00:00:00
BASED ON THE WORKS
OF DARCY RIBEIRO
00:00:04
"THE BRAZILIAN PEOPLE"
00:00:30
In the 16th and 17th
centuries, Brazil was...
00:00:35
the world's market leader,
the richest of the markets.
00:00:38
The importance of the sugar cane
production in those days...
00:00:42
is equivalent
to the oil production today.
00:00:44
Brazil's prosperity
was due to slavery.
00:00:48
Brazil could be compared
to the image of a human mill.
00:00:54
100 million Africans
were dragged out of Africa...
00:01:01
for 4 centuries,
and brought to the Americas.
00:01:04
Brazil welcomed 12 million
of them...
00:01:08
half of which died,
and the other half, 6 million...
00:01:12
was incorporated into
our country's production system.
00:01:18
In the region...
00:01:21
I call Creole, from Pernambuco
to Bahia, all those Africans...
00:01:27
who worked in the sugar cane crops,
if they died, they were replaced.
00:01:32
They were like a charcoal bag :
when it's over, you get another one.
00:01:36
"The entire Brazilian culture is
filled with the African heritage...
00:01:40
which has been concentrated in
areas where the Africans converged.
00:01:44
In some cases, it is so strong that
it turns Bahia, Rio and Minas...
00:01:49
into real African culture provinces
where the African creativity...
00:01:52
is expressed in all its glory. "
00:02:26
THE CREOLE BRAZIL
00:02:28
"In the fresh and fertile lands
of the Atlantic tropical jungle...
00:02:32
Brazis, Europeans
and Africans gave birth...
00:02:36
to the first life style
of the Brazilian people...
00:02:39
the sugar civilization. "
00:02:52
Brazil was originated
in the sugar mill.
00:02:58
The mill was formed by
the all-mighty master...
00:03:02
who looked more
like a medieval lord.
00:03:07
He had absolute control and
was the ultimate economical...
00:03:13
legal and even religious
authority figure in the colony...
00:03:17
in the 16th and 17th centuries.
00:03:21
The mill was
a complex operation...
00:03:24
that required technology
and a large number of slaves.
00:03:29
The entire Brazilian society
was founded on that operation.
00:03:35
Besides its economical aspect,
there was also the contact...
00:03:40
between the master and the slave.
00:03:43
Obviously, their relationship
was based on domination...
00:03:47
but they also had a relationship
of crossbreeding...
00:03:51
in sexual terms, which was
the base for the mixture of races.
00:03:57
Brazil's complex structure
comes from that fact.
00:04:02
That was a relationship based
on the exploitation of classes...
00:04:06
but, at the same time, it was
surrounded by an emotional...
00:04:11
and sexual relationship.
00:04:14
There's the story of a woman...
00:04:17
whose husband had bought
a young African girl...
00:04:22
and he was taking liberties
with the young girl.
00:04:27
The woman ordered that the
young girl's teeth were smashed...
00:04:30
so she looked ugly.
They would do anything.
00:04:38
Originally, the slave quarters
were like a slave bird house.
00:04:43
The slaves lived in there
all piled up on top of each other.
00:05:12
Every Brazilian essayist comments
on the aristocracy generated by...
00:05:19
the sugar cane production.
00:05:22
It started in the opulent mills and
went over to the colonial cities.
00:05:31
They built churches,
ever so grand and sumptuous.
00:05:35
Ouro Preto was founded, and, for
the first time in the Americas...
00:05:41
a homogeneous
cultural core is created...
00:05:45
involving beautiful sculptures,
paintings and church compositions...
00:05:48
beautiful poems and the boom
of the political scene.
00:05:53
That was the world
of Minas Gerais.
00:05:59
In the colonial times,
we were the rich ones.
00:06:03
The United States never had
a city like Bahia or Ouro Preto.
00:06:20
After the Slavery Abolition...
00:06:22
the process
of decadence started.
00:06:26
The former slaves were deprived
of the patriarch power.
00:06:32
They invaded the cities,
became marginal people.
00:06:35
The cities got crowded, and the
former slaves had no social...
00:06:42
definition.
00:06:48
Scattered around the mines, cities
and the sugar cane plantations...
00:06:51
the Blacks were able to vigorously
react, despite the circumstances.
00:06:56
In Brazil, they created
a parallel cultural world...
00:06:59
different from the European one.
00:07:02
CREATION
00:07:07
PERMANENCY
00:07:12
REINVENTION
00:07:34
Most Brazilians come
from an African lineage...
00:07:38
dated back from 5 or 6
generations ago.
00:07:43
The Africans arrived here
in waves, separated by region.
00:07:48
First, the Bantus, then
the Nagôs and the lorubás.
00:07:53
The Bantus arrived here
long before the lorubás did.
00:07:58
They came here with no possessions,
except for the clothes they wore.
00:08:03
But they brought in
their heads and their hearts...
00:08:06
their faith, their energy.
00:08:12
There's no way to erase
something that's born with you.
00:08:17
They may fade it somehow,
but they can't erase it.
00:08:26
The Blacks who came from
Africa were very intelligent...
00:08:31
but they were not allowed to grow
because they were slaves.
00:08:35
They brought a lot of heritage
with them and made us richer.
00:08:40
In the Portuguese language there are
words which are purely African...
00:08:44
and were translated with
a Portuguese pronunciation.
00:08:50
But their origin is African.
00:08:57
Even in the case of intimate
nicknames : "iaiá", "ioiô"...
00:09:03
"sinhozinho".
That's purely African.
00:09:08
"The Brazilian who lives
in the North is no stranger...
00:09:12
to words like "caçamba"
"canga" "dengo" "cafuné"..
00:09:16
"Caçula" "quitute" "moleque"
"banzo" "bunda" "tanga"..
00:09:21
"Cachimbo" and "jiló"
00:09:23
Compared to the Portuguese ones,
they express our experience...
00:09:27
our sense of taste,
our senses, our emotions.
00:09:32
"Te faço"
"me deixe" "espie"..
00:09:35
The Black soul has often done
to words what it does to food:
00:09:40
it hurts them, removes
their bones and hard parts...
00:09:44
leaving to the mouth of the
white boy only the soft syllables. "
00:10:06
The Africans brought with them
their rhythmic patterns...
00:10:09
their musical instruments,
like "cuíca" and "berimbal"..
00:10:11
Their dance styles...
00:10:13
and their energetic,
elastic, sensual bodies...
00:10:16
which stated themselves
against any oppression.
00:10:49
"Many of the most nutritious
values of the Black people...
00:10:53
came with them to America:
00:10:56
their vegetables, their
dendê oil, their chilli pepper...
00:11:00
their okra and their banana...
00:11:01
their cooking techniques
for fish and poultry.
00:11:04
Once in Brazil, the Black
people became, in a way...
00:11:08
the owners of the land,
and they took over the kitchen. "
00:11:12
I prepare my beans
with a secret ingredient.
00:11:16
You know?
00:11:18
A good piece of bacon,
a good quality sausage...
00:11:22
a good piece of pork ham and jerky.
They sit in water overnight.
00:11:29
The first things you put in are
the pork feet and the jerky...
00:11:33
and the tripe.
00:11:35
"An ocean of glue,
soap and dendê oil.
00:11:41
After they were distributed to the
slave quarters across the country...
00:11:44
the Black people did
not lose touch with Africa.
00:11:47
Some were able to afford
to import religious artifacts...
00:11:51
and personal belongings.
00:11:53
Today, filling
the streets of Bahia...
00:11:56
we see Black women covered
in their native lace suits. "
00:12:04
At the farms, when the
masters threw parties...
00:12:09
the slaves had a day-off.
00:12:12
So, the intelligent slave seized the
opportunity to worship his Orixá.
00:12:20
The white masters sang their
church songs in the master house...
00:12:26
and the slaves sang and danced
to their Orixás at their quarters.
00:12:29
Everybody thought the slaves
were just singing crazy songs...
00:12:35
but they were actually worshipping.
That was their way of...
00:12:39
despite the horrors of
slavery and their suffering...
00:12:44
calling upon their Orixás.
00:12:46
The Orixás may be the leaves...
00:12:50
the breeze that blows upon us.
00:12:53
So nothing can go against...
00:12:57
the forces of nature.
00:13:05
I think that every myth
created by the Africans...
00:13:10
was inspired in
an element of nature.
00:13:15
So much so that they say
lemanjá controls the ocean...
00:13:20
lansã controls the wind,
Xangô controls the fire.
00:13:23
It was inspired on a fragment
of nature, like the ocean.
00:13:31
Health, beauty,
wealth, and fertility.
00:13:35
The Earth is the stage for
the gods. Exu paves the ways...
00:13:39
lemanjá breeds love,
Omolu heals...
00:13:42
Oxóssi watches,
and Oxalá smiles.
00:13:45
Gods are present
in the present life.
00:13:50
Since the Greek times...
00:13:53
nobody had created
a goddess responsible for love.
00:13:59
The Black people in Rio
created lemanjá.
00:14:03
That's an amazing cultural move,
more important than any novel.
00:14:09
It's important for people.
Who is lemanjá?
00:14:13
She's a saint
who controls the ocean.
00:14:17
Nobody asks her for
the cure for cancer or AIDS.
00:14:21
People ask for a less violent
husband, a hotter boyfriend...
00:14:34
Jesus and Saint Gabriel
00:14:38
Hail, Hail, Hail Mary
00:14:41
Hail, Hail, Hail Mary
00:14:45
The Africans were
so vigorously embedded...
00:14:49
in the construction of Brazil...
00:14:51
that they ceased to be themselves
and became us, the Brazilians.
00:15:33
One has to be culturally strong
to influence the mixture of races.
00:15:38
The Africans were exactly that.
00:15:42
They were so strong
that today Oxóssi...
00:15:45
is more present in the
Brazilian culture than in Africa.
00:15:51
When I first went to Europe...
00:15:53
no one asked me if
I was Portuguese or ltalian.
00:15:56
They asked me if I was Persian,
because my face was different.
00:16:00
The difference on the faces
of Brazilians comes from...
00:16:04
the mixture of native lndians and
Africans, which makes us beautiful.
00:16:08
We have so much essence, so much
life in us, so much singularity...
00:16:13
that it is impossible for anyone
to erase the Brazilian face.
00:16:32
"Rio's carnaval, Bahia's candomblé
and lemanjá's worshipping are...
00:16:37
in my opinion, the most vigorous
matrixes of the Brazilian culture...
00:16:40
and they will always
be because, within all those...
00:16:44
the blackness is not folklore
or a cultural survival skill.
00:16:48
Creations of black
living communities...
00:16:51
perpetuate their
ancestor African values...
00:16:54
because they continuously
live and transform them. "
00:17:15
The poet synthesizes the blend.
00:17:18
On his work "Abaeté's
Legend" he rhymes...
00:17:21
"abaeté" with
"batucajé" and "quiser"
00:17:25
"Abaeté" is tupi,
"batucajé" is Bantu...
00:17:29
and "quiser" is Portuguese.
The tripod Brazilian language.
00:17:36
CREATION
00:17:40
PERMANENCE
00:17:45
REINVENTION
00:17:53
In my childhood we'd make tambourines
out of cement bags and empty cans.
00:18:00
A very strong changing influence
in my life was the radio.
00:18:06
I would listen to any style,
from candomblé to bolero.
00:18:10
And today,
there is the rap...
00:18:13
which is listened by the
poor Black kids in the outskirts.
00:18:19
The rap is a blend of sounds,
created by the ability...
00:18:24
of the Black people to mend.
And it is the sequence...
00:18:28
to an entire inner
Black wisdom we have.
00:18:52
For a long period...
00:18:54
racial prejudice prevented Black
people from appearing on TV..
00:18:59
Or even from being mentioned.
One beautiful thing in Brazil...
00:19:03
in the last decades is that...
00:19:04
with the "Black is beautiful"
movement in the U.S...
00:19:07
and with our own changes...
00:19:10
we started being proud of
being Black, mulatto and lndian.
00:19:15
That was great because Brazil
reunited with its inner self.
00:19:19
The Black culture is not completely
accepted. There's some prejudice...
00:19:25
yet it is weaker
than in the past.
00:20:14
Why did the U.S. succeed,
despite being poor...
00:20:17
whereas Brazil, despite
being illustrious and educated...
00:20:21
despite its great cities,
went down the drain ?
00:20:24
Because this country
never existed for its own people.
00:20:27
It always existed for the
world market as its brain.
00:20:32
In the vision of the world
market, 6 million lndians had to die...
00:20:38
and, later, 6 million Blacks.
That was the dominant class's plan.
00:20:46
Although we go on being
the victims and the sufferers...
00:20:54
of many social
and economic inequalities...
00:20:58
created by the lack of understanding
on the part of the elite...
00:21:02
who does not understand such
archaic and traditional culture...
00:21:05
beyond being a folklore.
00:21:07
The worst thing one can do
to a culture is taking over it...
00:21:11
and seeing it as exotic.
00:21:14
Brazil does not have
exoticism to offer...
00:21:18
but it does offer a history
of evolutionary creation...
00:21:22
which is among the most
interesting ones in the world...
00:21:24
not because it belongs
to a museum...
00:21:26
but because it offers
solutions to the world.
00:21:31
The basic solution within our
culture is not a material one.
00:21:37
It is spiritual.
00:22:21
"No people having such
routine throughout centuries...
00:22:26
could get out of it
without perennial marks.
00:22:30
All of us are fruit of those
suffering Black and lndian people.
00:22:35
All of us are also part of the
hand responsible for their suffering.
00:22:42
The sweetest tenderness,
and the harshest cruelty...
00:22:46
were conjugated here to make us
the struggling people we are...
00:22:51
the insensitive and brutal
people we are as well. "
00:22:55
Despite all the atrocities
we suffered...
00:22:59
we have to pray for...
00:23:01
for the souls
of our executioners.
00:23:06
They were, despite
all the horrible things...
00:23:10
that everybody is aware of...
00:23:13
they were the way to make
our Orixás shine in the New World.
00:23:23
Our civilization
has something that...
00:23:26
Our taste for life, our
joy of living are very important.
00:23:30
In a society that is
constantly walking towards...
00:23:35
the automation
of the production line...
00:23:39
and the reduction
of working hours...
00:23:42
the best product Brazil
can show for is...
00:23:45
teaching those people who, even not
being able to work, are working...
00:23:50
that not working at all
is the best path to happiness.
