AFRO BRAZIL: The African Diaspora In BRAZIL

hey guys I'm fighter and today we're

going to be talking about the African

diaspora in Brazil did you know that

Brazil has the biggest African asper

community outside of Africa the 2010

census in Brazil shows that for the

first time the majority of the Brazilian

population identified this

afro-descendant this between 7% of

Brazilians the equivalent of over a

hundred million people self-identified

as black or mixed-race the statistic I'm

about to give you are truly staggering

the transatlantic slave trade as we know

it began when the Portuguese completed

the first transatlantic slave voyage to

Brazil in 1526 from 1501 to 1866 an

estimated 4.9 million enslaved Africans

were trafficked to Brazil

that's nearly 40% of all slaves traded

in the transatlantic slave trade and at

least four times the number of slaves

that were trafficked to the United

States Brazil was the last country in

the Western Hemisphere to a boyish

slavery in 1888 slave labor was the

driving force behind several key

industries in Brazil including sugar

production golden diamond mining coffee

production and agriculture as was the

case across Latin America enslaved

Africans in Brazil escaped and formed

maroon settlements could Columbus the

most famous of which was Palumbo dos

palmares which existed for most of the

17th century it was a relatively large

Colombo with a population of several

thousand escaped slaves and indigenous

people who formed a complex and

structured society at its height it had

a population of 30,000 people and

spanned over eleven villages occupying a

landmass the size of Portugal the most

famous afro-brazilian slave resistance

leader was zombie the last king of

palmares who led the fierce

counter-attack against the Portuguese

forces trying to seize the Colombo

although the settlement was captured in

1695 and zombie was decapitated

today he is a powerful symbol of

assistance against slavery in Brazil and

Portuguese colonial rule to this day the

descendants of Africa's ilion's living

in Colombo settlements fight for the

right to their ancestral land in 2018

for the first time a Colombo community

was given land titles when the cash

weighed a pathetic immunity of 500

people was formally granted 220,000

hectares of Amazonian rainforest a key

turning point was the Haitian Revolution

which ended in 1804 whereby the

afro-descendant population of Haiti

rebelled against the white French elites

and claimed their independence both from

French colonial rule and their European

slave masters this sent shockwaves

across Latin America which were felt as

far as Brazil some afro-brazilians even

wore portraits of Haitian revolutionary

leader jean-jacques the saloon in

pendants around their necks however

after the collapse of the sugar industry

in Haiti

it was Brazil that catered to the

increased demand for sugar enslaved

Africans continued to be imported in

large numbers to the region of by air

from the Haitian Revolution onwards

slave rebellions became more frequent

and more brutal the largest rebellion

occurred in 1835 in salvador and was

known as the male uprising it was

orchestrated by African born Muslim

slaves who intended to free all of the

slaves in Bahia

however the rebellion was crushed and

many participants were arrested executed

flogged or deported relations were tense

between enslaved Africans who had

recently been imported and the enslaved

Africa's ilion's who had been born into

slavery on Brazilian soil the

afro-brazilians were comprised of blacks

and mulattoes who were mixed with the

European ancestry of their slave masters

they were treated better were more

likely to be emancipated often because

they were the slave masters children and

had great opportunity for social

mobility once they had been freed in

fact it was not uncommon for wealthy

free blacks and mulattoes in Brazil to

have slaves of their own it was arguably

these internal divisions that held the

enslaved population back from staging a

successful revolt although Brazil gained

its independence from Portugal in 80

22 slavery wasn't formally abolished

until 1888 when Princess Isabel of

Brazil passed the lay area the golden

act

this made Brazil the last country in the

Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery

the sheer amount of slaves that had been

trafficked to Brazil during the slavery

era meant that the Brazilian population

was now majority black and

afro-descendant at a time when

scientific racism was gaining popularity

the Brazilian government sought to

whiten the racial profile of the country

it implemented a tactical whitening

whereby from the late 1800s to the early

1900s Brazil encouraged and even

subsidized the mass influx of white

European immigrants to Brazil the

countries with the highest numbers

settling in Brazil were Italians

Portuguese and Spanish although this

didn't eradicate blackness from Brazil

it reinforced the trope that whiteness

should be aspired to and that marrying

someone whiter was an instrument of

social mobility in the 20th century the

black movement in Brazil gained momentum

a defining moment was in 1931 when the

French ii- Brazil ADA was formed the

first black political party in Brazil

organized by our Linda Vega dos Santos

the party put forward candidates for

political office run literacy classes

health clinics and legal services for

black communities across Brazil they

also published a newspaper called avoid

ste Haase which circulated news about

black communities both in Brazil and

overseas the party was short-lived

however when in 1937 the Brazilian

dictator J Tulio Vargas dissolved all

political parties from the 1950s onwards

there were a number of black social

movements in Brazil they lobbied for

black rights one of the most famous was

the unified black movement also known as

the M nu founded in 1978 which is

arguably the most influential black

organization in Brazil in the second

half of the 20th century among things

the organization spoke out against

police brutality the oppression of black

women and discrimination against the

LGBTQ community in 1995 the M nu helped

organize the march for zombie

in the capital of Brasilia the event

protested racism in Brazil and also

celebrated the anniversary of the death

of zombie the slave resistance leader

who was the last king of the Colombo dos

palmares with a turnout of over 40,000

people it was the largest national black

demonstration in Brazil in recent years

social media has played a pivotal role

in black political activism in Brazil

particularly amongst afro-brazilian

Millennials social media platforms such

as YouTube Instagram and Facebook have

allowed afro-brazilians to connect and

mobilize online social media provides a

forum to discuss the collective struggle

but crucially it has also allowed the

dissemination of photos and video

footage showing police brutality against

afro-brazilians

one such example is the murder of

Claudia the Silva fajita who passed away

in 2014 after a police van dragged her

down the road for over a thousand feet

the grisly incident was captured on

camera and circulated on social media

sparking national outrage the black

lives matter movement in particular

gained traction with afro-brazilian

youths who coined the hashtag vidas

import them the fact an

unprecedented number of people

self-identified as black and mixed-race

in the 2010 Brazilian census shows that

Brazilians are prouder and more willing

to claim their African heritage than

ever before

however the census also brought to light

the grave disparities between the

distribution of wealth amongst white and

afro-descendant Brazilians the

socio-economic gap between white and

black Brazilians persists the 2010

census found that in major cities white

Brazilians earn 2 to 3 times more than

their black counterparts the wealthiest

strata of Brazilian society remains 82%

white and the poorest rata is 76 percent

black afro Brazilians have far less

access to quality education health care

or fair wages and they are

underrepresented in the government the

most prominent African derive religions

in Brazil are candomble a and Amanda

Amanda centers on the belief in spirits

both good and evil can delay is derived

from the belief

systems of a number of African ethnic

groups particularly Yoruba fun and Bantu

similar to the arisia of Santeria

practiced in Cuba and other regions the

deities of candomble a are called the

Orisha over time they have become

syncretized with Roman Catholic saints

this dates back to when enslaved

Africans were forbidden by the European

masters for practicing their African

religions and so had to do so in secret

under the guise of praying to Catholic

saints because of the historical ties

between kin Bombay and Catholicism

Catholicism is also widely practiced

amongst afro-brazilians

one afro-descendants Saint venerated in

Brazil is ask Rafa and Aspasia a slave

woman of African descent who is depicted

wearing a metal facemask the story goes

that her master's wife accused her of

flirting with her husband and as a

punishment force her to wear an iron

mask over her face for the rest of her

life until she died from tetanus from

the rusty metal the biggest

afro-brazilian festival is the festival

of Yemanja celebrated every february 2nd

in heal Vermeil the festival brings

together members of several religions

including Catholics and practitioners of

the afro-brazilian religions can Don

Blake and Amanda Yemanja

is the arisia of the sieve and loosely

corresponds to the Cuban or Isha

Yemaya it is custom to lay offerings for

the goddess of flowers jewelry and food

and of course resin is famous for its

carnival around Mardi Gras there are

celebrations across the country but the

most famous is hosted in Rio de Janeiro

for over 5 million people participate in

the street parties one key element of

the Carnival is the Samba music and

dance a clear vestige of African

influence in Brazilian culture the fast

footwork of Samba dancing originated in

the dancers practiced by the enslaved

Africans who were trafficked to Brazil

and the singing style is derived from

the traditional call-and-response style

the Africans would use to evoke the

orishas during religious ceremonies

another afro-brazilian style of dance is

capoeira which combines martial arts

moves with elements of dance and

acrobatics to create graceful and

flowing sequences it's originated

amongst enslaved Africans

Raziel who sought to hone their combat

skills without arousing the suspicions

of their masters in 2014 it was declared

an expression of intangible cultural

heritage by UNESCO

the afro-brazilian Museum located in San

Paolo is home to over 6,000 works

pertaining to a per bazillion history

culture and heritage it seeks to

celebrate the arts and accomplishments

of Africans and Africa's ilion's and is

the largest collection of artifacts of

African descent in Latin America black

Awareness Day has been celebrated

annually in Brazil since the Year 1960

it's held on November 20th to honor the

life of our Brazilian slave resistance

fighter zombie famous afro-brazilians

include the footballers Pele and

Ronaldinho the scholar and politician of

gs the Nascimento actresses aermotor and

the politician benedita de silva he

became the first black woman in the

Brazilian center that brings me to the

end of our video on the African Diaspora

in Brazil for more videos don't forget

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at freedom is mine official I'll see you

in the next video

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