The History of Samba in Brazil
Samba is the national dance and music of Brazil and is associated with the country's colorful Rio Carnival. The dance and music has its roots in Brazil's African heritage and consists of rhythmic drum and percussion beats accompanied by a dance of quick leg and feet movements.
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Origins
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Samba originated in colonial Brazil in Bahia. It was brought to Brazil by Angolan slaves and is derived from the Angolan music called "semba." This was performed in conjunction with a dance similar to today's samba to please the gods and gain their favor. In Bahia samba was danced by slaves to the beat of African drums and percussion in religious houses known as "terreiros de candomble" to invoke the gods.
Expansion
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Slavery ended in Brazil in 1888, resulting in mass migration from Bahia to Rio. Samba schools began to spring up all over the city, especially in the deprived areas of the city. During carnival, samba was performed in the shanty towns and neighboring areas but was regarded as obscene by the upper classes of Rio, who viewed the dance as overtly sexual.
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Carnival
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By the 1920s, samba had become the music and dance of choice at the annual carnival festival in Rio. Early on, samba schools, in teams of no more than 50 people, would go out onto the streets to dance. Later on, they would start to compete against each other in terms of who had the best costumes and dancers, and so the modern face of the Rio Carnival was born.
Finance
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By the 1930s, the Brazilian government got involved in the carnival, giving money to the samba schools so that they could come up with elaborate national themes for the carnival parades. For the first time, the parades featured theme songs and live percussion sections in addition to the costumed dancers of the samba schools.
Business
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During the 1950s, 60s and 70s, businesses began sponsoring the samba schools so they could put on even more elaborate productions. The negatives of this were that the businesses often controlled the themes of the parades for their own agendas and the carnival took on a more political tone. This was to change during the 1980s, when the samba schools took back control of the parades, setting their own themes.
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References
- Photo Credit brazil map image by Goran Bogicevic from Fotolia.com
