Number 8, September 2000
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Translation from the original italian version by Giuliana Dettori, Ulla Vedda and Marina Zampa.
In Brazil, February means Carnival, and this celebration has a very much stronger meaning than in our lands; Carnival is the symbol of the Brazilian land. Starting from the year 2000, Vila Esperança has taken part to the traditional parades, always loyal to its educational purposes over the afro-indian roots valorization. The result is the birth of the Carnival Group Afoxé ``Aiyó Delê'' and you can read about it in the next article; 130 people embracing the cause of arts and liberation!
March is the month of the Woman Day; I remember the cheerful ring-a-rosy during my teens, in the seventies; dozen of women, colourful dressed, dancing and singing together in the streets. Nowadays this celebration has become a commercial event, with the business of the mimosa flowers, the expensive ``only women''diners and discos. But Vila Esperança is specialized in making little great miracles and also in this case, here comes the wonder; a tender small figure of woman, simply dressed in white, tells her story and ... read the moved and moving article by Pio Campo about Renata's dancing.
Vila Esperança is glad to share with its friends the birth of the group Afoxé ``Aiyó Delê''1 which gave start to the Carnival in the city of Goiás and has seeded strength and beauty among its inhabitants, marching, dancing and singing their own afro-indigenous origins. The parade took place on February 4, 2000, and gave rise to many positive comments; we wish that this piece of news can reach you at the other side of the ocean, as a sign of love between you and us.
It is important to point out that the Group Afoxé ``Aiyó Delê'', which will parade every year from now on, was born in a Goiás involved into the process to be recognized as Patrimony of Humanity by the UNESCO. This title will bring advantages to our city, which is experiencing big economical difficulties after the capital has been moved to Goiânia. The more the city will grow up in affirming its multicultural identity, the more this title will become legitimate. The popular classes have paid until now the price for this stagnant situation, but it is hoped that the current unemployment will decrease as the touristic flow will increase.
During all these years, the popular movements, supported and fortified by the Liberation Theology, have fought against the situation of misery, occupying with ever increasing strength unproductive grounds, opposing the politics of large estates, a practice started in Gois with the arrival of the ``Bandeirantes''2.
According to some specialists, the Afoxés directly derive from the parades of the Congo Kings, a means which allowed our black ancestors to take part, from outside, in the Catholic Feasts in the colonial age's Brazil, since practicing African religions was firmly prohibited. Later on, the Catholic Church prohibited even these celebrations during its feasts, and imposed to move the Afoxés to the Carnival's period.
Disengaged from catholic feasts, the Afoxés regained their African appearance, and, at the end of the XIX century, became more and more numerous and started bothering the Baian racist society. In 1929 they disappeared from the Carnival's scene. Somebody claims that the police was prohibiting their existence, following the requests of the society dominating in that period.
In 1949 the Afoxé Group ``de Gandhi'' (Children of Gandhi) rouse in Salvador, two years after the murder of the Indian leader. This group had to face many hindrances, but it is still alive and vital. In the seventies, the African Afoxé ``Ilê Aiyê'' was created, as well as other groups which fight for the affirmation of a black consciousness and express themselves by means of the beauty and the rhythm of their parades, working seriously and with determination.
The phenomenon of Carnival's groups, hence, is very old, and exists throughout all Brazil. Here in Goiás, we are able to reconstruct exactly the history of happy, innocent and amusing Carnival experiences by our fathers and grandfathers. This has given rise to our Afoxé Group ``Aiyó Delê'', whose name means "House's happiness'".
The Afoxé Group ``Aiyó Delê'' was born within the Espaço Cultural Vila Esperança on the thread of a wider project "Multi-culturality and Education", carried out daily, since 1995, with 60 children who attend our school, between 7 am and 11:30am 3. Thirty of these children, who attend our school from kindergarten, will finish the elementary school in December 2000.
Besides the official contents foreseen by the Educational Secretary of the State of Goiás, we have always worked in an interdisciplinary, artistic and playful way on issues that we consider fundamental in order to become real citizens: retrieval and study of the Indigenous and African, with consequential references to environmental, artistic and esthetical education.
Following and chasing this aim, several projects are
realized
[4], according to a yearly calendar. In these last
three years we have created a small percussion band, and mask
laboratories for Carnival. This project is extended to all 150
children enrolled in the Brinquedoteca (a library of games) which is
open all afternoons and has the aim to attain the afro-indigenous
cultural identity which we are attempting to reconstruct little by
little.
It is worth underlining that Goiás is a historical, colonial city, extremely bounded to its Iberian traditions, especially in the environment of the authorities and the traditional families which, in the past centuries, have created the so-called ``Goiana Culture''. Goiás, however, is also a city with a great cultural wealth produced by the hands of its inhabitants, who are masters in the art of ceramics, baskets, vegetal fiber's management, who have created a culinary tradition and many feast of symbolical-religious content (Congo, Congada, Tapuia, Folias, Catira). It is a city built by the hands of African slaves, whose history has almost been ignored but still continues and is present in the culture and looks of most people.
In the last years, the carnival in Goiás was enriched by a more careful participation of two small Schools of Samba of our city, in a competitive climate which tends to create and support factions, with a strong influence of the carnival of Rio de Janeiro. The two small schools are formed by poor people, are financed by "populist deputies", which consider it as an occasion to seek publicity and increase the number of their voters.
The street Carnival, and other Carnival groups, can still be recognized in the ``Bloco dos Sujos'' which goes on parade in the streets of the historical Center the day before the parades of the Samba Schools, without any pretension to win any competition, with the only purpose to amuse. The aim of funding the Afoxé Group ``Aiyó Delê'' of Vila Esperança is to make one step further in the critical knowledge of the cultural roots of our children. The group wants to value the culture of African origin and consequently increase the self-esteem of all children, of their families and in general of all people.
Every School of Samba is built by several Carnival Blocks. Every block is formed by several parts.
Percussionists' Group: 54 components, between 7 and 15 years of age, with the presence of some other young percussionists who have attended the Brinquedoteca of Vila Esperança in the past;
Singers' Group: 3 adult singers and 20 children of the choir ``Aiyó Dudu'' of Vila Esperança. The group offers to the public the musicality of traditional songs in the Yorubá and Banto languages, and a song in Portuguese on the topic of the parade;
Dancers' Group: 50 components, working on the Ijexá rhythm, typical of the Afoxé,, offering a purely African choreography;
The parade opens with a small group, composed by a King, a Queen, a Flag-holder and a Puppet-holder, followed by the Ala4 of the Indios "500 years of Resistance".
All components witness the values and bases of the Afro-Brazilian culture, with their colour combination and clothes' style, as well as with the materials and shapes of their accessories (ornaments, necklaces and masks made of straw and shells).
A long life and Axé5 to our ``AIYî DELæ''! The Project "Cultural Plurality and Education - Carnival Group Afoxé'' has been partially economically supported, for the purchase of musical instruments, by the SAAP/FASE (Federação de Orgãos para Assistência Social e Educacional, Federation of Organizations for the Social and Educational Assistance) from Rio de Janeiro - Brazil, and by the Agency ``Desenvolvimento e Paz'' (Development and Peace).
I want to talk about a woman, Renata.
Renata is 19 years old and I'm astonished because I still see that little twelve years old girl when, shyly like a clam entered for the first time into the recreation centre of Vila Esperança, without ever imagining that she would become a constant presence for all of us and that she herself one day would take care of other children. But that is how it went, Renata grew up here, without ever loosing her beautiful and shy look, deep dark as certain nights here in Brasil, when the sky seems to explode of stars and she appears just like she is ... Always. She's grown up and has acquired a new self-confidence, a new conscience, a new kind of beauty. Her semplicity is intact and so is her capacity to put herself under discussion.
Besides the work as an animator of the recreation centre, she often accompanies us in the shows, ever since she was a girl, to be honest, and in these last few years she accompanies me in my lessons of dance therapy6. The dance grows within her like a powerful instrument of expression and communication and some times, even on her own, has represented coreographies which we elaborate together and which she then shows the faculty of pedagogics where she studies at present.
I want to tell you about her today, on the 8th of March, because she is an example of woman who grows up conscient of her own rights, of her own uniqueness, of her own values.
A couple of days ago we were contacted by a government body for the partecipation in a show in Goiania, promoted to pay homage to women. They wanted us to perform a presentation of about ten minutes on the principal theme of the show and that is how we came to think about Renata. Together we prepared a dance in which Renata moved along with some few simple words...''My name is Renata, I am a woman and I have a home. My home is my body. This home will be my companion for all my life: my life is like a cloth, woven of remnants. Every remnant shelters my fears, my dreams, my love''.
During the dance this cloth, made by many coloured remnants, was transformed one moment into fears, another into a lover, then again into a child born by love. We did not work more than two hours to prepare the coreography because in reality we have been working for years on the creative possibilities of the body, a body that's moved by heart and feelings.
Until this moment we felt quite calm. Some hours before the beginning of the show we were told who the other partecipants were: six successful Brasilian singers and a company of dancers who have been successful abroad and who only perform in big theatres. Renata was to dance among these persons who were so different from those to whom we address our work! I must admit that we felt like grains of sand in the middle of the ocean. Our fear didn't regard so much not believing in what we were to present, but more the surprise and a little bewilderment towards the environment and the people characterizing the show.
Pretending to be calm, a fact that contradicted the coldness of our body temperature, we sat down in the middle of a sophisticated audience and took part of the first part of the show. Renata, as we have decided, was to get up to the stage as one coming from the people ... I'm Renata ... an ordinary woman ... We had chosen a white costume, large, light, not much make up, with her hair gathered up Renata was to let it down during the dance in the name of love.
Though feeling like icebergs for an hour we have appreciated, in spite of our emotion, the si ngers' perfect performance. I don't know what crossed my companions' minds. I think that like me they were asking themselves what we were doing there in such a strange place. I reproached myself silently for having thrown Renata like a gazelle into the lions' den. If it had been us adults to perform, I would have felt much easier because in case of failure we could only lay the blame on ourselves. But Renata ... Her words hammered in my head before entering into the theatre ... : ``Pio, are you sure this is right?'' And then I was afraid that if it should not go well, I would not have the courage to continue believing in the intuitions which have been following me for years, the work with the heart-centered dance and in contrast with the iron technique adopted by official dance companies.
Finally the moment arrived. Renata gets up and starts towards the stage. She pronounces the first words in an never-ending silence and then slowly abandons herself to the music, slow, soft, full of images and dreams. The light that is centered on her all the time illuminates an almost celestial figure that throws out powerful and clear messages, sows pain and victories, love and hope. By looking at her we felt that she was not alone. She was dancing with the whole Vila, our children, our colours, the intuitions of a life, the constant research of all these years... step by step, glance after glance. The silence all around was complete and was only interrupted by the applauses which accompanied Renata all the time until she set down again beside us, trembling and happy. Victory!!!
I wanted to describe this event because it wasn't all only a simple show. At stake was the the stubborn and continuous conviction that it's the heart to make Man move and not the technique (the importance of which I do not deny), that it's the truth we put in our actions to create a constructive dialogue, capable of producing magic. This was our way of celebrating the 8th of March, and a festivity we condivide as always, with our friends.