Afro Latino Music — The Story of the How African Music Took Over the World ~ Part 2
By dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
“Afro-Latina, camina conmigo.
Salsa swagger anywhere she go,
como ‘la negra tiene tumbao!
¡Azucar!’
Dance to the rhythm. Beat the drums of my skin.
Afro-descendent, the rhythms within.”
The influence of the African diaspora’s has been felt throughout the cultures of Latin American and the Caribbean. Among the greatest of these influences is how the music of Latin America has been shaped by the music of Africa. A majority of those enslaved in Latin America came from Africa, although Indigenous people were also enslaved. African rhythm were remixed through both Indigenous and Iberian filters to become the distinct sounds that are today known as Afro-Latino music. Latin musical forms like Cumbia, Bachata, Mambo, Samba and Son Jarocho while all distinctly different from each other all have roots in African musical forms practiced by enslaved Africans.
But just like it was in the USA, racism was also the “original sin” in Latin America and the Caribbean. At the beginning of the 20th century, African inspired music, performed and dance to by Afro-Latinos was often brutally discriminated against by white Latinos. This was especially true in Cuba, the Dominica Republic, and Brazil, although unlike in the USA African drumming was never as strongly repressed. Today many forms of Latin music are still routinely subjected to whitewashing of their roots Afro-Latin. Regardless of this whitewashing Cumbia, Bachata, Mambo, Timba, Salsa, Samba, etc. are still very vibrant expressions of the Afro-Latino musical tradition. These traditional Afro-Latino genres have also influenced waves of new musical art forms, mixing with hip-hop, reggae, electronic, rock and jazz.
As a young Jamaican I didn’t really appreciate the Cuban music from the side of my family who migrated from there to Jamaica. My father liked Cuban music but I was obsessed with the rising Jamaican musical form of dancehall. Later as in life when I started to frequent Latin lounges and later married an Afro-Latino I gained a love of Latin music. Naturally with my love of history of the Caribbean and Latin America I wanted to know more about the source of this music.
With the start of the European conquest and colonization of the Americas in the 15th century, the Spanish and Portuguese brought their cultures, languages, traditions, and music to their newly conquered lands and enslaved indigenous peoples. The Spanish, in particular, carried a rich musical mix of European and Arab influences as their culture was tightly entwined with the Moors of North Africa. The Moors were Muslim inhabitants of the North African Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, and Malta during the Middle Ages.
Along with music, the Spanish introduced instruments like the guitar and the guiro to the New World. The guiro in particular became a signature feature of multiple Latin musical genres like son, trova, salsa, plena, and the traditional Panamanian and Colombian music known as típico.
But the Portuguese and Spanish didn’t just bring their own musical culture to the New World, they also unwittingly carried the rich musical traditions of their African slaves. The African music these captured people brought with them became perhaps the single most recognizable element of Latin music.
Drumming was the very pulse of religious ceremonies in Africa. These rhythmic drum beats were seemly imbued with the very spirit of Africa and her children. During the slave trade era, drumming served as a form of communication, and a way to send codes over long distances (including assisting in slave rebellions). Drumming (unlike in North America including the American colonies) and dancing was one of the few rights that wasn’t taken away from the African people in Caribbean and Latin America. Drumming became a backdrop for free form dancing and grew into perhaps the purest source of joy for enslaved people in Latin America and the Caribbean, rivaled only by religion.
At busy ports all over the Americas and the Caribbean, African slaves and enslaved indigenous peoples of the Americas mingled and exchanged their unique takes on rhythms, dances, and songs, giving birth to a uniquely Latino spontaneous musical collisions. The great tragedy of slavery still gave rise to something beautiful as Africa children turned pain and heartache into art and love through music. The African musical influence is considered most dominant in widely popular Latin musical genres like samba, salsa, merengue, bachata, and timba. Let’s take a spin around Latin America and the Caribbean looking at how Africa’s musical influence created unique takes on rhythms, dances, and songs throughout the region.
Salsa
Salsa uses percussion instruments like the clave, maracas, conga, bongo, tambora, bato, and cowbell to recreate the back-and-forth dynamic of traditional African songs in which drumming is a blend of music and communication.
The exact origin of salsa is a subject of much contention. There is some evidence it’s grew out of Afro-Cuban music, pointing to a Cuba origin. Other researches trace its birth to 1960’s New York City where many Cuban and Puerto Rican musicians playing together may have jointly developed it.
Much like another musical art form with African origins, Jazz, many salsa musicians view slasa as a personal interpretation of style, and vision and not a fixed genre. This outlook is perhaps best captured by the words of Tito Puente, a famous percussionist and bandleader widely considered to be one of the founders of salsa. He is frequently quoted as saying “I’m a musician, not a cook.”
Bomba
Bomba is both a traditional dance and musical style of Puerto Rico. Its origins are rooted in the island's history of African slavery has evolved today into a community expression of Puerto Rican culture. Puerto Rican Bomba is the first “native” music created in Puerto Rico. It was created in Puerto Rican sugar plantations by slaves more than 400 years ago. While Bomba can be used as the generic name for a number of rhythms, it is truly about a creative, interactive relationship between dancers, percussionists and singers. Today it's practiced as a communal activity in its centers of origin in Loíza, Santurce, Mayagüez and Ponce. Also, Puerto Rican migrants have brought the tradition to some parts of the US mainland.
African slaves were brought to Puerto Rico by the Spaniards during the 1600s. The slaves came from different African tribes and through this music, they could communicate. It is Puerto Rican because it has elements of the taínos (Arawaks) like the Maraca and Cuás (2 wooden sticks previously played at the side of the Bomba Barrel), the Spanish like the footsteps in the dancing and the greatest influence of is the African native. This represents the Puerto Rican cultural mix. In Bomba, there are 4 instruments: a Cuá, a Maraca, the Buleador drum and the Subidor drum. In the Batey (sugar workers' town) or a Sobera'o (circle or dance area), the Subidor will score sounds for the steps that the dancer makes, and the Buleador or Follower, follows the rhythm that is constantly played until the “Cantador/a” (singer) says so.
Samba
Samba like many forms of Latin music has been subjected to decades of white washing once it became popular in the public sphere. Ironically what is now one of the vibrant symbols of Brazil and its cultural diversity was once the subject of rebuke and contempt by the upper-class citizens and European settlers who saw it as obscene.
Samba was born in the region of Bahia, known as “Little Africa,” where it was performed to honor the Gods in the traditions of Angola, where most African slaves in Bahia came from. In fact, the word “samba” is considered to have a dual origin, from the Angolan “semba,” meaning “naval bump,” and from “kusamba,” which in Brazil signifies “to pray.”
When slavery was abolished in 1888, former slaves from Bahia migrated to Rio, marking the beginning of samba’s contemporary history. For a while, it was viewed as an entertainment for the lower classes who would gather around in the favelas (Latin American ghettos) and dance together in what they called “blocos” dance groups.
A turning point in the public perception is considered to be Ernesto Dos Santos’s “Pelo Telefone” in 1917, which officially started Samba Carnavalesco. From there, samba schools spread through the country and even to Europe, turning samba into a movement and a source of national pride.
Today, samba has come to epitomize international harmony and vigor.
Merengue and Bachata
Merengue and Bachata are by far the two most iconic musical genres that come from the Dominican Republic. Similar to other types of Latin music, they are the products of the diverse mostly African influences Spanish colonizers brought to the island as they exploited them through the African slave trade.
Despite both genres having origins that traced back to the brothels and working class bars of the 19th century, the Dominican Republic’s notoriously right wing racist dictator Rafael Trujillo was bothered only by bachata’s roots and branded it the lower art form. Trujillo imposed merengue as the national music, especially between the 1930s and 1960s, while bachata was enjoyed only in the countryside. Trujillo feared the “darkening” of the Dominican people and publicly promoted anti-Haitian and anti-black sentiments. In October 1937, in an incident known as the Parsley Massacre, Trujillo ordered the slaughter of an estimated 20,000 Haitians.
Merengue was first mentioned in the mid 19th century with the earliest documented evidence being newspaper articles. Some of the articles inform about a "lascivious" dance, and also highlight merengue displacing the Tumba. The genre had originated within the rural, northern valley region around the city of Santiago called the Cibao. It later spread throughout the country and became popular among the urban population.
On May 30, 1961, however, Rafael Trujillo was ambushed while traveling in his car and gunned down by seven assassins, some of whom were members of his own armed forces. After Trujillo’s fall Bachata was officially labeled a music genre, and could again be played openly in the capital of Santo Domingo and other large cities like Santiago. Bachata has grow to be more popular than meringue, both within the Dominican Republic and around the world.
The earliest bachata originated in the countryside of the Dominican Republic in the first half of the 20th century. José Manuel Calderón recorded the first bachata song, "Borracho de amor" in 1962. The genre mixed the pan-Latin American style called bolero with more elements coming from son, and the troubadour singing tradition common in Latin America. During much of its history, bachata music was disregarded and denigrated by the Dominican elite and associated with rural underdevelopment and crime. As recently as the 1980s, bachata was considered too vulgar, crude and musically rustic to be broadcast on television or radio in the Dominican Republic
Tango
Although today Argentina is often thought of as the most white of Latin American countries, it actually had rather robust Afro-Latino communities. Tango is a dance that has influences from African, Native American and European culture.
Dances from the candombe ceremonies of former African slave peoples helped shape the modern dance of tango. The dance originated in lower-class districts of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The words "tango" and "tambo" around the River Plate basin were initially used to refer to musical gatherings of slaves. Written records abound of Spanish colonial authorities attempting to ban such gatherings as early as 1789. Initially the tango was just one of the many Afro-Latino dances. But during the start of the 20th century in the capital city of Argentina, Buenos Aires, hundred of thousands of European immigrants poured into the city’s harbor, to neighborhoods where prior to mostly Afro-Argentinians lived. All these new arrivals left many of the city’s inhabitants feeling rootless and it made for what was described as “a city full of strangers”.
Near the city’s sea ports were the places these “strangers” could forget their sorrows. Buenos Aires had a plethora of bars and brothels. It was in these brothels during the turn of the 20th century that was we now know as Tango was born. Although the exact point of origin beyond the brothels is unknown, it is well established that the music comes from the beats African slaves played on their drums. The first tango bands, were trios also featuring flutes, violins and guitars. Soon the tango became popular throughout all rungs of society, as theatres and street barrel organs spread it from the working class slums to the wealthier suburbs.
The tango has been called a “dance of sorrow”, it represents frustrated love and human fatality, although originally the dance was not so deep and serious. The original tango music had no lyrics to it and the dances were mostly improvised and in some cases were almost a combination of dance and wordless theater. The dance was supposed to be a representation of the interaction between a pimp and a prostitute; these first tango dances were very sexually charged and featured a duel between two men for the women’s attention. These duel’s always resulted in the symbolic death of one man, and to the triumphant man went his spoils, the women. This earliest form of the Tango is very revealing about Argentinean, urban society at that time. Argentina was such a mixture of cultures and many of them were rough, poor, undereducated, and strangers in a new land. The Tango was their creation. The tango itself also reflects the paternal nature of society of the time and region.
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Currulao
Currulao is the most African influenced musical style from Colombia. Currulao was invented by African slaves who were brought to Colombia beginning in the 1500s to cut timber and mine gold. Currulao combines drums and marimbas and is popular along Colombia’s Pacific coast, where most of the population is Afro-Colombian. Initially, the lyrics predominately dealt with wonders of the natural world. But in recent times, currulao songs have come to reflect the region's status as an often violent hub for drug traffickers with a noticeably harder “urban” tone similar to hip-hop genres like trap music.
In its most basic form, the currulao is played by a group of four musicians. One musician plays a 6-8 rhythm on a drum known as a "cununo", which superficially resembles the "alegre" drum (used in Cumbia) to the untrained eye, but is narrower and taller. The Currulao rhythm is created by both striking the skin of the drum with the one's hand and tapping the side of the drum with a small stick.
The second musician keeps time on a shaker known in parts of Colombia as a "guasá"(goo-ah-SAH) or "guache"(goo-AH-cheh), which is typically a hollow cylinder made of metal, wooden, or guadua bamboo, filled with light seeds, rice is sometimes used in home-made guasás.
But the main instrument of the currulao style is perhaps the Colombian marimba, a wooden xylophone which resembles the African balafon also for the style of playing.
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Timba
Timba is a Cuban genre of music based on popular Cuban music mixed with salsa, American funk and R&B. But Timba has a very strong influence from Afro-Cuban folklore music. Timba’s rhythmic sections differ significantly from their salsa counterparts. Timba incorporates heavy percussion and rhythms which originally came from the barrios of Cuba. Timba emphasizes the bass drum an instrument not used in salsa bands. But Timba and salsa use identical tempo ranges with both using the standard conga marcha. Also timba bands utilize a trap drummer. Timba artist often break the basic tenets of arranging the music in clave. Timba is considered to be a highly aggressive type of music, with rhythm and "swing" taking precedence over melody and lyricism.
Timba is associated with a sensual and provocative dance style known as despelote (literally meaning frenzy). Timba is often described as a more dynamic salsa. It’s full of improvisation and uses parts Afro-Cuban musical heritage like Son, Rumba and Mambo. Timba also taking inspiration from Latin jazz with its percussions and complex sections. Timba is more flexible and includes a diverse range of styles.
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Cumbia
Cumbia began as a courtship dance practiced among the African population on the Caribbean coasts of Colombia. It is a mixture of African, Native Colombian, and Spanish music. The style of dance is designed to recall the shackles worn around the ankles of the slaves. Some music historians believe that it is a direct import from Guinea, which has a popular dance form called cumbe.
Cumbia a complex, rhythmic music arose on Colombia's Atlantic coast around the major port of Cartagena, which even today has the most Afro-Colombians of Colombia’s major cities. In its original form, cumbia bands included only percussion and vocals; modern groups include saxophones, trumpets, keyboards and trombones as well. It evolved out of native influences, combining both traditions.
Cumbia's form was solidified in the 1940s when it spread from the rural countryside to urban and middle-class audiences. Mambo, big band and porro brass band influences were combined by artists like Lucho Bermúdez to form a refined form of cumbia that soon entered the Golden Age of Cumbia during the 1950s. Discos Fuentes, the largest and most influential record label in the country, was founded during this time. Fruko, known as the Godfather of Salsa, introduced Cuban salsa to Colombia and helped bring Discos Fuentes to national prominence by finding artists like La Sonora Dinamita, who brought cumbia to Mexico, where it remains popular.
It is worth pointing out that the "classic" cumbia known throughout Colombia is the Cumbia Cienaguera. This song reflects a uniquely Colombian feel known as "sabor" (flavour) and "ambiente" (atmosphere). Arguably, this song has remained a Colombian staple through the years and is widely known as Colombia's unofficial national anthem. Some artists are Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, Los Graduados, Los Black Stars, Los Golden Boys, Los Teen Agers, and Los Corraleros de Majagual. In the United States, an Afro- Colombian band based in New York called Grupo Rebolu, performs a variety of Afro-Colombian rhythms with authentic instruments such as Tambora and Tambor Alegre. Their repertoire includes Cumbia and many more genres from the Northern coast of Colombia as part of their original compositions.
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Son Jarocho
Son jarocho ("Veracruz Sound") is a regional folk musical style of Mexico from Veracruz, a Mexican state along the Gulf of Mexico. It evolved over the last two and a half centuries along the coastal portions of southern Tamaulipas state and Veracruz state, hence the term jarocho, a colloquial term for people or things from the port city of Veracruz.
Son jarocho represents a fusion of African and Spanish (Andalusian and Canary Islander) musical elements, reflecting the population which evolved in the region from Spanish colonial times. Lyrics include humorous verses and subjects such as love, nature, sailors, and cattle breeding that still reflect life in colonial and 19th century Mexico. Verses are often shared with the wider Mexican and Hispanic Caribbean repertoire and some have even been borrowed from famous works by writers of the Spanish "Siglo de Oro". It is usually performed by an ensemble of musicians and instruments which collectively are termed a "conjunto jarocho". Son jarocho is often played only on jaranas and sung in a style in which several singers exchange improvised verses called décimas, often with humorous or risqué content.
The most widely known son jarocho is "La Bamba", which has been popularized through the version by Ritchie Valens and the American movie of the same name. Other famous sones jarochos are "El Coco" and "La Iguana" and "El Cascabel", all of which have a call and response form, and "El Chuchumbé", "La Bruja".
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Rumba
Rumba is a vibrant form of music and dance that dates back to mid-19th century Havana, with a name that means “party,”. The spirit of the African slaves rhythms and their drumming pulses through the rumba rhythms, which is accompanied by the melodies of Spanish colonizers.
The original form of rumba was a spontaneous outpouring of Afro-Cuban culture still active under repressive slavery. When slavery ended in Cuba in 1886 rumba lived on. But just as in the USA ending slavery in Cuba didn’t mean ending discrimination against black people. Rumba kept being suppressed because white Cuban leaders feared its “primal” nature. In 1925, President Gerardo Machado effectively banned it in public by making “bodily contortions” and drums of “African nature” illegal in public. But after the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro embraced it as the Afro-Latin music of the working class. One of the things often lost in US coverage of Castro was that he ended Jim Cow style segregation in Cuba.
It’s worth mentioning that the ballroom-style rumba that is internationally popular today is vastly different from its ancestor. Most rumba aficionados stress that the beats of the original rumba can only be truly felt when drummed on stools and domino tables on the streets of Havana.
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Calypso Limonese
Costa Rican popular music genres include an indigenous calypso scene, which is distinct from the more widely known Trinidadian calypso sound. The Caribbean coast of Costa Rica shows a strong African influence in the complex percussion rhythms such as sinkit. Like its northerly neighbors in Central America, the marimba is a very popular instrument, and Costa Rican marimba music is very popular.
Calypso Limonese is the musical expression of the black population in the Province of Limón. Artists like Walter Ferguson, Cyril Silvan, Herberth Glinton, Danny Williams, Kawe Calypso , Cantoamérica and Manuel Monestel are some of the most prominent calypso creators.
Calypso music has helped preserve the Afro-Caribbean culture in Limón. It is often seen as “message music” and frequently portrays real people or events in the community, and contains many cultural aspects. Calypso Limonese has two objectives: to teach the younger generation about the history of their hometown and what might have changed. Calypso music is not often considered a typical “Latin” style of music; Calypso Limonese does fall into this category.
Calypso originated in Trinidad and was first brought to the Limón Province in the 1870s by railroad construction workers. Many more Afro-Caribbean workers came to Limón to work for the United Fruit Company.
In Trinidad, Calypso music was created so that the African slaves could communicate with each other. Often times in Trinidad black slaves were not allowed to speak to each other; therefore they communicated in song. Calypso music also became a way for the African slaves to make fun of their masters. However, Calypso music during this time was in French Creole, but by the turn of the 19th century, it was being sung in English. Although Trinidad was ruled by England, it received many French immigrants. Over time, Calypso music became a popular style of music and was the main attraction in Trinidad’s carnival, a festival brought over by the French. In the beginning calypso songs would mostly talk about unserious or comical topics, however as time went on, many Trinidadian calypsoians started to sing about social and political issues that the Afro-Trinidadian was facing during the late 19th to mid 20th centuries.
Calypso music became a way of expressing the Caribbean culture in the Limón province. Over time, Calypso became a way of expressing the Afro-Costa Rican culture in this area as well. The Caribbean influence in Limón has made cultural aspects like Calypso music a strong identifying factor in Costa Rica.
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Maracatu
Maracatu is a genre of Afro-Brazilian Carnival music played primarily in the North East regions of Brazil, especially the states of Recife and Olinda. The music serves as the backdrop for parade troops that grew out of colonial era coronation ceremonies (investiture ceremonies) conducted in honor of the Reis do Congo the “Kings of Congo”. These Kings were African slaves who occupied symbolic leadership positions among the slaves. Important female characters are performed by cross-dressed male performers, and all African and Afrobrazilian performers use a form of makeup outsiders confuse with blackface. Maracatu is played on large alfaia drums, large metal gonguê bells, snare drums and shakers.
When slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888, the institution of the Kings of Congo ended. The nações troops, continued to choose symbolic leaders with coronation ceremonies for those leaders. Although a maracatu performance is secular, traditional nações are grouped around Candomblé or Jurema (Afro-Brazilian religions) terreiros (bases), and the principles of Candomblé infuse their activities (See Afro-Caribbean religions (Black Kos) -2018).
Traditional nações are perform by parading with a drumming group of 80–100, a singer and chorus, and a coterie of dancers and stock characters including a king and a queen. Dancers and stock characters dress and behave to imitate the Portuguese royal court of the Baroque period.
The performance also enacts pre-colonial African traditions, like parading the calunga, a doll representing tribal deities, that is kept when not in use, in a special place in the nação's headquarters. The calungas, traditionally female, are made of wax, wood, or cloth. The calungas, have clothing made for them similar in style to Baroque costumes worn by members of the royal court. The calunga is considered sacred, and carrying the spiritual figurehead of the group is a great honor for the woman chosen as the Dama de Paço (Lady-in-Waiting) of the troop.
The musical ensemble of maracatu consists of alfaia (a large wooden rope-tuned drum), gonguê (a metal cowbell), tarol (a shallow snare drum), caixa-de-guerra (or "war-snare"), abê (a gourd shaker enveloped in a net of beads), and mineiro (a metal cylindrical shaker filled with metal shot or small dried seeds). The song form is call and response between a solo singer and (usually) a female chorus.
Today there are around 20 nações operating in Recife and Olinda, Brazil with several haven unbroken lines of activity dating to the early 19th century. Well-known nações include Estrela Brilhante, Leão Coroado, and Porto Rico. Each year they perform during the Carnival. Maracatu Nação Pernambuco, while not a traditional maracatu, was primarily responsible for introducing the genre to world wide audiences in the 1990’s.
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Reggaeton
Reggaeton is the youngest of Latin music genres. Reggaeton is a tropical mix of musical influences. Reggaton combines flavors of Jamaican reggae rhythms, merengue, bomba and plena (Puerto Rican percussion-heavy music styles and dances with African roots, originally performed spontaneously on the streets), hip-hop, and sometimes salsa.
It’s debatable on if reggaeton originated in Panama or Puerto Rico. On one hand, the Panama Canal is credited as the place where Jamaican music finally collided with Latin rhythms and dances. In the early parts of 20th century thousands of Jamaicans migrated to work in Panama (including my late uncle), bringing with them their music as they traveled back and forth between the two countries even to this day. Panama is where Edgardo “El General” Franco road buses that regularly stopped in Panama City’s traditionally West Indian Río Abajo neighborhood, and had the 1st big reggaeton hit “Tu Pun Pun”. On the other hand the majority of the most influential and earliest purveyors of reggaeton music came from Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is also where the Jamaican “Dem Bow” beat popularized by Jamaican dancehall artist Shabba Ranks first became a Latin craze.
In either case, reggaeton is yet another example of the fascinating intersections of various musical styles that spontaneously occur in Latin America when African rhythms mix with other Latin American styles.
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The influence of the African diaspora has been felt and interpreted throughout Latin American and Caribbean cultures. The great tragedy of slavery still gave rise to something beautiful as Africa’s children turned pain and heartache into art and love through music. African slaves, the enslaved indigenous peoples of the Americas, and Iberian instruments, mingled and exchanged their own unique takes on rhythms, dances, and songs. This collision gave birth to a uniquely Latino spontaneous musical mix. So enjoy a little collection of music and dance with the partner of your choice…. or dance by yourself! But not matter what let’s enjoy the rhythm of Afro-Latino music together.
Sources:
Youtube as noted
Alt Latino: For Black History Month, Celebrate Afro-Latino Music With Smithsonian Folkways
Culture Owl: FASCINATING HISTORY AND ORIGINS OF LATIN MUSIC
University of Michigan: Tango
Wikipedia: Tango
NPR: Afro-Colombian Music Offers Youths A Rhythmic Alternative To Drug Gangs
Wikipedia: Timba
Wikiepedia: Cumbia
The Perception of Calypso Music as an Identity Issue in the Communty of Cahuita - Diana Razo, Knox College
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NEWS ROUND UP BY DOPPER0189, BLACK KOS MANAGING EDITOR
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The early data we have on vaccination rates is incomplete, but one fact is particularly alarming: Black Americans are getting vaccinated at a much slower rate than their white counterparts. This is troubling given how hard the pandemic has hit Black Americans.
But it’s also concerning because people often misunderstand why the rate is lower. Many are quick to point to a distrust of the medical community, as Black people do have a long history of being ignored or actively mistreated by health care professionals in the U.S. — most notably, in the infamous 40-year-long Tuskegee study, which denied Black men treatment for syphilis so researchers could track the natural progression of the disease. But a recent Pew survey challenges the idea that Black Americans are hesitant to get vaccinated: A majority of Black adults (61 percent) told Pew that they either planned to get a COVID-19 vaccine or have already gotten one, a sharp uptick from the 42 percent who said in November that they planned to get vaccinated.
And this reflects what health experts have told me about this issue. They don’t really think distrust of the vaccine explains the large gaps we’re seeing in vaccination rates. What’s more, blaming the gap wholly on distrust is dangerous because it puts the onus on Black Americans around vaccinations and distracts us from the real reasons why the inoculation rate is lower. “The experience of Black Americans within the U.S. health care system has been extremely troubled to say the least,” said Sean Dickson, the director of health policy at the West Health Policy Center. “But we don’t want to rely on the narrative that Black people aren’t willing to get the vaccine,” he said, adding that he thought the real issue was the lack of investment in vaccine distribution in Black communities.
In fact, a recent NPR analysis found that vaccine hubs, particularly ones in Louisiana, Texas and Alabama, were largely missing from predominantly Black and Hispanic communities, while few whiter neighborhoods were without one. And in a national study conducted in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, Dickson found that Black Americans in nearly two dozen urban counties in and around Atlanta, New Orleans and Dallas, among a host of other cities, faced longer driving distances to vaccine centers than white Americans.
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Everyone expected it to be bad. Everyone expected it to be damaging. But no one could have expected that Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry would be this bad and this damaging.
During the two-hour interview that aired on Sunday, Meghan shared that while she was pregnant with her son, Archie, there were palace conversations and concerns about how dark his skin color will be. She also stated that once she and Harry took a step back from royal duties in 2019, they were informed that they would not receive a security detail—even as Meghan wrote a letter to the royal family pleading for protection for her son and for Harry. Throughout the session, Harry emphasized dismay toward the lack of support offered to his wife by his own family, even as she was barraged with racism and divisiveness from the press.
And perhaps most disheartening of all, Meghan shared that she was pushed to the brink of suicide, as she thought it would “solve everything for everyone.” When she went to the palace’s human resources team, she was told: “There is nothing we can do to help you because you are not a paid member of the institution.”
There can be no doubt whatsoever: This is racism, seriously and potentially deadly racism, at the very pinnacle of Britain and the Commonwealth. But it didn’t have to be this way.
The former Meghan Markle, Britain’s first Black princess, offered a chance to heal Britain’s brutal and complex relationship with race. That chance was robustly destroyed by the racism of the royal establishment itself.
For much of the Black community in Britain, Meghan Markle’s marriage to Prince Harry marked the moment in which it could no longer be denied that there was Black in the Union Jack. To Black Britons who, alongside their forebears, bore the weight of the British Empire for centuries, the marriage signaled that we had finally broken into every single corridor of British society—and in that lay endless potential.
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Senegal Erupts in Protests, in one of West Africa’s most stable countries, demonstrators took to the streets to voice their grievances with the president. after a leading opposition figure, Ousmane Sonko, was accused of rape. BBC: Senegal protests: Ousmane Sonko calls for bigger protests after rape charge
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Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko has called for more protests against President Macky Sall after being released on a rape charge. Mr Sonko's arrest last week sparked days of deadly protests.
He is accused of assaulting a woman who worked in a massage parlour but he says the case is politically motivated to stop him running again in elections. Mr Sall denies this and has appealed for calm, asking protesters to leave the issue to the courts.
At least eight people have been killed in the protests, the most serious Senegal has seen in several years.
After Mr Sonko was released on Monday, he called for much larger protests but made a point that they should be peaceful and that he was not looking to overthrow the president.
"We are not asking the people to go and unseat Macky Sall... But let's be clear, the revolution is marching its way to 2024," Mr Sonko is quoted by Reuters news agency as saying, referring to the next presidential election.
Mr Sall also addressed the issue on Monday, for the first time, in a televised speech.
He said that young people were taking to the streets because they don't have jobs. He promised extra funding for entrepreneurship and to shorten the nightly curfew, imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has stifled the informal economy, Reuters adds.
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Tanzania’s president, John Magufuli, is critically ill in a hospital in Kenya after contracting coronavirus, the threat of which he has repeatedly trivialised, an opposition leader has said, citing sources with knowledge of the case.
The 61-year-old president suffered a cardiac arrest and flew to a hospital in Nairobi for urgent treatment, Tundu Lissu told the BBC.
Lissu’s claims have not been independently verified, but Magufuli has not been seen for almost two weeks, sparking widespread speculation about his health and whereabouts. His absence is unusual as he is known for making frequent public speeches and appearing on state television several times a week.
Another politician told the Associated Press that he had spoken to people close to the president who said he was seriously ill and hospitalised. The politician asked to remain anonymous for fear of a backlash from Tanzania’s repressive regime.
Magufuli has repeatedly denied that Covid-19 is spreading in the east African country and claimed without evidence that vaccines are dangerous, suggesting instead that people pray and inhale herbal-infused steam.
Despite numerous requests by the World Health Organization, Tanzania has not published any statistics on cases since May, when it registered 509 infections. It has no known testing programme in place and health officials have been forbidden from mentioning the virus.
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Nearly a year after George Floyd’s death, many activists, citizens and people of color are still on edge. Our reporter is there. Color Lines: Minneapolis and This Moment
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Ten months ago, an uprising erupted in Minneapolis following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. This March, the officer charged in that murder, former Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) Officer Derek Chauvin, will stand trial. In preparation for that moment, downtown Minneapolis is awash in new fencing; city leaders are deep in discussion about public safety and community anger, and state legislators are playing “keep away” with funding for the state’s National Guard that dates back to the original uprising in May 2020. The National Guard will be present throughout the trial, but the state is not yet sure how related costs will be covered.
At this moment, at George Floyd Square, at the intersection of East 38th St. and Chicago Ave. in South Minneapolis, people are continuing to gather to mourn the life of George Floyd and every Black person killed at the hands of the Minneapolis Police. That living memorial, erected after Floyd’s death, is a community gathering space for sharing resources like food, art, movement trainings and books—for memory, and for healing. The city, in part due to community objections, has yet to open that intersection to any vehicular traffic.
Yet the violence of this moment has breached the square’s walls too. On March 6 an Agape volunteer was murdered in a shooting, and a second person at the square was shot. Agape is a community protection movement for George Floyd Square. Additional details are not yet known and the square was shut down to the public on March 7 so that the injured and deceased’s friends and family could gather to mourn.
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The eyes of the free speech community are upon Texas this month. Last week, The Texas Tribune reported that University of Texas athletic officials commanded Longhorn football players to remain on the field after games last season for the traditional alma mater performance. Players have long gathered postgame as a unit in front of fans, giving the “Hook ’Em Horns” salute and singing along while the band plays “The Eyes of Texas.” But players bucked the trend last fall, leaving the field before the band struck up after multiple games in objection to the song’s historical ties to minstrel shows. The team subsequently reverted to staying on the field for the song.
Multiple players received threats from fans for refusing to participate in the ritual. And according to emails uncovered by the Tribune, at least 75 wealthy donors were so upset that they threatened to pull millions of dollars in donations. Athletic director Chris Del Conte denied that school officials had made players remain on the field in response to the donors’ demands. “We simply asked for their help—no one was forced or required to do so,” he said in a statement. The university adamantly stood behind the song, a decision that university president Jay Hartzell cast as a vindication of free speech principles.
On Tuesday, the university published a committee report on the song’s history and the recent controversy. The report concluded that the song, despite debuting at a 1903 minstrel show, “had no racist intent in that it was intended to parody the famous phrases of the university president.” The song will continue to be played at games. But Hartzell acknowledged at a press conference that, going forward, student involvement will be optional: “Whether it’s the case of the athletes standing on the field, or the fans in the stands as we sing, there’s going to be no punishment, no mandate, no requirement if people choose not to participate.”
That concession is legally significant, because the First Amendment applies to UT (including its athletic department) as a public institution. That status means there are strict limitations on administrators dictating players’ expressive activity. The Supreme Court has read into the First Amendment a right of association and its corollary, a right not to associate. As a result, the government—and government institutions—generally can’t compel people to support an unwanted idea.
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It was just as Covid-19 lockdowns were beginning. McRae created and performed a dance to Captain Hook, Megan Thee Stallion’s sex-positive club banger. She encouraged others to try out the dance themselves with a hashtag, #captainhookchallenge, and a tutorial video that explained her dance step-by-step. The videos were popular, attracting more than 400,000 likes. Within weeks, many of the platform’s top stars—influencers with millions of followers—performed their versions of her choreography, helping the song soar in popularity, too. In April, Megan Thee Stallion herself joined in, posting a 15-second video from her kitchen.
McRae was in heaven. “I realized, wow, I created something that people love,” she says. She started gaining followers by the thousands. Soon musicians and record labels were getting in touch, asking her to promote their songs and offering to pay her around $500 per dance. McRae found a talent manager and quit her job as a sales manager at Massage Envy in Miami.
In May, McRae received $700 from Universal Music Group to promote a new song, Out of Love by the rapper Lil Tecca, with a new dance challenge. It was a hit, too, and McRae was excited a few weeks later when she saw Addison Rae Easterling repeating her dance. Easterling isn’t quite as famous as Megan Thee Stallion, though in the world of TikTok influencers she’s the queen: She has 70 million followers (to McRae’s 1.1 million) and has made, according to Forbes, millions of dollars off her dances and lip-sync videos, thanks to deals with brands that include American Eagle, Fashion Nova, and Reebok.
McRae is Black and Easterling is White, which seemed germane when she learned from her manager that Easterling had also been hired to perform McRae’s dance and was paid substantially more. Instead of the hundreds of dollars Universal gave McRae to create the dance, Easterling had been paid thousands by Lil Tecca for just her performance. The news burned. “I’m creating the art, I’m giving you the art, without me there would be no art,” McRae says. “But I don’t get the same respect, the same amount that these White creators get.”
The phenomenon of White artists appropriating the work of Black creators—and getting paid more to do it—is as old as the entertainment industry itself. But McRae’s experience cuts against the meritocratic promises of the likes of TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, which allow creators to achieve celebrity without going through agents or casting directors. Now that there’s real money to be made on these platforms—brand endorsements on social media account for $10 billion a year globally, according to SignalFire, a venture capital firm that tracks industry data—a new class of gatekeepers has emerged. They’re corporate marketers and digital ad agency executives trying to capitalize on the new Hollywood, and most of them are White. The result, according to interviews with dozens of influencers, is that White social media stars consistently make far more than their Black counterparts, even in cases where Black influencers have more followers or are doing more of the creative work. White choreographers with followings similar to McRae’s routinely make $5,000 to create and perform a dance. McRae generally gets one-tenth that, and she has noticed the same pay disparity across the industry. Although Easterling at least credited McRae, other white influencers often fail to do so.
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WELCOME TO THE FRIDAY’S PORCH
IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE BLACK KOS COMMUNITY, GRAB A SEAT, SOME CYBER EATS, RELAX, AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF.