Candomblé – A Refuge from Persecution.
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Deoliver47 and Guest Commenter mpimpa.
Each year on New Year’s Eve the beaches of Brazil from north to south are thronged by millions who dress in white and jump over seven waves as a way to start the New Year with blessings. Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach alone has over 3 million attendees.
This joyous celebration is in honor of the African Orixá (Orisha) Iemanjá, (Yemaya or Yemoja) who is the goddess of the sea. Even some Brazilians are unaware of the religious significance of the ritual; 7 is the sacred number of the goddess, and the white garments symbolize the male Orixá Oxala (Obatala) and peace.
Members of Candomblé houses also celebrate a major feast of Iemanjá on February 2.
Iemanjá and Oxalá are mother and father of all the Afro-Brazilian deities and as such, in their embrace they have historically created a place of sanctuary for those who have been persecuted since the discovery of Brazil in 1500 by the Portuguese.
Brazil has the second largest black or afro-descended population in the world, after Nigeria. Most of what is considered to be "Brazilian" culture – music, food, language, dance and customs is West and Central African. The largest number of slaves brought to the New World, estimated in the Transatlantic slave Trade Database as 5,848,265 documented arrivals.
(Slaves on documented voyages represent four-fifths of the number who were actually transported)
Few Portuguese men who came to exploit the new world brought wives with them. So the population grew more and more mixed very quickly; admixture which included Amerindians but was overwhelmingly mixed with Africans. By 1872, 42% of the Brazilian population was free blacks and mulattos.
Slavery was not abolished until 1888.
As soon as the first slaves or children of enslaved mothers were free – they established temples or terreiros of their African religion. Candomblé – the name by which these religious groups are known is really an umbrella term for the many religious groups of different African ethnicities – who organize themselves as "nations". Each temple is headed by a priestess or a priest known as Iyalorixá or Babalorixá. "Iya" means mother in Yoruba, "Baba" means father. Heads of Candomblé temples were often referred to as "Pai de Santo" and "Mae de Santo" but that has recently fallen out of favor due to efforts to delete the syncretism with Catholicism, since Orixa are not "saints", though they were masked as such during the years of Catholic persecution.
During the time of slavery – no sooner would a slave arrive in Brazil who was known to be a priest – they would immediately be bought free. This was accomplished by black laity Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods of the Catholic Church. All of the members of those lay organizations were also practitioners of African religion.
One such group was The Sisterhood of the Good Death (Irmandade da Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte).
Photo by Adenor Gondim - Cachoeira - Bahia August 2002 Dona Estelita, 98 years, of the Sisterhood
The Boa Morte sisterhood was founded in the early 19th century, ostensibly with purely religious intentions to pray for the dead and to provide decent funerals for its members. In fact, the members also intended to preserve African traditions and to free slaves, either by helping them escape or by earning money to buy their freedom. Although the group was the female equivalent of Catholic lay brotherhoods, the Boa Morte's relationship to the church was never formalized. In the 1980's a priest in Cachoeira confiscated the sisterhood's property, including precious jewelry, religious statues and a sandal bearing the image of the Virgin. A young lawyer, Celina Maria Sala, came to their aid, pursuing the case through several appeals and finally finding 19th-century paperwork proving that the sisters, not the church, owned the items. The case was resolved in 1998, but Ms. Sala continues to take a lively interest - now functioning as a festival organizer and liaison with the growing number of curious outsiders who come to the celebration.
After such a bitter conflict, one might wonder if the Boa Morte sisters would continue to stage celebrations in honor of the Virgin Mary. But their sincerity and enthusiasm was clear as the festival began. On the first night, each of the 24 sisters was splendidly turned out in the traditional Bahian garb: ruffled eyelet overblouse, huge ankle-length skirt, lacy turban, white cotton shawl and yards of necklaces made of gold chains, cowrie shells, and beads whose colors signify their personal orixás.
So Candomblé provided the first real escape hatch from slavery, other than running off into the interior and forming a quilombo (maroon settlement)
Freed Candomblé practitioners made trips back to Africa, and sent their children to Africa for religious apprenticeship.
Contrary to the view of slavery as a "one way street" that we are used to in the United States, there was a thriving interchange between blacks in Brazil and blacks in the old world.
This has documented thoroughly by scholars and researchers such as Pierre Verger and Lorand Matory. In modern day Nigeria, Benin and Togo there is actually a large minority population who call themselves "Brazilians" or "Agudas".
There is a 10 part documentary – which is not available online in English which shows those linkages
Black Atlantic: the route of the Orishas/ Atlântico: Negro Na rota dos Orixás is worth viewing, even if you do not speak Portuguese.
Part 1.
The refuge provided by Candomblé houses was not simply a method to escape the nightmare of enslavement (the average life expectancy of a slave in Brazil was about seven years). It was fundamental to the ability to retain culture, languages and traditions and pass them on into the secular world and was a site of fierce resistance. Initially the enemy of Candomblé was the Catholic Church. Every slave had to become baptized and be Catholic. Candomblé houses however provided a refuge and sanctuary for those being persecuted by the Inquisition in Portugal, and later became a safe haven for radical elements of all kinds – those who opposed the government. Key in this was the haven provided for those who defied harsh Catholic moral norms. So the first safe space for the homosexual population of Brazil (persecuted by the church) was in Candomblé houses. This has a lot to do with the non-patriarchal hierarchy of the gods and goddesses themselves. Male priests can experience ritual trance possession by female deities and vice versa and attitudes toward gender and gender identification were very fluid. Many famous and notable heads of Candomblé terreiros past and present are gay and lesbian. More than 50% of the practitioners are GLBTQ.
Brazilian television recently documented the wedding of a gay male couple, married legally by a Babalorixá at a Candomblé ceremony attended by over a 1000 people. Guests included international executives and CEOs. The couple – initially had sought to be married in an ecumenical celebration but the Catholic priest they approached was rude, and refused. One of the young men was a Candomblé initiate had already received the agreement of his Babalorixá to do the ceremony. Subsequently his partner, who had been a Catholic, after the refusal by the priest– changed religion.
The proud couple walked down the aisle on the arms of their moms. (The following is the telecast from Brazilian tv - scenes from the wedding toward the end of the video)
As repression grew in Brazil toward political opposition to conservative rule – whether from Portugal or from heads of state who were dictators – Candomblé house were open to communists, socialists, and radical artists such as Jorge Amado, who was a communist, and was one of the most famous Brazilian authors.
Amado’s work has much to do with Candomblé from the stories he heard while he was being hidden (figuratively) under the broad skirts "Bahianas" of the Mae’s de Santo.
Photojournalist Sylvain Savolainen has a wonderful photo essay of Jorge Amado's Working Class Heroes which includes stunning illustrations of the world he wrote of, including Candomble.
We would recommend that if you have not yet done so - read his novel:
The War of the Saints
Candomblé is a faith system which is deeply rooted in a theology of healing – using herbs and ritual song and dance that deals with not only healing the physical body but provides culturally contextualized mental health services to the community. As such, Candomblé houses embraced many adherents who were ostracized from mainstream society for their supposed mental health status. This started with embracing of those classed as epileptics – targeted by the Inquisition and has continued into modern day practice with those classed by Western medicine as mentally ill.
This also includes physical illnesses which are stigmatized – and so Candomblé houses have embraced and provide sanctuary for persons who have been diagnosed as having HIV/AIDS.
The film Odô Yá!: Life with AIDS
is the affirming story of how Candomble, a Brazilian religion of African origin, has become a source of strength and power for a group of AIDS sufferers. Shot in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Bahia, it shows the rituals of Candomble and the celebration of Carnival. It features the personal struggles and words of wisdom from those whose faith have brought endurance and pride. Rather than denying the sexuality of this African-descendant population, innovative education programs have been developed for its followers. Where other religions preach abstinence, Candomble advocates the use of condoms so that sexuality need not be repressed.
This beautifully shot documentary puts the epidemic in a cultural context, showing how this joyful religion helps its followers cope with the illness.
Academics began to look seriously at Candomblé in the early 1900’s through the research lens of Nino Rodrigues who was a psychiatrist in Bahia. He was curious as to why some of his patients were "cured" through Candomblé, when Western psychiatry had not worked. He wrote the first study of Candomblé.
Contrary to the view held by many in the US who have heard of Candomblé, or those who teach in Black and Latin American or Religious Studies Departments about Candomblé - Bahia (northern Brazil) is not the major center of the Candomblé population, though it has been marketed as such, in order to provide much needed tourist dollars to the poorer population of Salvador Bahia – where there are currently "Candomblé tours", which have become very popular, particularly for African-Americans.
Candomblé adherents are spread throughout Brazil – with millions in Rio, and to give you an idea – Sao Paulo (the Wall Street, New York City of Brazil) had 44,000 registered terreiros in 1990 census. The average terreiro usually has anywhere from 300 to 500 people – including initiates and non-initiates. Even in the south of Brazil which is viewed as very "white" (due to Italian and German immigration) in the last census (2000) – Rio Grande do Sur had 30% of its residents declaring themselves as followers of afro-Brazilian religion. They have their own nations which are called "Batuque", which has spread to Uruguay and Argentina.
Only recently has the Brazilian government formally recognized Candomblé as a major religion and it is now protected by law. Many of the terreiros have been declared historical monuments and receive preservation funding. The State has now mandated the teaching of Afro-Brazilian history and culture, throughout the 12 years of public school.
Interestingly enough there is a new wrinkle or "bossa nova" to the history of the persecution of Candomblé. Where once the persecutors were the Catholic Church and the State, now the Catholic Church – under attack from the onslaught of the rising tide of right wing evangelical churches is attempting to ally itself to the also persecuted Candomblé practitioners. The State – which has established anti-racism laws has taken the side of Candomblé practitioners who are being relentlessly attacked by "Christians" who see devotion to the Orishas as "devil worship". One incident that took place several years ago in Rio ,esulted in the death of a young Candomblé initiate, dressed in white who was shopping in the marketplace, and was set on fire by evangelicals. A second initiate who was with her was scarred for life.
Another more recent atrocity, which was brought to the UN, was the attack on Mae Gilda.
Intolerance Denounced at UN
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 3 , 2009 (IPS) - "Ialorixá" Gilda died of a massive heart attack in 1999 after members of a pentecostal church swarmed into her temple and hit her over the head with a Bible. Her death drew attention to the growing religious intolerance in Brazil, which was denounced this week at the United Nations.
The sectarianism especially targets religions of African origin, as in the case of Candomblé priestess Gilda, according to the report that Brazil’s Committee Against Religious Intolerance (CCIR) presented to Martin Uhomoibhi, president of the U.N. Human Rights Council. But it is also expressed against Jews, Catholics, Muslims and spiritists, says the report presented by the CCIR, which is made up of representatives of a number of different faiths.
The CCIR, which documented 15 cases of religious intolerance in four Brazilian states, accuses pentecostal churches, especially the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, founded in 1977 in Brazil), of attacks and harassment against people of other faiths, and of spreading religious intolerance. In the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God’s (UCKG) efforts to draw in people, which are based on "demonising" Afro-Brazilian religions, "Jews are also portrayed as ‘the killers of Christ’, Catholics as ‘devil worshippers’, traditional Protestants as ‘false Christians’, and Muslims as ‘demonic’ because they follow Mohammed instead of Jesus," says the report.
These Evangelical churches, most notably the "Universal Church of God" which owns and operates television stations and has members who have been elected to public offices, are linked to the growing right wing menace we see in segments the Tea Party movement here in the US, and the witch and gay hunting in places like Uganda.
Members of Afro-Brazilian groups of Candomble, Umbanda, Capoeira along with people of other groups have been marching against intolerance.
Umbandist Atila Nunes made this short film of last years march:
I have FAITH! That one day we can join hands and together try to build a better world, without hardship, without discrimination, no religious intolerance, where we can love each other, and never be offended by difference...
Attacks on Candomblé and related Afro-Brazilian religions by the Christian right has now precipitated a law in Brazil dealing with religious intolerance – which has passed both house of Parliament this year.
It still has to be signed.
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We hope this introduces you to a side of Brazil still fairly unknown here in the US. For a look at the inner workings of a Candomblé terreiro, please visit Candomblé trip to Brazil which is a document of my trip with Maria to the terreiro of Jose Flavio Pessoas, noted Brazilian scholar, and Babalorixá.
Denise, Jose Flavio and Maria
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Popular music Music of Brazil influenced by Candomblé:
Margareth Menezes - Elegibô (Uma História de Ifá)
Clara Nunes - Tribute to the Orixas
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New York Times: Signs of Cover-Up Found After Killings in Haiti Prison
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When the earth shook violently on Jan. 12, the inmates in this southern city’s squalid prison clamored to be released, screaming: "Help! We’re going to die in here."
Elsewhere in Haiti, inmates were fleeing largely undeterred. But here, where the prison itself sustained little damage, there was no exit. Instead, conditions worsened for the inmates, three-quarters of them pretrial detainees, arrested on charges as petty as loitering and locked up indefinitely alongside convicted felons.
After the earthquake, guards roughed up the noisiest inmates and consolidated them into cells so crowded their limbs tangled, former prisoners said. With aftershocks jangling nerves, the inmates slept in shifts on the ground, used buckets for toilets and plotted their escape.
The escape plan, set in motion on Jan. 19 by an attack on a guard, proved disastrous. With Haitian and United Nations police officers encircling the prison, the detainees could not get out. For hours, they rampaged, hacking up doors and burning records, until tear gas finally overwhelmed them.
In the end, after the Haitian police stormed the compound, dozens of inmates lay dead and wounded, their bodies strewn through the courtyard and crumpled inside cells. The prison smoldered, a blood-splattered mess.
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'Calypso and Chutney' politics in this affluent Caribbean nation could put a woman prime minister in power. The Root: Trinidad Election is No Carnival
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In a place as fond of a good time as Trinidad and Tobago, it’s no surprise that much of its election on Monday is being fought through calypso and chutney, creolized up-tempo Indian rhythms. On the airwaves and political platforms, these musical manifestos truncate the issues in catchy choruses for the party faithful and others who go to the polls in what some predict could be a very close contest. "Right now it is difficult to say what will happen," says political scientist and analyst Selwyn Ryan. "The outcome will depend on what happens in two or three marginal constituencies that are too close to call."
Two and a half years before elections would have been required, Prime Minister Patrick Manning is asking the electorate of these energy-rich southernmost Caribbean islands to refresh his mandate. He believes his People’s National Movement deserves re-election for its robust social programs for the poor and seniors, microloans, free education from pre-school to PhD, and the building of an infrastructure to modernize the country.
The twin-island nation off the coast of Venezuela had a per capita GDP of $23,300 in 2009 (well above the average in Latin America), based on oil and gas. GDP grew for 16 consecutive years through 2008. The population is evenly divided between black descendents of Africans and descendents of Indian indentured workers.
Race has been a factor in elections since the islands gained independence from Britain in 1962, with the PNM being overwhelmingly black and the UNC mostly Indian. The antagonisms may be lower this time, given the broad spectrum that has coalesced around Manning’s opponent Kamla Persad-Bissessar. An Indian, she is a charming and charismatic leader who has stirred the nation. She was the country's attorney general when her United National Congress was in power, and is now its political leader and head of an unlikely coalition of parties called the People’s Partnership that is asking voters to throw Manning out.
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Teaching by video from the U.S., Americans instruct Haitians in post-earthquake tent camps in the English the survivors say they need. The textbook is about a family that lost its home in the quake. LA Times: Online English class a draw for Haiti survivors
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On this day, the teacher, Justin Purnell, sits 1,300 miles away in Asheville, N.C. The students are packed into a bare-bones classroom in Port-au-Prince, watching and answering via video on a laptop computer propped in front of them. The steamy air carries the whine of a generator running in the makeshift tent camp outside.
The adult students, some of whom have lived in tents since the Jan. 12 earthquake, are studying English as part of a fledgling project that uses Internet technology, faraway volunteer teachers, donated laptops and an earthquake-themed storybook written especially for the Haitians.
The long-distance English classes are the brainchild of Justin's father, Karl Purnell, a 76-year-old author and former journalist who has used the Internet and video hookups to teach young people in Nepal.
The elder Purnell brought his project, which he calls Teach the World Online, to Haiti in February. He got involved after a longtime friend and fellow journalist, Jurate Kazickas, suggested that he hop a flight there with her husband, Roger Altman, a former deputy Treasury secretary who was flying in supplies for quake victims.
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Trouble in Jamaica. The Gleaner: Attack on State.
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Violence rocked sections of the Corporate Area all day yesterday, as armed men brazenly took on the security forces in a sustained attack on police stations in anticipation of the apprehension of Tivoli Gardens don Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.
Four police stations came under attack; a civilian succumbed to gunshot wounds during an assault on the Fletcher's Land Police Station; and a policeman sustained a minor gunshot injury.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding said last night that two members of the security forces had been injured, but The Gleaner could not confirm the second case.
There were indications before dawn broke that something was afoot - five days after the court issued a warrant for Coke's arrest.
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From ''The Real Housewives of Atlanta'' to ''What Chilli Wants,'' these days, reality TV is fixated on black women. But only when we act the fool. The Root: Has Reality TV Become Black Women's Enemy?
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Remember the ''real'' housewife named Sheree? Whose only claim to fame is that she was once married to a professional football player? Remember how she yanked housewife Kim's blond wig and called her white trash outside of a fashionable Atlanta restaurant? (Kim, the sole Caucasian Atlanta ''housewife'' whose married lover's checks allows her to pay $3,000 on a regular basis to get the fat rolled from her thighs.)
Across the reality-television spectrum, there have always been women like Sheree and her ''friends'' on Bravo TV's The Real Housewives of Atlanta: catty, materialistic, self-absorbed. But are television executives really only interested in black women when we're acting a fool? And more importantly, are we really only interested in seeing ourselves portrayed in this light?
Apparently so: Last month, VH1 dominated the list of top 25 cable shows in black households for reality original programming, returning with the all new Basketball Wives ranked at No. 5. (Like Housewives and Tiny & Toya, the show features ex-girlfriends and wives trying to make names for themselves on the heels of relationships with famous men.) What Chili Wants followed in popularity at No. 7, and Brandy & Ray J came in at No. 11. Executives say that their channel has had a 9 percent increase in black women prime-time viewers ages 18-49 in this past year alone with the success of their reality shows.
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Hey Rand we have a question for you! New York Times: How Equal Was This Separate School?
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You could listen to a lot of dry lectures by a lot of windy history professors and still not learn as much about race issues in the century after the Civil War as you do in "A Place Out of Time: The Bordentown School."
This hourlong film by Dave Davidson, Monday on PBS, seems on the surface to be a simple documentary: the history of an all-black school in Bordentown, N.J., that existed from 1886 to 1955. But by the time the story is told, you have come to see the school as a microcosm of all the good intentions, misguided theories and veiled prejudice that have made equality so elusive for so long.
The school was founded by a black minister, who wanted to create educational opportunities for youths as more and more blacks came north to escape the lack of economic possibility and murderous racism of the South. The school was successful enough that it was soon taken over by the State of New Jersey, but it remained all black — not an overtly negative thing, as scholars and alumni explain.
"It was separated, not segregated," says Barbara Wheeler, a 1952 graduate. "One group is voluntary, one group is forced."
Sounds like a laudable idea: establish a residential school where black educators could find employment and black youths could learn in a safe environment, free of the harassment by white students and teachers they might encounter at an integrated school. And Bordentown established itself as a model institution that emphasized discipline and personal responsibility.
But the seemingly feel-good story is not so clear cut after all. Bordentown was for much of its history a vocational school; the formal name was the Manual Training and Industrial School for Colored Youth. And it reflected a view that was racist in its own way: Sure, it’s great to educate blacks, as long as they’re educated to be chauffeurs and laundresses.
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Sheriff Scott Franklin of Jena says he is trying to rid his community of drugs. Critics say he is pursuing a vendetta against the town’s Black community. Race Talk: Drug bust or racist revenge?
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At four am on July 9 of last year, more than 150 officers from 10 different agencies gathered in a large barn just outside Jena, Louisiana. The day was the culmination of an investigation that Sheriff Scott Franklin said had been going on for nearly two years. Local media was invited, and a video of the Sheriff speaking to the rowdy gathering would later appear online.
The Sheriff called the mobilization "Operation Third Option," and he said it was about fighting drugs. However, community members say that Sheriff Franklin’s actions are part of an orchestrated revenge for the local civil rights protests that won freedom for six Black high school students – known internationally as the Jena Six – who had been charged with attempted murder for a school fight.
One thing is clear: the Sheriff spent massive resources; yet officers seized no contraband. Together with District Attorney Reed Walters, Sheriff Franklin has said he is seeking maximum penalties for people charged with small-time offenses. Further, in a parish that is eighty-five percent white, his actions have almost exclusively targeted African Americans. In a town with just over three hundred Black residents, he sent his 150 officers only into the town’s Black neighborhood.
According to a report from Alexandria’s Town Talk newspaper, LaSalle Parish Sheriff Scott Franklin prepared the assembled crowd for a violent day. "This is serious business what we’re fixing to do," said Sheriff Franklin. "If you think this is a training exercise or if you think these are good old boys from redneck country and we’re just going to good-old-boy them into handcuffs, you’re wrong. These people have nothing to lose. And they know the stakes are high."
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Race Talk: Birmingham, 1963 to Detroit, 2010- The tragedy of bombed and brutalized black girls
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I’ve been sitting in front of this computer screen for the last few hours waiting for my muse to push through my fingertips something worthwhile, even something profound, to say about the death of Aiyana Jones. All I keep seeing is red- senseless blood spilled red, the red of rage, all sorts of red- but no answers. It has been this way every day since I learned of Aiyana’s last moments on this earth. I continue to sit, collecting articles and tears, hoping that I will be blessed with one of those moments of epiphany that will allow me to make sense of it all. I’m shaking my head as I type this. I tell you, I have nothing. Well, almost nothing.
In asking the Divine for words to speak, I found words already spoken- a speech given by James Baldwin to teachers concerning "the self image of the negro child". All that I could think of was Black babies in that moment, and I sort of naturally turn to Baldwin for prescriptions of where and how we fail as the nation we pretend we want to be. I’m sure none of this makes sense to you, but it is how my curious mind works. In this beautifully and eloquently written speech, Baldwin makes the following statement about the murder of Addie Mae Collins (aged 14), Denise McNair (aged 11), Carole Robertson (aged 14), and Cynthia Wesley (aged 14). These four little girls were murdered in the basement of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, after a bible school lesson entitled "The Love That Forgives", a talk designed surely to help children, and adults alike, somehow understand how to live and love through the brutal, and obviously fatal, racism and hate of the Jim Crow south.
It is inconceivable that a sovereign people should continue, as we do so abjectly, to say, "I can’t do anything about it. It’s the government." The government is the creation of the people. It is responsible to the people. And the people are responsible for it. No American has the right to allow the present government to say, when Negro children are being bombed and hosed and shot and beaten all over the Deep South, that there is nothing we can do about it. There must have been a day in this country’s life when the bombing of the children in Sunday School would have created a public uproar and endangered the life of a Governor Wallace. It happened here and there was no public uproar.
Forty-seven years have passed since that dreadful church bombing committed by members of the local Klu Klux Klan, and the criminally negligent investigation administered by local police officers, who simultaneously adorned badges and white sheets. Forty-seven years seem like an eternity, unless maybe, you are Black and poor. If one fast forwards to the day Aiyana was burned and shot to death in Detroit, he or she may consider that time, region, and so called advancements in Blackness have not catapulted our struggle much at all. Black girls are still being brutalized. Many of our police systems still neglect to serve or protect us. No one appears to be as outraged as he or she should be. It is a reality that just makes me feel sad and hopeless. I’m sorry that I don’t have a more ardent way of expressing my feelings; sadness and hopelessness is all I can muster.
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Voices and Soul by Justice Putnam, Black Kos Tuesday's Chile, Poetry Editor
Jorge Mateus de Lima was considered by many to be the most complicated of the artists who took part in the Semana de Arte Moderna (Week of Modern Art) in São Paulo in 1922; that has come to mark the independence of Brazilian literature and art from its European models. Inspired by an iconoclastic insurrection against the Parnassian ideals of the past, with their limiting views of national reality, modernist writers initiated a poetic rediscovery of Brazil and sought a new identity through popular language set in regional and folkloric detail; rich in music and magic, dance and myth. The movement aimed to produce a literature for export to replace the dominant imported literature. Characteristic of Brazilian Modernism as a whole is the promotion of a critical consciousness of national reality, accompanied by an incorporation of its most diverse elements: the Indian and the Portuguese, the piano and the berimbau, the jungle and the school, the religions of the descendents of African slaves and the Landowner Elite.
Though few of de Lima's critics were as enthusiastic about his so-called Christian Phase; when he converted to Catholicism and used its many icons and images in his poetry; he remained true to the ideals of the Semana de Arte Moderna; where myth and reality are not two opposites; but an intermingling that is emblematic of the Brazilian Soul.
Poem To A Sister
(translated by Mariza Góes)
O sister
now that the nights come early
and an immense sadness
hovers above everything
and the silence lingers for so long
turning the dogs insane on the streets,
sister, come to remind me
that we grew up together
when the days were long and different.
Sister, if you know the signs
to change the time, come.
Come because I want to leave
to other places
where seagulls are less useless
and where a heart can be found at each harbour;
and the seabirds
so cleansed and white
and so slow and aware of journeys
come to flap
above my pipe
where the comets of the sky faded.
Sister, on my rhythms
are friends who shout:
Daubler, Ehrenstein, Stramm, suicides,
vagabonds, lepers and prostitutes who
still remember their family prayers.
There are, somewhere, other air, other hills,
other limits...farewell sister.
O, what a long night,
o what such a long night!
What cries outside?
The humanity, or some fountain?
-- Jorge Mateus de Lima
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Welcome to the Front Porch. Pull up a chair and set with us for a spell. If you are new - introduce yourself.
We've got birthday cake on the table today for Black Kos Editor Brother Sephius. Grab a slice.