Afro-Brazilian

Afro-Brazilian or African Brazilian is the term used to racially categorise Brazilian citizens of some or full Black African origin, yet it is rarely used in Brazil.

Brazil has the largest population of black African origin outside of Africa with some 75 to 80 million Blacks, and even more of African ancestry. People who are purely or primarily of African ancestry make up 10% of the population and mullatoes make up 35% of Brazil. The largest concentration of Afro-Brazilians is in the state of Bahia where over 80% of the people are Afro-Brazilians.

Joueur d'Uruncungo 1826 painting by Jean Baptiste Debret with a man playing a Berimbau.

History

Painting by Jean Baptiste Debret 1835 .

Capoeira or the Dance of War by Johann Moritz Rugendas, 1835

Brazil obtained 37% of all African slaves traded, and more than 3 million slaves were sent to this one country. Starting around 1550, the Portuguese began to trade African slaves to work the sugar plantations once the native Tupi deteriorated.

During the colonial epoch, slavery was a mainstay of the Brazilian economy, especially in mining and sugar cane production. The Clapham Sect, a group of Victorian Evangelical politicians, campaigned during most of the 19th century for England to use its influence and power to stop the traffic of slaves to Brazil. Besides moral qualms, the low cost of slave-produced Brazilian sugar meant that British colonies in the West Indies were unable to match the market prices of Brazilian sugar, and each Briton was using 16 pounds of sugar a year by the 1800s. This combination led to intensive pressure from the British government for Brazil to end this practice, which it did by steps over several decades. Slavery was legally ended May 13 by the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law") of 1888.

Origins

The Africans brought to Brasil belonged to two major groups: the Sudan people and the Bantu people. The first, generally of high stature and more diverse culture, were sent in large scale to Bahia. (They mostly belong to Yoruba, Fon, Ashanti, Ewe, Mandinka, and other West African groups native to Ghana, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, and Nigeria.) The Bantus, natives of Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique, were sent in large scale to Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and the northeastern zona da mata. Some of them were born in Portugal, where they become Christians (Roman Catholics) and Portuguese. In recent decades, there were blacks coming from African countries, especially other Portuguese-speaking nations like Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, to Brazil as contract workers.

Religion

Mãe Aninha - Iyálorixá do Ilê Axé Opó Afonjá in Bahia

Yemaja.

Most Afro-Brazilians are Christians, mainly Catholics. African religions such as Candomblé have millions of followers, mainly Afro-Brazilians. They are concentrated mainly in large urban centers in the Northeast, such as Salvador de Bahia, Recife, or Rio de Janeiro in the Southeast. The capitals of São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul have fewer practitioners, mainly immigrants from the Northeast. In addition to Candomblé which is the survival of West African religion, there is also Umbanda which blends Kardecist Spiritism beliefs with African beliefs. Candomblé, Batuque, Xango and Tambor de Mina were originally brought by black slaves shipped from Africa to Brazil.

These black slaves would summon their gods, called Orixas, Voduns or Inkices with chants and dances they had brought from Africa. These religions have been persecuted, largely because they are believed to have both good and evil powers. However, the Brazilian government has legalized them. In current practice, Umbanda followers leave offerings of food, candles and flowers in public places for the spirits. The Candomblé terreiros are more hidden from general view, except in famous festivals such as Iemanjá Festival and the Waters of Oxalá in the Northeast.

From Bahia northwards there is also different practices such as Catimbo, Jurema with heavy indigenous elements. All over the country, but mainly in the Amazon rainforest, there are many Indians still practicing their original traditions

List of Afro Brazilian religions

* Umbanda
* Candomblé
* Batuque
* Macumba
* Quimbanda
* Xambá
* Culto aos Egungun
* Culto de Ifá
* Irmandade
* Confraria
* Sincretismo
* Xangô do Nordeste
* Tambor de Mina

Cuisine

The cuisine created by the Afro-Brazilians has a wide variety of foods.

Feijoada

Within the State of Bahia the predominate cuisine is Afro-Bahian, which evolved from plantation cooks improvising on African, American-Indian, and traditional Portuguese dishes using locally available ingredients.

Typical dishes include Vatapá and Moqueca, both with seafood and palm oil.

Palm Oil (Brazilian Portuguese: Azeite de Dendê) is a heavy tropical oil extracted from the African palm growing in Northern Brazil. One of the basic ingredients in Bahian or Afro-Brazilian cuisine, it adds a wonderful flavor and bright orange color to foods. There is no equivalent substitute, but it is available in markets specializing in Brazilian imports.

Feijoada is the national dish of Brazil (for over 300 years). It is basically a mixture of black beans, pork and farofa (lighly roasted coarse cassava manioc flour). It started as a Portuguese dish that the African slaves built upon, made out of cheap ingredients: pork ears, feet and tail, beans and manioc flour. It has been adopted by all the other cultural regions, and there are hundreds of ways to make it.

Capoeira

Capoeira is an martial art developed initially by African slaves in Brazil, starting in the colonial period. It is marked by deft, tricky movements often played on the ground or completely inverted. It also has a strong acrobatic component in some versions and is always played with music.

Recently, the art has been popularized by the addition of Capoeira performed in various computer games and movies, and Capoeira music has featured in modern pop music (see Capoeira in popular culture).

See also: Capoeira music; Capoeira toques

Music

Olodum in Bahia

Maracatu performance on the streets of Recife.

Tambors and Xequerês

The music created by Afro-Brazilians is a mixture of Portuguese, indigenous, and African music, making a wide variety of styles.

Brazil is well known for the rhythmic liveliness of its music as in its Samba dance music. This is largely because Brazilian slave owners allowed their slaves to continue their heritage of playing drums (unlike U.S. slave owners who feared use of the drum for communications).