Rio, Samba, and the Search for Africa...

I just left Rio and arrived in Sao Paulo, going from a hostel where strangers eerily stare at you while you sleep to my friend's swank apartment in Moema. It'll take me some time to get used to hostels since that'll most likely be the majority of the second half of my fellowship year. I've only had the whole hostel experience with Kuumba, where you like everyone in the room and it feels like a big, happy sleepover - people singing gospel, spirituals, debating black history and politics. It's safe to say that that was not the hostel in Rio, but for what it is - a place to sleep and get some breakfast - it was fine. And it was in Ipanema, which is a really cool, safe neighborhood with tons of bars, restaurants, and a beach a few blocks away...

My time in Rio came and went so quickly. I rolled with my new friend Dave, an awesome entrepreneurial type working in the city, pretty much every day. I saw the big Christ statue which was absolutely amazing - the only downside was that we were basically in a clowd and couldn't see much for most of the time. But being in a clowd is cool I guess. I also went up the Pao de Acucar, and got a great view of the city. Luckily I went there on a clear day so it was all good. And I met a nice group of New Zealanders/Aussies/Scottish friends who joined me for a nice dinner with some delicious picanha. Speaking of meat, Dave and I went to Porcao, the famous Churrascaria. I've been to a few in Salvador, but this one was probably the fanciest. Every meat they brought out was delicious, and when the filet mignon (com sal) I requested came out, I literally heard angels singing and there was a strange light in the sky :). At some bars and a small nightclub, I met some cool people - some of Dave's friends mostly. We went to Lapa one night, where it feels like the whole city congregates. I saw the famous stairs in Snoop Dogg's famous "Beautiful" video by Selaron de Chile and the hip Friday night life. I also saw the very dodgy side of Rio, which is somewhat unfortunate. At night things get shady and prostitutes come out in full force. The only hip-hop bar we found just had to be the central location for old monied foreign men to pick up young, scantily-clad Brazilian girls (and I mean girls...). Sex tourism is supposed to be a real problem here, and I saw exhibit A. In the moment it's a bit amusing, but thinking of the broad implications of that, it's a bit disturbing - I digress. So I basically did lots of touristy stuff with my time in Rio. Some of it was by design, and the other side was that it was particularly difficult to find Africa in Rio.

Rio was definitely one of the most beautiful places landscape-wise I have ever seen, but it compared for me to South Africa in some ways, in that people fear each other so much and there's such a built up tension, a feeling that violence can explode at any minute, that it prevents people from going to certain parts of the city or going to certain venues. Zona Norte and Zona Sul are basically different worlds, as well as the favelas and the rest of Rio. There is an outright drug war going on in the favelas all the time (certainly looks that way on the news), which make them rather dangerous and risky. So while Rio is interesting and diverse and gorgeous, one is really confined to a few neighborhoods, especially as a traveler without the kind of connections that might allow one to see a bit more.

One interesting experience I did have though took place in Lapa. We went to a show featuring two big groups - Beija-Flor and Monobloco. Despite the unbearable heat - I sweat like 5 lbs. - we met some cool people and listened to some quality samba and axe. I've been hearing axe for 2 months now since that's the most popular music in Salvador; apparently in the South samba reigns supreme. But it was cool to see the two juxtaposed together, and the slight influence of Africa that came along with it. Now clearly these percussion-heavy groups were inspired by African rhythms and music emerging from black consciousness movements here in Brazil, and beyond that, Beija-Flor's performance was especially interesting. Their axe music was accompanied by beautiful black women basically dressed in fancy, diamond-laced bikinis and giant headresses, that spread out wide like peacock feathers. Now I'm not sure the African performance this type of thing is based on, but it was certainly glamorous and there was lots of interpretation going on in terms of what performing African-inspired axe looks like in Rio, who gets to participate, and the role the dancing women play in the bigger picture of cultural performance. Was this display of overt sexualized dancing someone's problematic view of Africa in Brazil or was it the manifestation of a hybrid creation of musical performance over many decades in southern Brazil? Since it was difficult to find any strong connection to Africa in Rio outside the clearly descended music and food, I'm not sure the answers to my questions.