BASED ON THE WORKS OF DARCY RIBEIRO "THE BRAZILIAN PEOPLE" In the 16th and 17th centuries, Brazil was. . .

the world's market leader, the richest of the markets. The importance of the sugar cane production in those days. .

. is equivalent to the oil production today. Brazil's prosperity was due to slavery.

Brazil could be compared to the image of a human mill. 100 million Africans were dragged out of Africa. .

. for 4 centuries, and brought to the Americas. Brazil welcomed 12 million of them.

. . half of which died, and the other half, 6 million.

. . was incorporated into our country's production system.

In the region. . .

I call Creole, from Pernambuco to Bahia, all those Africans. . .

who worked in the sugar cane crops, if they died, they were replaced. They were like a charcoal bag : when it's over, you get another one. "The entire Brazilian culture is filled with the African heritage.

. . which has been concentrated in areas where the Africans converged.

In some cases, it is so strong that it turns Bahia, Rio and Minas. . .

into real African culture provinces where the African creativity. . .

is expressed in all its glory. " THE CREOLE BRAZIL "In the fresh and fertile lands of the Atlantic tropical jungle. .

. Brazis, Europeans and Africans gave birth. .

. to the first life style of the Brazilian people. .

. the sugar civilization. " Brazil was originated in the sugar mill.

The mill was formed by the all-mighty master. . .

who looked more like a medieval lord. He had absolute control and was the ultimate economical. .

. legal and even religious authority figure in the colony. .

. in the 16th and 17th centuries. The mill was a complex operation.

. . that required technology and a large number of slaves.

The entire Brazilian society was founded on that operation. Besides its economical aspect, there was also the contact. .

. between the master and the slave. Obviously, their relationship was based on domination.

. . but they also had a relationship of crossbreeding.

. . in sexual terms, which was the base for the mixture of races.

Brazil's complex structure comes from that fact. That was a relationship based on the exploitation of classes. .

. but, at the same time, it was surrounded by an emotional. .

. and sexual relationship. There's the story of a woman.

. . whose husband had bought a young African girl.

. . and he was taking liberties with the young girl.

The woman ordered that the young girl's teeth were smashed. . .

so she looked ugly. They would do anything. Originally, the slave quarters were like a slave bird house.

The slaves lived in there all piled up on top of each other. Every Brazilian essayist comments on the aristocracy generated by. .

. the sugar cane production. It started in the opulent mills and went over to the colonial cities.

They built churches, ever so grand and sumptuous. Ouro Preto was founded, and, for the first time in the Americas. .

. a homogeneous cultural core is created. .

. involving beautiful sculptures, paintings and church compositions. .

. beautiful poems and the boom of the political scene. That was the world of Minas Gerais.

In the colonial times, we were the rich ones. The United States never had a city like Bahia or Ouro Preto. After the Slavery Abolition.

. . the process of decadence started.

The former slaves were deprived of the patriarch power. They invaded the cities, became marginal people. The cities got crowded, and the former slaves had no social.

. . definition.

Scattered around the mines, cities and the sugar cane plantations. . .

the Blacks were able to vigorously react, despite the circumstances. In Brazil, they created a parallel cultural world. .

. different from the European one. CREATION PERMANENCY REINVENTION Most Brazilians come from an African lineage.

. . dated back from 5 or 6 generations ago.

The Africans arrived here in waves, separated by region. First, the Bantus, then the Nagôs and the lorubás. The Bantus arrived here long before the lorubás did.

They came here with no possessions, except for the clothes they wore. But they brought in their heads and their hearts. .

. their faith, their energy. There's no way to erase something that's born with you.

They may fade it somehow, but they can't erase it. The Blacks who came from Africa were very intelligent. .

. but they were not allowed to grow because they were slaves. They brought a lot of heritage with them and made us richer.

In the Portuguese language there are words which are purely African. . .

and were translated with a Portuguese pronunciation. But their origin is African. Even in the case of intimate nicknames : "iaiá", "ioiô".

. . "sinhozinho".

That's purely African. "The Brazilian who lives in the North is no stranger. .

. to words like "caçamba" "canga" "dengo" "cafuné". .

"Caçula" "quitute" "moleque" "banzo" "bunda" "tanga". . "Cachimbo" and "jiló" Compared to the Portuguese ones, they express our experience.

. . our sense of taste, our senses, our emotions.

"Te faço" "me deixe" "espie". . The Black soul has often done to words what it does to food: it hurts them, removes their bones and hard parts.

. . leaving to the mouth of the white boy only the soft syllables.

" The Africans brought with them their rhythmic patterns. . .

their musical instruments, like "cuíca" and "berimbal". . Their dance styles.

. . and their energetic, elastic, sensual bodies.

. . which stated themselves against any oppression.

"Many of the most nutritious values of the Black people. . .

came with them to America: their vegetables, their dendê oil, their chilli pepper. . .

their okra and their banana. . .

their cooking techniques for fish and poultry. Once in Brazil, the Black people became, in a way. .

. the owners of the land, and they took over the kitchen. " I prepare my beans with a secret ingredient.

You know? A good piece of bacon, a good quality sausage. .

. a good piece of pork ham and jerky. They sit in water overnight.

The first things you put in are the pork feet and the jerky. . .

and the tripe. "An ocean of glue, soap and dendê oil. After they were distributed to the slave quarters across the country.

. . the Black people did not lose touch with Africa.

Some were able to afford to import religious artifacts. . .

and personal belongings. Today, filling the streets of Bahia. .

. we see Black women covered in their native lace suits. " At the farms, when the masters threw parties.

. . the slaves had a day-off.

So, the intelligent slave seized the opportunity to worship his Orixá. The white masters sang their church songs in the master house. .

. and the slaves sang and danced to their Orixás at their quarters. Everybody thought the slaves were just singing crazy songs.

. . but they were actually worshipping.

That was their way of. . .

despite the horrors of slavery and their suffering. . .

calling upon their Orixás. The Orixás may be the leaves. .

. the breeze that blows upon us. So nothing can go against.

. . the forces of nature.

I think that every myth created by the Africans. . .

was inspired in an element of nature. So much so that they say lemanjá controls the ocean. .

. lansã controls the wind, Xangô controls the fire. It was inspired on a fragment of nature, like the ocean.

Health, beauty, wealth, and fertility. The Earth is the stage for the gods. Exu paves the ways.

. . lemanjá breeds love, Omolu heals.

. . Oxóssi watches, and Oxalá smiles.

Gods are present in the present life. Since the Greek times. .

. nobody had created a goddess responsible for love. The Black people in Rio created lemanjá.

That's an amazing cultural move, more important than any novel. It's important for people. Who is lemanjá?

She's a saint who controls the ocean. Nobody asks her for the cure for cancer or AIDS. People ask for a less violent husband, a hotter boyfriend.

. . Jesus and Saint Gabriel Hail, Hail, Hail Mary Hail, Hail, Hail Mary The Africans were so vigorously embedded.

. . in the construction of Brazil.

. . that they ceased to be themselves and became us, the Brazilians.

One has to be culturally strong to influence the mixture of races. The Africans were exactly that. They were so strong that today Oxóssi.

. . is more present in the Brazilian culture than in Africa.

When I first went to Europe. . .

no one asked me if I was Portuguese or ltalian. They asked me if I was Persian, because my face was different. The difference on the faces of Brazilians comes from.

. . the mixture of native lndians and Africans, which makes us beautiful.

We have so much essence, so much life in us, so much singularity. . .

that it is impossible for anyone to erase the Brazilian face. "Rio's carnaval, Bahia's candomblé and lemanjá's worshipping are. .

. in my opinion, the most vigorous matrixes of the Brazilian culture. .

. and they will always be because, within all those. .

. the blackness is not folklore or a cultural survival skill. Creations of black living communities.

. . perpetuate their ancestor African values.

. . because they continuously live and transform them.

" The poet synthesizes the blend. On his work "Abaeté's Legend" he rhymes. .

. "abaeté" with "batucajé" and "quiser" "Abaeté" is tupi, "batucajé" is Bantu. .

. and "quiser" is Portuguese. The tripod Brazilian language.

CREATION PERMANENCE REINVENTION In my childhood we'd make tambourines out of cement bags and empty cans. A very strong changing influence in my life was the radio. I would listen to any style, from candomblé to bolero.

And today, there is the rap. . .

which is listened by the poor Black kids in the outskirts. The rap is a blend of sounds, created by the ability. .

. of the Black people to mend. And it is the sequence.

. . to an entire inner Black wisdom we have.

For a long period. . .

racial prejudice prevented Black people from appearing on TV. . Or even from being mentioned.

One beautiful thing in Brazil. . .

in the last decades is that. . .

with the "Black is beautiful" movement in the U. S. .

. and with our own changes. .

. we started being proud of being Black, mulatto and lndian. That was great because Brazil reunited with its inner self.

The Black culture is not completely accepted. There's some prejudice. .

. yet it is weaker than in the past. Why did the U.

S. succeed, despite being poor. .

. whereas Brazil, despite being illustrious and educated. .

. despite its great cities, went down the drain ? Because this country never existed for its own people.

It always existed for the world market as its brain. In the vision of the world market, 6 million lndians had to die. .

. and, later, 6 million Blacks. That was the dominant class's plan.

Although we go on being the victims and the sufferers. . .

of many social and economic inequalities. . .

created by the lack of understanding on the part of the elite. . .

who does not understand such archaic and traditional culture. . .

beyond being a folklore. The worst thing one can do to a culture is taking over it. .

. and seeing it as exotic. Brazil does not have exoticism to offer.

. . but it does offer a history of evolutionary creation.

. . which is among the most interesting ones in the world.

. . not because it belongs to a museum.

. . but because it offers solutions to the world.

The basic solution within our culture is not a material one. It is spiritual. "No people having such routine throughout centuries.

. . could get out of it without perennial marks.

All of us are fruit of those suffering Black and lndian people. All of us are also part of the hand responsible for their suffering. The sweetest tenderness, and the harshest cruelty.

. . were conjugated here to make us the struggling people we are.

. . the insensitive and brutal people we are as well.

" Despite all the atrocities we suffered. . .

we have to pray for. . .

for the souls of our executioners. They were, despite all the horrible things. .

. that everybody is aware of. .

. they were the way to make our Orixás shine in the New World. Our civilization has something that.

. . Our taste for life, our joy of living are very important.

In a society that is constantly walking towards. . .

the automation of the production line. . .

and the reduction of working hours. . .

the best product Brazil can show for is. . .