What is the reason behind American media obsession with African Brazilians? (country, place)

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by caribny

I will argue that the blacks of the Americas are in fact a "native" group. The vast majority have no ties to specific African ethnic groups, have no idea what their African ethnic origins are. Many/most have sufficient non Sub Saharan ancestry as to ensure that Africans on the continent reject them.

So yes blacks in the Americas are "native". They are no more knowledgeable of their ancestral origins than are the Amerindians of theirs in Asia. There is no entity called "Africa" except that conceived by the Arabs and the Europeans.

Before the Euros arrived the various Indigenous groups were battling each other for territory and resources. So let us not pretend as if the Euro conquest wasnt just another, except that this time it was done by a group that was greedier, more ruthless, and one armed with viruses that proved to be a fatal weapon.

Excellent post.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by caribny

You are chatting about Indigenous people while we are talking about those who wish to condone the eradication of African influences in Brazil. So who is irrelevant?

So then tell us blacks of the Americas which "country" we should go back to in Africa. To those who sold us? Yes humans battled each other every where. Peoples from various parts of Africa were tossed together when they arrived in the Americas. They had to develop ways of interacting with each other. Yes on a plantation in Brazil one would have had peoples from Senegal right down to Angola. Then all would have had to learn how to operate under the colonial rule of the various Europeans, and in some societies would have rubbed shoulders with Indigenous peoples. They would have also had to interact with the creole black enslaved people who knew nothing about life in Africa. Not being able to maintain contact with their origins alone among other peoples who arrived in the Americas they had to shape a new range of identities. Blacks of the Americas are NO LONGER of Africa and are NOT accepted as such by Africans. When we do the "fake African" thing Africans laugh at us!

So even though Afro Brazilians and Afro Surinamers are both South American blacks, and both have strong elements of African culture within them, and both have disproportionate origins in the Congo/Angola regions no one would mistake a black Brazilian with a black Surinamer.

The Africans who sold other Africans were engaged in commerce, pure and simple. the concept of race being new. Various African kingdoms didnt have a common identity of "black" and battled each other as ferociously as did the British battled the French and the Spanish/Portuguese the Dutch. Do you know that racial identities were so weak that various African kingdoms formed alliances with Europeans as BOTH fought their enemies. Yes the Portuguese and the Dutch had their African allies who supported the war between these Euro kingdoms. Ditto on the Gold Coast when the British joined with the Fante to fight against the Dutch who were allied to the Asante. The Dutch, English, Fante and the Asante all had their reasons for this. So please do not start off that "oh the African king sold off his own people to the whites" nonsense!

In the same way as were the Europeans when they too sold each other off in earlier times. What is your point. Start a forum on the Africa forum and I will tell you all about the thriving kingdoms that profited from the slave trade, their kings being upset when the British told them to stop selling slaves and start selling palm nuts and cacao.

FACT. Africans have had a HIGHLY transformative impact on the Americas. Had we not been here the Americas would be all like Bolivia! Or like Canada. You can go from country to country in the Americas and the stamp of the African descendant is there. WE have been very involved in the creation of NEW cultures and identities in the Americas. From music, dance, food, linguistic formations, and involvement in farming and metallurgy. Of course credit for this being eradicated by people like you who wish to create an Americas only of Euro and Indigenous formation.


Despite the attempts of Indigenous advocates to eradicate us we are as NATIVE to the Americas as they are. END OF STORY! The Americas is what it is. How many Indigenous peoples in the Americas are "pure" anyway? The vast majority also have Euro and/or Afro ancestry so the notion that they are uniquely native is practical NONSENSE! Heck even some whites in the USA have discovered that they might have black African ancestors! This especially in the Mid South.

Africans were brought to this hemisphere against our will. Our ties to Africa were destroyed, so we created something new, and in that process became one of the most innovative elements in shaping the Americas into what it is. Something NEW!

Tell it! So good...

[EVANGELISTTI]

Originally Posted by Lenalee

Brazil utilize African Brazilian culture for actract tourists because this side is more exotic for the audience ( carnival for example). The only problem is when the media "riodejaneireizar" Brazil. For example when Brazilian media shows Brazil only shows half naked mulattas, capoeira, candomblé, samba ( basically Rio de Janeiro culture).
Riodejanerizar = trying to convey to the audience that the whole Brazil look like Rio de Janeiro. Or summarized Brazil culture in Rio de Janeiro culture.

Understand guys when all of that Brazilians here tell you that the midia does not show the ‘’entire’’ or ‘’real’’ or ‘’only the sexualized naked blacks’’, it is much more about the internal rivalities Rio de Janeiro x Bandeirantes /caipira culture in Brazil.

Salvador (Bahia) and Rio de Janeiro were Brazilian or even Portugal capital cities in colonial times, so its culture was formed much more for the portuguese aristocracy and slaves, they always were much more liberal in all sense, much less influence of catholic church. Portuguese aristocracy in past centuries lived much like the French one in Paris.

Sao Paulo in colonial times was the southmost part of the colony, subtropical area, with similar climate as Portugal, there aren’t big plantations fulled of slaves here, no big money made here in that time.

So in Sao Paulo arrived most poor portuguese settlers (very religious) and the ‘’jesuitas’’ (catholic church employees) Jesuitas with the mission of catholizing the Amerindians. So the Bandeirantes (Military and pioneers settlers) and the Jesuitas entered into the continent creating settlements, looking for precious stones, capturing, baptizing, and introducing the Indians as Catholics and into their civilized european society here (excuse in the religion to justify the theft and colonization of indigenous lands ).

So from Sao Paulo to all south and inland Brazil was created a society very conservative, religious, hard-working, very different from the society created in the costal from Rio de Janeiro up to Pernambuco, where most whites having many slaves didn’t do manual works.

This society never really liked the black slaves, probably not only because racism or braqueamento, but religious matter a lot too. When Brazil's economic axis turned to the south with coffee plantations, Sao Paulo state preferred to import European workers rather than African slaves, but not Germans as the federal government brought to create settlements, Sao Paulo preferred to bring Italians and spaniards because they were Roman Catholics, very religious too in that time.

These history differences explain why the pop music of this part of Brazil is sertanejo music (similar the american country music and american pop), 99% of the sertanejo songs talk about romantic love, it is danced in couple a ballroom dance. (traditional family standards).

The sexy lyrics and dances like samba, axé and funk, the carnival, so popular in Rio and Bahia are demonized in most of Brazil especially the older generations. It tell a bit why Brazilians from that parts of the country don't like be associate with this ''culture'' ‘’the only show abroad’’.