How samba becomes the badge from Brazil?

If you are Latin, probably, you have noticed much of the musical rhythms from these so diverse and full of joy countries are abundant of African rhythms; their influence is undeniable. Today I decided to write about Brazilian samba because this month full of carnivals was celebrated one of the most important ones: Rio de Janeiro’s carnival.

Why has Africa had a so marked influence in America, if both continents are so far gone from the other? The 8.576 miles that move away both continents were decreased to 0 by the settlers who carry African slaves to work in cacao, sugar cane, cotton, and coffee plantations, bringing their traditions and cultural backup to the Brazilian territory.

The majority of the African slaves stayed in Bahia, a city multiculturally rich thanks to the miscegenation between natives, Africans, and Europeans, becoming, nowadays, the place with more quantity of Afro people in the world, after the African continent. That multi-ethnicity is the major tourist attraction for its population, also for artists focused on promoting samba and Brazilian rhythms worldwide, like Indio Jackson’s case.

Bahia, the epicenter

There, in Bahia, is where the people start talking about batuque, which is any African demonstration that includes dance, singing, and usage of percussion instruments; this was so entertained, also a clear antecedent of Brazilian samba! As well, there were two manifestations that influenced this rhythm. They were also African resistance showings to the oppression in 1800: candomblé and capoeira, mainly, the last one was a mixture between dance and martial art; meanwhile, the first one was a kind of rite and praying. In Brazil, the culture has been closely related to religion, even the carnival! Then, I will count you more about the unknown magic from the samba dance schools’ parades, the color, and the hubbub of this celebration.

Also read: Dancing as a defensive mechanism

Samba dance’ first steps

In 1860 in the zone known as Recóncavo Bahiano, where slaves’ descendants originated samba de roda, a style that is danced creating a circle, also, where its name came from. It was created after finishing its labor when they got together on their patrons’ houses. When the drum sounded, the round began to form itself, spreading the fun around the dance and singing.

The battles to make visible the Afro-Brazilian rhythm

For this time, samba is far from being what nowadays we are accustomed to seeing in Rio’s carnival; time and battles lack yet. The African rhythms had been exclusive of that time carnivals until then. For the XIX century appeared the first samba displays with ijexá, a musical rhythm coming from candomble, but they didn’t succeed, thanks to the prohibitions by dominant social classes. Even so, in 1948, they become the main attraction of Bahia’s carnival turning into the badge rhythm of the Afro revolution in Brazil. However, in 1970 born the new protagonist of the scene: Afro blocos (clusters only of Afro people that joined in celebrating carnivals); what was their goal? Make the people preserve and give value to the Afro-Brazilian culture.

The trip from Bahia to Rio de Janeiro

So, how does Rio de Janeiro turn the samba’s epicenter? The climate change from the beginning of the XX century provoked many denizens to migrate to other zones like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, where samba took instruments and melodies from European musical influences shaping what we know as samba carioca.

The new home of these migrants was the hills that round Rio de Janeiro, also was the place where born the first samba groups related to Rio’s carnival, there emerged the first samba school too: the Deixa Falar. Since that time started to show up some makeshift parades in the city, thanks to they in 1935 the competitive official parade is formalized. Until now, it takes place in the Sambódromo each year, except this 2021 because of the pandemic.

If you want to learn the basic step of this exotic rhythm, you can do it with this StepFlix samba dance class that will zoom in at Rio’s carnival, and you will feel a little bit of the joy that every person that has danced the Brazilian samba has felt.