Marco Schaumloeffel

Category: History

  • The African influence on Brazilian Music

    Picture

     A Brazilian in Ghana – III

    SCHAUMLOEFFEL, Marco Aurelio. The African influence on Brazilian Music. Daily Graphic, Accra, v. 149132, p. 14 – 14, 21 maio 2004.

    The African influence on Brazilian Music

    To think of Brazilian Music without the African influence is simply impossible. The big melting pot Brazil has one of it roots in the African Continent. The contribution of the African element in Brazilian music is vast. Very important influences are the polyrhythmic variations and cadences, which brought, together with the Portuguese and Europeans melodies, new, unexpected creations. The combination of elements of different cultures is responsible for the typical Brazilian music styles like samba, gafiera, choro, pagode, maxixe, maracatu, forró, frevo, embolada, coco (dancing and singing on the beach), lundu (brought by the southern African tribe Bantos)  and the MPB (Música Popular Brasileira).

    A lot of percussion instruments were brought from Africa to our country or new ones created by Afro-Brazilians. We have various drums with different sounds. The general name for this kind of drums in Brazil is atabaque. Other instruments are the ganzá, a type of rattle-box, the marimba (xylophone with wooden slats) and the cuíca, a type of small drum with a rod in the inside, that produces a strident sound, when vibrated with the palm of the hands, just to quote a few amongst them of African origin.

    The fetishists ritual chants, dramatic dances like Congos, Congadas and Quilombos, the nasal twang in the Brazilian singing voice, some choreographic steps are also Afro-Brazilian musical manifestations.

    Drumming, singing and dancing were certainly the first manifestations of the cultural treasure that the Africans brought to Brazil. Already in the year 1610, just a Century after the discovery of Brazil by the Portuguese, it is possible to read a report about an orchestra of 30 Africans musicians in Brazil. The great poet Mário de Andrade refers to the African music as the “pererequice rítmica dos africanos”, i.e. “the vibrating (like a tree frog) rhythm of the Africans”. In the USA they created another very important style for the History of the development of music: the jazz.

    Samba is our national product. It comes from “semba” in the Banto language (southern Africa), what means dance and clap the hands in a circle. Apart from the big samba-party in the Sambódromo of Rio de Janeiro (a commercial and nowadays more for tourism purposes street Carnival celebration), the Carnival celebration is a huge democratic ball-room or street party in Brazil, where everybody can take part, sing, dance and enjoy the biggest national celebration, commemorated 40 days before of Easter. The five days of joy and fun start on Friday evening and end on Wednesday at noon. All types of dresses are allowed, from masks and plumes to long white dresses or simply beach shorts and t-shirts. In cities like Rio, São Paulo and Porto Alegre big samba academies, that we call samba schools, present every year a new parade. Each samba school chooses a theme to present, the choice is free, but it is normally an up-to-date choice about politics, environment, general Brazilian reality or an homage to a very important person of the present days or of the past.

    In Ghana, I was surprised in the first days of my stay here, when I listened to music. I could find something like Cuban music in it. Researching and reading about it, I knew that in the 1960s and 1970s the West African pop music was influenced by Latin styles. So music is an intercultural manifestation. The band Osibisa recorded in 1976 the famous “Coffee song”, in which they mention Brazil.

    One of the symbolic examples of the presence of the African roots in Brazilian Music is our present Minister of Culture, the famous musician Gilberto Gil. He is nowadays together with other Afro-Brazilians like Milton Nascimento, Daúde, Martinho da Vila, Sandra de Sá, Djavan, Jorge Aragão, Robertinho Silva, Jorge Ben amongst many others, proof that we would have only poor developed Brazilian music without African blood and rhythm in our veins. Throughout our History of music we have plenty famous and representative examples of Afro-Brazilians, who wrote decisive lines in the Brazilian music.

    By the way: Ghanaians like to tell me that they like so much the Brazilian music, principally salsa and lambada. These types of music are not from Brazil, but this is another story.

    Marco Aurelio Schaumloeffel

    Brazilian Lecturer in Ghana

    Source: Marco

  • The influence of the Portuguese Language in Ghana

    Picture

     A Brazilian in Ghana – I
    SCHAUMLOEFFEL, Marco Aurelio. The African influence on Brazilian Music.. Daily Graphic, Accra, v. 149132, p. 14 – 14, 21 maio 2004.

    The influence of the Portuguese Language in Ghana

    Last year, when I arrived in Accra, I was surprised to hear some strange expressions in the English language, even though I’m a Brazilian and English is not my mother tongue. At the traffic lights I could hear people saying e.g. “dash me”. In the dictionary the meaning for the verb “dash” is “to shatter or smash”, which confused me. Searching for a solution, I arrived finally, to my surprise, at a logical explanation: it comes from the corrupted Portuguese “dás-me” (give me). The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive at the Gold Coast and build the Elmina Castle in 1482; they started an intensive and horrible slave trade. After that, Africa and Brazil built cultural and origin links, so that Brazil has nowadays, after Nigeria, the second biggest black population in the world. One of this links is the Tabom People, who came back to Accra in 1836, after they bought their own freedom in the Brazilian State of Bahia. Nowadays they have a Brazil House in James Town and roots to the Brazilian culture and language. Their own name Tabom comes from the Portuguese expression “Está bom” (“it’s ok” or “I’m fine”), because on their arrival, they could speak only Portuguese, so they greeted each other with “Como está?” (“How are you?”) to which the reply was “Está bom”, so that the people of Accra started to call them the Tabom People. All these facts can explain, why it is possible to find some influences of the Portuguese language in the everyday life of the Ghanaians. Another very common expression is “palaver” (gossip, to chat), that comes from “palavra” (word). “Panyar” or “panyarring” are terms from the Portuguese “apanhar” (to be beaten or to catch). In the standard English the word “fetish” comes from “feitiço”. “Sabola” is usual in Ewe and comes from the word “cebola” (onion); in Fanti people use the word “paano” for bread, what probably comes from our “pão”.

    Family names of the Tabom People like Azumah, Nelson, Antônio or Faustino also show the Brazilian influence. Geographical names of Portuguese origin are very common in Ghana: Elmina (“A mina” – the mine), River Volta (“Rio Volta” – “River U-Turn”), Cape Three Points (“Cabo Três Pontas”), Cape Coast (“Cabo Corso” – in a free translation means “Cape of the Pirate”).

    These few examples show us only a part of the influence of the Portuguese language in Ghana, however it is a sign that the own language changes and always displays the cultural, economic, political or social contacts that our people formerly made or is nowadays making. The Brazilian Portuguese also has a lot of influences of African languages, but this could be a theme for another article.

    Marco Aurelio Schaumloeffel
    Brazilian Lecturer in Ghana

    P.S.: Portuguese is together with English and French one of the official languages of the ECOWAS.

    Source: Marco

  • The African influence in Brazil

    Picture

    A Brazilian in Ghana – II

    SCHAUMLOEFFEL, Marco Aurelio. African influence in Brazil. Daily Graphic, Accra, v. 149122, p. 7 – 7, 10 maio 2004.   

    The African influence in Brazil

    Last time I wrote about the influence of the Portuguese language in Ghana. This influence is certainly tiny, when compared with the African influences in Brazil. The Africans were brought to Brazil by the Portuguese because of the slave traffic. It started less than 50 years after the discovery of Brazil in 1500 by the Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral and ended officially in 1831 by decree, but records prove that it continued principally from the Gold Coast (Ghana) and the so called by historians Slave Coast (Togo/Dahomey and Benin) on an illegal basis until 1888, when the slavery was definitively abolished in Brazil. In the most horrific part of our History, Africans, normally sold as captives by enemy African tribes, were used during more than 300 years by the Portuguese colonialists in Brazil as slave workers in the mining of gold and in the sugar cane and coffee farms, as domestic servants in the houses of the their masters or as urban workers. Many of them developed skills such as special agriculture techniques, water-well installation, carpenter, tailoring, metal works, especially gold smithing. The biggest part of Africans went to Brazil and never again returned to their homeland. The whole slave traffic History in the Gulf of Benin was very well studied by the Frenchman Pierre Verger and the life of the Africans in the New Continent by Brazilians like Nina Rodrigues. Studies show that approximately half of the Africans brought to Brazil were from West Africa, precisely from castles and ports in Ghana (one of the most significant was the Elmina Castle), Togo, Benin and Nigeria. Of course, captured slaves of the whole region were brought to these castles (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger amongst others).

    Africans from these regions were sent principally to the Brazilian State of Bahia. Logically we can conclude that the African influence in Brazil must be big, because the Portuguese not only dragged humans as working power away, those human beings also had a soul and knowledge in many spheres, so that they brought their own culture, habits, foods (way of cooking), costumes, music, dances and language to Brazil. The figures below show us more clearly the presence of Africans in Brazil: if we take as example the data of the Brazilian population in the year 1818, it shows that 2,515,000 inhabitants of a total of 3,817,000 were Africans or of African origin (66% of the total). Nowadays the distribution of our 170 Million Population is more or less the same.

    Walking in the streets in Brazil, we can not clearly classify the origin of the population by their appearance, like it is here in Ghana. In my country in principle both oburoni and obibini are Brazilians. By the way: it is considered an offence in my country to call unknown people at the streets by their skin colour. We have skin colour graded from black to white, from red to yellow, from bright to dark brown.

    Nowadays the influence of different African cultures in Brazil is very clear and enriching. We are a melting pot, not only of various African cultures, but also of cultures of various peoples from Europe (Portuguese, Italian, German, Polish, Spanish people amongst others) and Asia (specially Japanese and Chinese people). In the next articles, I will tackle the African influences in aspects like music (e.g. our present Minister of Culture is black, the famous singer Gilberto Gil), religion, language, arts, economy and others in the Brazilian society.

    Marco Aurelio Schaumloeffel

    Brazilian Lecturer in Ghana

  • História do Povo Tabom

    Tabom – The Afro-Brazilian community of Accra

    Causa estranheza chegar em Gana e ouvir falar de um povo chamado „Tabom“. Os Tabom formam uma comunidade brasileiro-ganense, de ex-escravos, que voluntariamente retornaram à África de seus antepassados, depois de terem comprado sua liberdade no Brasil*. Como na sua chegada a Gana somente sabiam falar português, usavam os cumprimentos conhecidos “Como está?” e a resposta “Tá bom”, daí provavelmente a origem do nome dado a eles pelo povo Ga, que os recebeu amigavelmente.

    Nii Alasha, na extrema esquerda, filho mais velho de Azumah Nelson, com os chefes do povo Ga, incluindo Nii Tackie Tawiah.

    Sabe-se de várias comunidades de descentes de brasileiros em solo africano, grande parte delas no Benin, na Nigéria e no Togo, formando clãs com nomes como Souza, Silva ou Cardoso.  Estudos estimam que no Século XIX aproximadamente 10.000 afro-brasileiros libertos voltaram à África. Em vários países da África Ocidental é possível encontrar bairros, escolas e museus com o nome “Brasil”. Em Lagos (Nigéria) há um “Brazil Quarter” e um clube com o nome “Brazilian Social Club”; no Benin há uma escola chamada “École Brésil”. Alguns afro-brasileiros são (ou foram) muito conhecidos em seus países. Um deles foi Sylvanus Epiphanio Kwami Olympio, eleito primeiro presidente do Togo em 1960. O primeiro Chachá do Benin, o chefe e controlador do comércio e da relações com os estrangeiros, foi o afro-brasileiro Francisco Félix de Souza, que ficou muito rico através de seu envolvimento com o tráfico de escravos. Ele teve 53 esposas, 80 filhos e 12.000 escravos. Quando faleceu, deixou de herança a seus descendentes uma fortuna estimada em US$ 120 milhões. A linha real dos Chachás existe até hoje no Togo. O primeiro  Embaixador do Brasil em Gana, Raymundo Souza Dantas, cita em seu livro “África difícil”, ter recebido uma carta de um togolês chamado Benedito de Souza, que alegava ser seu primo (p. 76).

    Chefe Tabom Nii Azumah V dançando durante a cerimônia de entronamento realizada em 26 de fevereiro de 2000 na Stool House.

    Em Gana, o único grupo significativo de que se tem notícia é o dos Tabom. Segundo relatos, a viagem do Brasil para o Golfo da Guiné foi feita em um navio chamado S. S. Salisbury, oferecido pelo Governo inglês. Em Acra chegaram por volta de 1836, vindos da Nigéria, como visitantes. Foram tão bem recebidos pelo Mantse (chefe) Nii Ankrah, da área de Otublohum (na capital Acra), que resolveram ficar. O líder do grupo na época da chegada dos Tabom a Gana chamava-se Nii Azumah Nelson. A família Nelson tem grande importância entre os Tabom. O filho mais velho de Azumah Nelson e seu sucessor, Nii Alasha, foi grande amigo do ilustre Rei Ga, Nii Tackie Tawiah. Juntos, eles ajudaram no desenvolvimento comercial e na melhoria das condições sanitárias do país. O atual Mantse, Nii Azumah V (foto ao lado, no centro), é descente dos Nelson, conhecidos por também terem a First Scissors House, a primeira alfaiataria do país, fundada em 1854, que, entre outras atividades, tinha a tarefa de fazer uniformes para o exército ganense. Prova dessas habilidades dos Tabom é o Sr. Dan Morton, atualmente um dos costureiros mais famosos em Acra.

    Do povo Ga, receberam terras com localizações privilegiadas, em bairros hoje muito conhecidos da capital, como é o caso de Asylum Down, da área próxima à estação central de trens e da região em torno da Accra Breweries; nesses locais  grandes árvores de manga são, ainda hoje, testemunhas da presença dos Tabom. No bairro de North Ridge, há uma “Tabon Street”, que lembra as plantações que eles tinham no lugar. Muitos Tabom atualmente vivem em James Town, uma área hoje pobre, que fica de frente para o mar e próxima ao antigo porto de Acra. Lá há uma rua chamada Brazil Lane, onde está localizada a primeira casa que abrigou os Tabon, a Brazil House. Os Tabom iniciaram o cultivo de manga, mandioca, feijão e outros vegetais, além de trazerem do Brasil várias habilidades como técnicas de irrigação, carpintaria, arquitetura, trabalhos com metais, especialmente os  preciosos, alfaiataria, entre outros, melhorando, dessa forma, a qualidade de vida de toda a população ganense. Além disso, os Tabom contribuíram no campo da religião, uma parte deles no estabelecimento do maometanismo, outra na preservação de cultos religiosos como o shangô. Hoje eles estão completamente integrados a Acra, são aceitos como parte integrante da divisão de Otoblohum.

    * Até o presente momento ainda não está claro se eles realmente compraram sua liberdade e decidiram voltar à África, ou se já eram trabalhadores libertos que foram deportados depois da revoltas dos Malês em 1835. Um grande número de afro-brasileiros foi deportado para a África, especialmente os de origem islâmica, que organizaram a revolta. Como os Tabom coincidentemente chegaram a Accra em 1836 e a maioria deles era de islâmicos, a hipótese da deportação não pode ser descartada. Somente estudos aprofundados poderiam provar uma ou outra tese.

    Marco Aurelio Schaumloeffel, leitor brasileiro em Gana. 2004©

    Nota: Este texto foi originalmente publicado no website da Embaixada do Brasil em Gana de 2004 a 2007 em seu então website brasilghana.org (desativado desde 2007).

    Fontes:

    – DANTAS, Raymundo Souza. África difícil. (Missão condenada : Diário). Rio de Janeiro : Editora Leitura S/A, 1965.

    – Programme of the Swearing In Ceremony of Tabon Mantse Nii Azumah V. February 26th, 2000. Pages 2-3.

    – Relatos de integrantes do Povo Tabom gravados pelo autor.



  • Short History of the Tabom People of Ghana

    Tabom – The Afro-Brazilian community of Accra

    It was very strange for me as a Brazilian to arrive in Ghana and hear tales of a people called “Tabom”, because of the familiarity of the term with greetings in the Brazilian Portuguese. The Tabom People is an Afro-Brazilian community of former slaves, who decided to come back to the African continent of their ancestors, after they bought their own freedom in Brazil*. When they arrived in Accra they could speak only Portuguese, so they greeted each oth er with “Como está?” (How are you?) to which the reply was “Tá bom”, so the Ga people of Accra started to call them the Tabom People.

    Nii Alasha, extreme left, with Ga Chiefs including Nii Tackie Tawiah.

    We in Brazil already know about various communities of Afro-Brazilian descendants in West Africa, most of them spread through Benin, Nigeria and Togo. Some studies estimate that in the 19th Century approximately 10,000 former slaves decided to return to Africa. Throughout these countries we can find estates, schools and museums with the name “Brazil”. In Lagos there is an estate called “Brazilian Quarter” and a club with the name “Brazilian Social Club”; in Benin we can find a school called “Ecole Bresil”. In those countries it is very common to find family names like Souza, Silva, Olympio or Cardoso. Some of them were very well known in their countries. One was the late Sylvanus Epiphanio Kwami Olympio who was elected the first President of Togo in 1960. The first Chacha of Benin, that means the chief and controller of trade and relations with foreigners, was the Afro-Brazilian Francisco Felix de Souza, he became very rich due to his involvement in the slave traffic. He had 53 wives, 80 children and about 12,000 slaves. When he died, he left an empire of an estimated 120 Millions Dollars to his successors. The royal line of the Chachas still exists nowadays in Togo. The first Brazilian Ambassador to Ghana arrived in 1961. He was an Afro-Brazilian called Raymundo de Souza Dantas. He cites in his book “Africa dificil”, that he received a letter from a Togolese called Benedito de Souza, who alleged to be his cousin.

    Tabom Mantse Nii Azumah V dancing during the outdooring ceremony at the Stool House (February 26th, 2000).

    In Ghana, the only representative group of people that decided to come back from Brazil is the Tabom People. They came back on a ship called S. S. Salisbury, offered by the English Government. About seventy Afro-Brazilians of seven different families arrived in Accra, in the region of the old port in James Town in 1836, coming from Nigeria as visitors. The reception by the Mantse Nii Ankrah of the Otoblohum area was so friendly, that they decided to settle down in Accra. The leader of the Tabom group at the time of their arrival was a certain Nii Azumah Nelson. Since that time the Nelson family has been very important to the History of the Tabom People. The eldest son of Azumah Nelson, Nii Alasha, was his successor and a very close friend to the Ga King Nii Tackie Tawiah. Together they helped in the development of the whole community in commerce and environmental sanitation.

    At the present moment the Tabom Mantse is Nii Azumah V, descendant of the Nelson’s. The Tabons are also known as the founders of the First Scissors House in 1854, the first tailoring shop in the country, which had amongst other activities, the task to provide the Ghanaian Army with uniforms. Proof of these skills is without any doubt Mr. Dan Morton, another Tabom and one of the most famous tailors nowadays in Accra.

    Because they were welcomed by the Ga people and received by their king as personal guests, the Tabons received lands in privileged locations, in places that are nowadays very well known estates, like Asylum Down, the area near to the central train station and around the Accra Breweries. In those areas, the mango trees planted by them bear silent witnesses to their presence. In the estate of North Ridge there is a street called “Tabon Street”, which is a reminder of the huge plantations that they formerly had there. Some of the Tabons live nowadays in James Town, where the first house built and used by them as they arrived in Ghana is located. It is called the “Brazil House” and can be found in a short street with the name “Brazil Lane”.

    The Tabons did not arrive poor, but rather with much wealth. Because of their agricultural skills, they started plantations of mango, cassava, beans and other vegetables. They brought also skills such as irrigation techniques, architecture, carpentry, blacksmithing, gold smithing, tailoring, amongst others, which certainly improved the quality of life of the whole community.

    Apart from all these contributions, they also influenced the religious life of the community, helping in the definitive establishment of the Islamic religion and the preservation of some African religions that they modified in Brazil, like the shango. Nowadays the Tabons are completely integrated in the Ghanaian society and are a part of the Otublohum Section of the Ga People.

    * Up to now it is not very clear, if they really bought their freedom and decided to immediately come back or if they were at that time free workers in Brazil, but were deported after the Male Revolt of 1835. A lot of Afro-Brazilians were deported back to Africa, especially Moslems who organised the Male Revolt. Since they arrived accidentally in 1836 in Accra and most of them were Moslems, it can possibly be the case. Only detailed and deeper studies can prove one of the suppositions.

    Marco Aurelio Schaumloeffel, Brazilian lecturer in Ghana. 2004©

    Note: This text was originally posted on the website of the Embassy of Brazil in Ghana from 2004-2007 on its then website brasilghana.org (deactivated since 2007).

    Sources:

    – DANTAS, Raymundo Souza. África difícil. (Missão condenada : Diário). Rio de Janeiro : Editora Leitura S/A, 1965.

    – Programme of the Swearing In Ceremony of Tabon Mantse Nii Azumah V. February 26th, 2000. Pages 2-3.

    – Conversations with members of the Tabom People, recorded by the author of this text.

  • Moro no Brasil

     

    Moro no Brasil, de Mika Kaurismäki

    Neve, vento cortante, frio alojado debaixo da pele. Ponto de partida: escandinávia. Ponto de permanência: Brasil. Ontem assisti em Bremen a Pictureum filme do finlandês Mika Kaurismäki, que mora no Brasil há dez anos, daí se explica o nome dado ao trabalho. Segundo a imprensa alemã, o documentário trata de ritmos nacionais, mais precisamente de samba, sendo uma espécie de  Buena Vista Social Club tupiniquim.  De forma engraçada uma revista faz alusão à diferenças de estilo, diferenciando samba de samba, dizendo que rapidamente se percebe diferenças entre o que parece ser a mesma coisa. Ledo engano. Kaurismäki faz muito mais do que isso. É uma verdadeira viagem musical que se inicia no sertão pernambucano e termina com o Funk’n Lata de São Paulo. Contado histórias pitorescas de personagens reais, o diretor, que viaja pelo interior do Brasil pobre com um velho jipe, mostra de forma nua e bela a simplicidade com que pessoas, muitas vezes sem oportunidade de acesso à instrução institucional, mas com enorme bagagem cultural e musical invejáveis, mostram ritmos e melodias complexas. A verdadeira música popular brasileira – sem maiúsculas ou abreviações – é o enfoque. Mesmo para os brasileiros o filme certamente passa a impressão do pouco que conhecemos desse lindo baú, empoeirado e jogado em algum canto, tão pouco valorizado e mostrado pela imprensa e os meios musicais do Brasil.

    A música popular apresentada por Kaurismäki mostra todo o sofrimento, a alegria e a cultura das regiões por ele visitadas. A diversidade impressiona, a simplicidade contagia.

    Visto no estrangeiro, certamente o filme peca, pois dá a impressão de que não existam dois Brasis díspares, de que há somente um país, rico musicalmente, miserável em sua infraestrutura. O que para nós parece claro faltou obveizar – me desculpem se crio neologismos – aos estrangeiros, já que primeiro rodou no exterior (e talvez nunca venha aos cinemas brasileiros); faltou a referência ao contexto popular, ao meio no qual esta música brota e está inserida, às discrepâncias que há entre as camadas sociais, à globalização americanizada da classe média. Sem essa didatização, que parece, a princípio, absurda, os menos informados em relação ao Brasil, ou seja, a grande maioria dos europeus, mesmo os que movimentam culturalmente o Velho Continente, deduzirá que somos, por excelência, favelas.

    Ver músicos como Silvério Pessoa e Mestre Salustiano é deparar com a essência de um Brasil de beleza bruta, virgem com lábios de mel. Não assista ao filme com pretensões de achar um fim ou um começo. O bom do final é que fica a gostosa sensação de que Kaurismäki elucidou apenas uma migalha dessa vastidão.

    Marco Aurelio Schaumloeffel