AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Modern Brazil is what it is today - the foods, the religious traditions, and, of course, the music - in large part because of its African roots. That's the message one of Rio de Janeiro's famous samba schools is delivering at this weekend's official Carnival parade, as NPR's Carrie Kahn reports.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MANGUEIRA SAMBA SCHOOL: (Singing in non-English language).
CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: The Mangueira samba school's carnival song this year gets right to the point.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MANGUEIRA SAMBA SCHOOL: (Singing in non-English language).
KAHN: The lyrics sing of the proud history of Rio's iconic hillside favelas, or shantytowns, filled with homes built by Bantus, the Africans Brazilians refer to who were forcibly brought here during the slave trade from modern day Angola and Congo, says one of Mangueira's researchers, Sthefanye Paz.
STHEFANYE PAZ: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: "This population was one of the largest in Rio," says Paz, who I caught up with in a downtown warehouse as Mangueira workers put the finishing touches on their enormous floats.
(SOUNDBITE OF MACHINE WHIRRING)
KAHN: "The Bantus' contributions to Brazil are huge, like in our gastronomy," she says, highlighting angu, a cornmeal-based polenta-like food still widely consumed here, "and in language," she adds, words like samba, the famous musical genre, or moleque, which means a little kid. Twenty-eight-year-old Valdemar Vargas is rooting for Mangueira this year.
VALDEMAR VARGAS: I'm Mangueira school of samba (laughter).
KAHN: He's not only a big fan but also works at the Pretos Novos Institute in the Rio neighborhood known as Little Africa. He gives tours of the site where the bones of tens of thousands of slaves were discovered. He takes us a few blocks away to a nearby plaza to see the remnants of the Valongo wharf where slaves disembarked.
VARGAS: Is a port - disembark - 1 million people in Rio, the Africans.
KAHN: A million African slaves came through Rio.
VARGAS: Come to Rio. Yeah.
KAHN: Through this port right here.
VARGAS: This port.
KAHN: One million of the nearly 5 million slaves brought to Brazil came through Rio. And the institute says at least 60% of those slaves were Bantu. "Our history is not very well known," he says. "The city was built right on top to hide it," he says. The site was only recently discovered in 2011, as Rio was renovating before hosting the World Cup in the Olympics.
VARGAS: Erased memory - the Black people. The mayor...
KAHN: They just constructed all over it.
In fact, many residents I asked didn't know what the uncovered stones of the once-infamous Valongo wharf were.
JAIRO MOREIRA: (Non-English language spoken).
JACQUELINE CRUZ: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: At the nearby bus stop, 64-year-old Jairo Moreira chimed in to explain to fellow riders.
CRUZ: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: Jacqueline Cruz says she had no idea. Her youngest son was even born in the hospital right next door.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing in non-English language).
KAHN: But Cantia Aleixo, a 43-year-old psychologist, is making sure her 13-year-old daughter knows Rio's history. The two are up in the city's northern zone at an evening practice session for Mangueira's Carnival parade.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing in non-English language).
KAHN: Thousands are decked out in the school's bright pink and green colors. She says Black people in Rio, and especially those from the poorer favelas, still suffer much prejudice. "But Carnival is ours," she says. "Time to shine and show our pride"...
CANTIA ALEIXO: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: ..."Because we know our reality, and Mangueira is the champion," she laughs.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing in non-English language).
KAHN: Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Rio de Janeiro.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing in non-English language). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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