Amaro Freitas | Sankofa: An Album of Black Brazilian History & Jazz

Modern Afro-Brazilian cultural production combines traditional elements with contemporary forms, creating what is called 'música periférica' (peripheral music) that connects with similar movements worldwide. The ongoing work of Afro-Brazilian artists represents continuation of historical struggles for recognition and dignity. Traditional instruments like drums remain central to this cultural expression, maintaining connections to ancestral traditions while creating innovative contemporary art forms.

This section traces the historical development of black activism in Brazil, from quilombo communities during slavery to modern organizations like Elia Gaye (founded 1978). Longtime activists like Abdias do Nascimento characterized Brazilian racism as genocide. Contemporary cultural expressions, including music videos celebrating black identity and natural hair, demonstrate how artistic production shapes racial consciousness. These movements have successfully shifted public discourse from class-based to explicitly racial analyses of discrimination.

Black people in Brazil face systemic racism that manifests as daily violence, including denial of education, dignified work, and fair wages. Their bodies and existence are still killed, violated, and beaten simply because they are Black. This requires constant vigilance without days, hours, or specific locations. The fight against racism occurs at multiple levels: in Parliament, the Executive, and in every individual space including work, family, community, and home. Each person has the right to claim their space and declare 'this is my place.' Even in cities like Niterói, which are rich and large, racism persists with violent and intolerant cases. Black people must mark their struggle daily in their communities, emphasizing that collective resistance, unity, and solidarity are essential for victory. The 2022 political achievement of removing President Bolsonaro was important, but the next years will not be years of rest. The mission to reconstruct the struggle of the Black people and their community continues. The Viva Zumbi event celebrates Afro-Brazilian cultural heritage through traditional African cuisine (bobó de camarão, carne de sol com aipim, caldos) and religious traditions featuring powerful female deities like Iemanjá, representing the sea and motherhood. The speaker describes women as 'warrior women' with courage and strength, connecting religious tradition with female empowerment.

Brazil is an Afro-Latin American country where Black culture permeates all aspects of life, including food, music, and ways of speaking. Despite nearly 60 years of telenovelas, Black representation remains critically low, highlighting a significant gap in media visibility. The 'Black is beautiful' movement emerged as a pivotal moment for Black self-affirmation. Representation matters because it humanizes Black individuals and challenges systemic racism. Brazil ranks as the seventh worst country in the world for women to live in, with violence against Black women increasing by 50% despite laws reducing violence against white women. Brazilian education often teaches Portuguese history rather than Brazil's own history, creating historical erasure. Only 3% of dolls produced in Brazil are Black. The goal is not to be equal to anyone but to deserve equal rights, with representation showing that Black people exist and belong in all spaces.

Throughout the 20th century, Afro-Brazilian communities created diverse organizations including quilombos, terreiros, and clubs to preserve culture and build citizenship. These groups invested in study groups and created their own press. Cultural expression through music became central, with Samba, Carimbó, and Maracatu creating unique artistic traditions. The Teatro Experimental do Negro brought reflection on Black experiences to dramatic literature. In the 1970s, the American Black Power movement influenced Brazilian funk and hip hop, with groups like Sou Grand Prix promoting Black consciousness. The Unified Black Movement was founded in 1978, advocating for diversity and affirmative action policies in universities.

Suite: Colombia" by Gregorio Uribe, performed by Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, is part of the project "Jazz Across The Americas: Colombia and Peru," which highlights jazz as expressed by leading artists and composers from Colombia and Peru now living in the United States. The orchestra performed existing repertoire from these artists and premiered newly commissioned works. The description emphasizes that for over five centuries, European, African, Middle Eastern, and other global cultures have merged with indigenous South American traditions, resulting in unique musical hybrids found nowhere else. These hybrid styles form the foundation of the jazz expressions explored in the project. Arturo O'Farrill describes Colombian and Peruvian rhythms and song forms as seamlessly integrating into the evolving future of jazz, framing jazz as an authentically American art form only when it embraces the broad cultural tapestry stretching from Africa to Lima, Cali, and New Orleans. He likens this cultural convergence to a Kente cloth, symbolizing interconnectedness among diverse peoples with adventurous and open-minded spirits. The project reflects a sustained commitment to expanding jazz’s sonic palette by incorporating the musical identities of all the Americas.

Afro-Peruvian jazz is a genre that combines jazz and Afro-Peruvian musical traditions, respecting essential elements from both as if they were strict folkloric forms. Unlike simple musical replacement, this fusion creates something entirely new—a unified whole with its own identity. The genre's key characteristic is jazz's flexibility and ductility, enabling musicians to establish connections between traditions rather than choosing one over the other. This approach represents an ongoing exploration of musical boundaries and cross-cultural synthesis.

Afro-Cuban jazz was not born in Cuba but in New York City. In 1939, the Machito Afro-Cubans on 10th Street and Fifth Avenue were the first to fuse jazz arranging techniques with Afro-Cuban rhythms. This fusion created a new genre combining jazz sophistication with Afro-Cuban rhythmic complexity. The performance demonstrates this through Afro-Puerto Rican rhythms like Bomba and Yubba, and La Clave - the key rhythm inherited from West Central Africa that spread throughout the Caribbean and New Orleans. The song 'What Is This Thing Called Love' by Cole Porter (1939) is performed using these Afro-Puerto Rican rhythms, showing how European compositions were transformed through Latin rhythmic traditions.

Afro-Cuban Latin Jazz is a genre characterized by its distinctive rhythmic foundation based on the clave pattern, which serves as the essential rhythmic backbone that all instruments must follow throughout the entire song; unlike traditional jazz which uses swing rhythm with accents on beats 2 and 4, Afro-Cuban jazz employs a straight rhythm with every instrument allocated a specific complementary rhythm that meshes together to create a tight, recognizable groove, with the most important element being the clave rhythm played on percussion instruments like clave sticks, and pianists typically playing the montuno rhythm in the right hand while the left hand plays the tumba rhythm.

The speaker explains how Afro-Cuban jazz emerged from the convergence of Cuban and American musical traditions in the 1950s. Cuban musicians like Chano Pozo (a rumbero from the 1930s) and Machito were pioneers in introducing Afro-Cuban percussion elements into jazz. Chano Pozo was instrumental in bringing the Afro-Cuban drum into jazz, while Machito expanded this influence. This fusion created what was initially called 'Afro-Cuban jazz' but later became known as 'latin jazz' as the style spread globally. The 6/8 rhythm from rumba became a fundamental element in this new musical genre.

Decolonial theory requires the voices of indigenous peoples from their own territories, not just theoretical frameworks developed in Western academic contexts. The philosopher Aon Krenac (from the Tupinambá people) represents an indigenous perspective on decoloniality that challenges Western theoretical constructs. This perspective emphasizes that decoloniality cannot be achieved through empty theory or language that describes separation or integration, but requires direct engagement with indigenous languages and worldviews.

This panel discussion explores how African music composition has been systematically colonized through Western educational models, church music imposition, and institutional frameworks that prioritize written Western notation over oral traditions, and presents indigenous models such as creative musicology, research composition, native airs, African pianism, drumistic piano, African vocalism, and the African orchestral model as pathways to decolonize African music composition by centering African harmonic systems, oral traditions, and indigenous performance practices.

Decolonialism is an intellectual movement that emerged in the 1980s to challenge Western hegemonic knowledge systems and reveal the power relations inherent in colonial processes. This perspective argues that true decolonization requires not only political independence but also cultural liberation from Eurocentric frameworks that have historically marginalized non-Western musical traditions. The movement emphasizes that understanding music requires recognizing diverse cultural perspectives and that many musical traditions have been systematically silenced or distorted by colonial narratives.

Additional decolonial proposals include: (4) Dialogue with community musical realities—recognizing knowledges in fairs, organic markets, terreiros, and popular parades as legitimate learning sources; (5) Multi-instrumental dialogue—recognizing saxophone as strategic partner and welcoming multi-instrumental practice; (6) Multiple forms of learning—integrating orality, collective practice, and body-based learning; (7) Transgression of standard classroom—learning music in streets, circles, and encounters with communities; (8) Musical creation as structuring practice—positioning composition, improvisation, and arrangement as central; (9) Ethical formation—forming subjects sensitive to world's pains and committed to transformation, where music becomes political gesture and act of care.

Decolonial thought reaches peripheral countries through importation of hegemonic models from central universities, functioning like an IMF program. This process risks becoming a device for cultural subordination while ignoring local critical traditions. Anachronism occurs when scholars incorrectly apply contemporary frameworks to historical figures - claiming Guerreiro Ramos or Fanon were decolonial ignores their distinct Marxist and nationalist contexts. This erases the fact that anti-colonial movements existed independently of today's decolonial debate, with figures like Bolivar critically engaging European Enlightenment thought rather than simply adopting decolonial frameworks.