY
12. Luan Lopes, 2018
"Hahaha here in Brazil same my aunt that is white/half-polish pratic afro-religion😂"
**
13. James, 2019
"Funny, last time I was in Nigeria, saw these architectures, not only on that street but in other parts of Lagos. I used to just stare at the architecture and assumed they were just colonial residences. I also schooled in Nigeria for four years and they do not teach any history of the sort in any of the schools I know."
**
14. M CH, 2019
"While the time spent in brazil is an important part of the history of these families, we should emphasize more on the fact that before brazil they were Yoruba. And they returned home. The brazil experience should not supersede what came before it"
**
15. C Will, 2020
"People are NOT slaves CNN, its called enslaved!"
**
16. Mia Danielle, 2020
"The time spent in Brazil is 500 years! These people weren't Yoruba their ancestors were so no that doesn't come first for them. Like it or not that 500 years makes them who they are now."
**
REPLY
17. LilRooster114, 2020
"Mia Danielle makes no sense... you throw a piece of wood in the ocean no matter how long its there it will never become a fish! No matter how long we AFRICANS are in the diaspora we going to ALWAYS be AFRICANS! therefore THEY ARE STILL YORUBA NO MATTER WHAT!"
**
REPLY
18. M CH, 2020
"@Mia Danielle actually yorubas who were taken to be slaves in the americas were within the last century especially the last few decades of the slave trade. So no, they were not in Brazil for 500 years...100 years at best. Even the video says it they were enslaved in the 18th century and returned in the 19th and 20th century
Some of the returnees were themselves born in Yorùbáland"
**
REPLY
19. Mia Danielle, 2020
"@LilRooster114 It makes perfect sense. They are no longer yoruba and have a new identity and cant nobody tell someone how to identify after 500 years! I am not an African, I'm Black American first before anything."
**
REPLY
20. M CH
"@Mia Danielle smh. Ma'am try not to discuss on topics you don't know about.
I am Yoruba and a historian at that, I no, yorubas were not known to have been amongst those enslaved in the early periods of the slave trade... We only fell victims at the later centuries
That is why it is the Yoruba that made up most of those "recaptives" who never made it to the americas but were resettled all over British West Africa but majorly places like Gambia and Sierra Leone in the 19th century
The last slave to the US was also Yoruba.. You are black American you should know him, his name was Cudjoe Lewis (born Kodjo Oluale Kossola)
We were late victims and many of our people could still trace their lineages to particular individuals not just towns and cities.
So when those Yoruba who had been transported to brazil regained freedom at the abolition of slavery in Brazil, they still knew where they came from and simply returned.. Many returnees were even born in Yorùbáland and returned to have children in Yorùbáland"
****
This concludes Part III of this three part pancocojams series on Afro-Brazilians in Lagos, Nigeria.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment