Thursday, October 9, 2008
Dancing With The Saints
I said I'd explore the complexities of candomble in earlier posts and here it is, finally. I'll admit, I've been avoiding this for as long as possible because there are so many layers and meanings and opinions attached to this religion that I just don't know where to begin. So I'll begin with my personal experience. On a late June night, in the small southern Brazilian town of Vassouras, I was invited to a candomble ceremony for the feast of San Juan. We drove down some roads and up some hills with only the moon lighting the way. Faintly, we heard the echos of drumming. We climbed down some stairs, past blooming bushes and I saw a huge bonfire. Men were holding large drums over them, tuning the instruments with flames. A tiny altar with flowers and a statue of San Juan stood under a small shack. The men sat down, joined by adolescent boys.
They began drumming in a swirl of intricate rhythms A groups of women, clad in long white gowns and head wraps, moved in a circle to the drums rhythms. They chanted and lifted their skirts so that their feet moved freely. It looked like the whole community of children, teens, father, mothers and grand parents had turned out for this celebration. After I was pulled into the circle to dance with the women, hot bowls of canjica were brought out. A sweet dish of white corn, peanuts and sugar, that reminded me of peanut brittle, I spooned the white clumps up as the participants watched me closely, making sure I ate everything. After canjica, strong coffee with sugar cane juice is traditionally downed but I could barely manage two sips. The Brazilian notion of coffee is more like cappuccino syrup to me. Afterwards, the boys, Juan Pedro, Marcel, Jonathan and Victor came up to me, wanting to know what there names would be in English. I had to break it to them that all except Juan already had anglicized names. They were not happy about that. But the boys cheered themselves up by singing me a Chris Brown song, which was the only English they knew.
Dancing, music and community lie at the heart of candomble but it also represents the spirit of resistance. Brought from Africa over 350 years ago, forms of candomble have sprouted all over the African Diaspora. Ancient Yoruba deities were melded with catholic saints so that uprooted Africans could continue their spiritual practices in the face of persecution. The deities or orixas, all have corresponding saints, colors and days of the week. In candomble, Saint Joan of Arc becomes Oba, the fearless fighter, Saint Lazarus is Omulu, deity of healing and Saint Michael is Logun, deity of polarity. Everywhere I went in Brazil, in restaurants, airports, shops and bookstores, I observed elements of candomble. T-shirts with images of all the orixas sell in boutiques and corner stores. Restaurants, key chains and bronze statues of Imenja, the mermaid deity of the ocean, pop up wherever there is a body of water. Even the all-important soccer teams have their own orixas. Despite candomble being outlawed for much of the 20th century, the religion remains a visible part of Brazilian culture.
In Cachoeira, the Bahian town that boasts 42 candomble houses or terreiros, I was invited to visit the Rumpane Ayono Huntobogi house. The only way outsiders can visit is by personal invitation and unfortunately, by the time we had climbed several muddy hills in the rain, the Iyalorisha or high priestess, wasn't there. Still, I got the essence of the experience. Standing outside the terreiro, on top of a sweeping hill surrounded by sacred spaces dedicated to the orixas, I could feel the energy dance around me.Labels: African culture, Bahia culture, Brazil Travel, Cachoeira, Candomble, Candomble House, Terreiros
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Top Five Things To Do In Salvador, Bahia
Salvador, Bahia grabs the heart of any visitor and never releases it. Even when I was in Rio, American tourists urged me to visit Salvador if I wanted to see the real Brazil. It's true, Salvador boasts charm and visual treats that you can't find in any other place in the world. I think it's all that history crammed into one place. Salvador was Brazil's first capitol and it boasts so many historical monuments, places and people that you can literally visit one every five minutes. Great destinations always seem to attract a fair share of tourist traps, however. I thought the famed Mercado Modelo was filled with vendors hustling a load of mostly overpriced junk. The picturesque Pelourinho Square brims with addicts and pick pockets. So my favorite Salvador memories focus on slightly less touristy activities:
1. Eating Mocqueca at Iemanja Restaurant.
Acraraje might be Salavador's quintessential snack food but Mocqueca is the ultimate of Bahian cuisine. A smooth, creamy stew of fish, coconut milk, tomatoes and spices, I slurped this dish down almost every day. The sea goddess Iemanja is Salvador's favorite orixa and Iemanja Restaurant pays elegant homage with an interior filled with turquoise blue walls and sea shells. The waitresses wear long white gowns with blue accents and serene smiles. It was a soothing and magical experience.
2. Viewing the Eight Orixa Sculptures on Lake Torroro.
Rising out of the middle of a small lake, eight life-sized, fiber glass statues demonstrate Salvador's spiritual heritage. The Candomble religion plays an important part in everyday Brazilian life and this stunning park sculpture shows just one of the ways. The main Candomble deities or orixas are portrayed with their symbolic effects, like Xango with his ax and Oxun with her mirror. They loom in brilliant color, almost blending in with the splashing waves, trees and fishing boats.
3. Strolling through Salvador Museums.
I'm an art freak. I can't fully enjoy a trip unless I visit at least one gallery or museum. Salvador actually has scads of them clustered in Pelourino and beyond. I loved the City Museum, which displays contemporary Brazilian art and Case de Benin, which showcases artifacts from Benin, West Africa. The culture of Benin has influenced a lot of Bahian culture through art and spiritual customs.
4. Visiting the Prentice Art Gallery.
Nestled in a dilapidated old house, this gallery highlights the ceramic work of the Bahian artist Prentice. The walls are lined with hand painted tiles that depict Baianas, bloco drummers other aspects of Salvador life. I thought Prentice's art reflected a lot of Bahian charm, with whimsical brush strokes and sunny colors.
5. Viewing the Zumbi des Palmares Statue.
Zumbi was a famous freedom fighter who represents Black resistance to many Brazilians. An imposing bronze monument was erected to honor his historical significance in Pelourinho Square in May 2008. He led rebellions at the end of the 17th century and 300 years after his death, Brazilians pay tribute with a national day of remembrance on November 20.
Labels: Bahia culture, Brazil culture, Brazil Travel, Salvador, tourist activities, Zumbi Des Palmares
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Tasty Cultural Connections
Brazilian culture overflows with rich African cultural connections and in Bahia, you can taste as well as see it. I explored classic Brazilian dishes spiced with African influences in a post for Galavanting Magazine's travel blog here but I didn't explain the depth of the Nigerian influence on acaraje. Eating acaraje is practically a legal requirement when you visit Salvador. In London, you must nibble fish and chips, dripping with grease and wrapped in paper. In Jamaica, you must savor ackee and saltfish cooled with sea breezes. And in Salvador, you must buy acaraje from a Baiana de acaraje, on the cobble-stoned streets with samba rhythms blasting through the air.
Acaraje is a black-eyed pea fritter fried in palm oil. Typically, it's cut in half and topped with caruru, an okra stew, vatapa a mixture blended with dried shrimp, cashews, peanuts and coconut milk and a salad made of chopped tomatoes and onions. Peppery and laden with fat, it is the quintessential Brazilian fast food. In Nigeria, it is also a popular snack and breakfast staple called akara. The je on the Brazilian term simply means to eat so the dish is a direct transport from West African culture, where it is prepared similarly. Baiana de acaraje's, serving up these delicacies wearing white laced dresses and buoyant head wraps called torsos, underscore the Nigerian element even more. If you've ever seen a Yoruba woman parading in her finery, you've seen the essence of Baianas de acraje's legendary grace. A considerable portion of Brazil's population trace their heritage to Nigeria and other Western African countries. Acaraje highlights those roots with tasty flavor. A special shout out to Floyd for reminding me about these points!
Labels: acaraje, Bahia culture, Brazil Travel, Food Travel, global cusine
Friday, August 29, 2008
Understanding Samba
If you've heard of Brazil, you've heard of samba. Most people have glimpsed photos or scenes from Brazilian Carnaval, with sexy revelers festooned with a feather or two, writhing to samba rhythms. But what exactly, is samba? I always thought it was a music genre but I discovered that it's music, dance, and so much more, at Santo Amaro's House of Samba.
Stepping into the terraced building that also holds a studio and performance space, before you can even get to the samba exhibits, the altars of seven saints loom. Like all African art forms, samba does not separate the spiritual from the mundane. The heavy percussion of samba beats derive from candomble music used for sacred ceremonies. Statues of Saints Lazarus, Joan, Barbara, Bonfim, Anthony, Roue, and the Portuguese twin Saints(! ) Cosme and Daniel, line the first wall of the Samba House. The corresponding colors for the candomble orishas or deities, adorn the background of each altar. The beads representing the orisha connected with the saint hang dramatically over each statue. I stood in front of the altars, a little overwhelmed. I was raised Catholic so most of the figures were familiar but I couldn't figure out all the symbolism and how the orishas connected specifically. The candomble religion is embedded in Brazilian culture but it's a very complex system. I'll be discussing it in detail in a later post.
An exhibit highlighting samba instruments was next. Besides the all important drum, (pandeiro)there were tambourines and guitars (cavaco) and plates and knives, over a floor filled with sand. The floors of poor houses were typically made of sand and samba music and dance is traditionally performed in the sand. Bahia is known for its rural, folk versions of samba, which is very different from the contemporary samba you see in Rio. Samba De Roda, or circle dance, is the most famous. It features women dancing in and out of a circle and men playing guitar, tambourine and plate and knife. a defining move of the samba de roda is the umbigada, where the women bounce gently off of each others bellies. The music and dance can be traced to African Bantu culture and the exhibits spotlight this point, displaying all the clearly African characteristics of samba.
Samba rhythms and dances include hundreds of different varieties, not just what you see at carnaval. That thundering, call-and-response, samba heard during Carnaval is called samba de enredo. The slowed down, melodic samba that focuses on a lead singer is samba-cancao or song samba, which is what you hear in Rio clubs and what the House of Samba explores.
Of course, there are boatloads of samba hybrids in contemporary Brazilian music. Bossa Nova, Samba Reggae, Samba Rap and Musica Popular Brasilera (Brazilian pop) all get their flavor from samba. Personally, I love it all-- the booty-shaking, straight samba, the chilled out bossa nova, the soulful samba reggae, I listen to all of these. My favorites include Gilberto Gil (now Brazil's minister of culture) Daniela Mercury, Seu Jorge, Virginia Rodrigues, Ana Carolina and the angelic voice that has been constantly drifting through my house for a solid year, CeU. It's no coincidence that her name translates to sky or heaven. This girl has the range and nuance of all the great goddesses of song-Billie, Ella and Nina with a little early Marcia Griffiths for good measure. If you don't know any of these names, you're missing the important links between popular musical history and world music influences. Although CeU is young and still developing, her self-titled debut CD earns serious props, it was nominated for a Latin Grammy and captured fans globally. She expertly blends samba and bossa nova with reggae, jazz and soul. All the tunes are in Portuguese except a sublime cover of Bob Marley "Concrete Jungle" but it doesn't matter. Her voice translates every songs emotion. I believe that's the mark of every great samba singer.
Labels: Bahia culture, Brazil Travel, Global music, Samba, Santo Amaro, World Music
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Poetry Santo Amaro Style
The name Santo Amaro da Purificacao sounds like the title of a poem or novel and in a lot of ways, this quaint rural town on the Northern coast of Brazil reflects the very essence of poetry. Starting from the sun-baked streets and ice cream-colored buildings, this place screams with charm. The cobblestone roads are narrow and seem to be overflowing with people, animals and products for sale. The marketplace, which features an array of tropical fruits and vegetables as well as homemade hootch, is famous for its Bembe do Mercado Festival, which is the only candomble ceremony that takes place in an open setting. The sunflower yellow courthouse, with its cannons still aimed at intruders, is a national monument that commemorates Brazil's independence from Portugal in 1822.
Perhaps Santo Amaro's ultimate claim to fame rests plainly in the middle of town. That's where you'll find the childhood home of the poet of Salvador, Brazilian musical icon Caetano Veloso. Caetano's 100-year-old mother remains the village matriarch and I was taken by the white-washed house to meet her. Tired out from meeting officials for the independence ceremonies, she was napping but I enjoyed hearing about the family's lasting influence on Santo Amaro from my guides. A lyrical genius and political artist on the level of Bob Marley, Caetano has even been compared to Leonardo da Vinci because of his renaissance-man ability to write poetry, paint, sing and direct movies. Caetano founded the Tropicalismo movement with Gilberto Gil in the 60s, blending rock, jazz and Brazilian folk genres with densely political lyrics. That music forced Caetano and Gilberto into exile by Brazil's military dictatorship until 1972.
Although he's now retirement-aged, Caetano continues to pump out innovative tunes laced with his breezy, sinuous vocals. Considering standouts from his ginormous catalog of albums, one of my favorites is 2000's "A Bossa de Caetano." He re-interprets bossa nova classics and throws in an extra twist with a stunning cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." This was the soundtrack that flowed through my mind as I explored the poetry of Santo Amaro.
Labels: Bahia culture, Brazil Travel, Caetano Veloso, Global music, Santo Amaro, World Music
Friday, August 22, 2008
Bahia Style
Flaunting flawless skin, a vibrant spirit and colorful fashion sense, Brazilian women are famous for their beauty. On my recent trip to Northern and Southern regions of Brazil, I wasn't shocked to discover that Brazilian women mostly rock 3-4 inch stilettos in sand, over cobblestones and through airports. Nor was I amazed that most wear very little make-up and exude a natural beauty that's eternally kissed by the sun. What grabbed my attention was the realization that it wasn't the glammed up cariocas that strut down Copacabana and Ipanema who captured my memory. It was the baianas, the striking women from Bahia that wear traditional white dresses, fly headwraps and ritual beads, who really rule.
Outside of Brazil, Carmen Miranda's appropriation of baiana style with fruit laden hats and exaggerated hip-swaying is the most familar image of a Bahian woman. But the true image can be found in the Baianas de acaraje, the women who sell the famed black-eyed pea fritters on Salvador streets. They work hard to earn a living, frying the fritters in sizzling palm oil, ladling peppers and onions over them in the hot sun and jostling for visibilty among Salvador's hundreds of peddlers. And yet, I never saw a splash of palm oil on any white dress. Never caught a headwrap skewed out of place or face that didn't beam invitingly. To me, that's the true essence of style; maintaining who you are whatever the situation.
Labels: Bahia culture, Brazil Travel, Global fashion
Hangin' With Jorge
Brazil is a country that brims with culture. Everything from the food (spicy and heavy), the lifestyles,(laid-back) the music (high- spirited) and fashion (full of sexy flair), reflects a uniquely Brazilian perspective. As a writer, one of the rituals I have before traveling to a new country is to read some of its classic literature. Well, me and Portuguese don't get along so I didn't get a chance to find any good Brazilian books before I left. But when I arrived in Salvador, I discovered that Brazil loves the writer Jorge Amado like they love soccer. And that's a whole lot of love.
Whenever I asked about Brazilian culture and customs, my guides kept telling me to read Jorge Amado. So I was excited to visit the Jorge Amado Foundation in Pelourinho. It's a museum dedicated to his 32 novels, memoirs and guidebooks. Jorge's books have been translated into 49 languages in 55 countries and all those translated books adorn the walls of the museum. His stories have also been made into plays, films and Brazilian soap operas. Judging from countless recommendations, Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon is probably the most popular. The exchange rate for American dollars in Brazil is about as thrilling as Paris Hilton's thought process so I declined to buy a $32 translation at the museum.
Instead, I immediately bought a copy online when I got home. I have been hangin' out with Jorge (george jay) ever since. His sensual , vivid, writing reminds me a lot of my favorite, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, though not quite as lyrical. The story takes place on the cacao plantations and growing towns of 50s era Bahia. The characters are lively and funny, especially the fly and sly Tonico Bastos. He manages to sleep with every woman in town right under the nose of the plus-sized wife that he's terrified of insulting. Gabriela is a free-spirited Bahian beauty who winds up stifled by marriage. She breaks free in the end; the feminist undertones are intriguing considering the era and Brazilian machismo. Various aspects of Bahian culture--local dishes, samba, candomble, capoeira, all play significant roles in this entertaining tale. I can see why Jorge's stories translate so easily to TV and film. He writes with a cinematographer's eye for detail and drama. I now feel like a have a much better grasp on Brazilian culture, thanks to Jorge. My next stop with Jorge is Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands.
Labels: Bahia culture, Brazil Travel, Brazilian books, Jorge Amado, Salvador
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