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Published: February 28th 2015
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I'm sure you know I am not still in Brazil. What I am is very late in getting the rest of my blogs out. No more excuses.
The first week of November, and the last of the trip, was spent in Salvador de Bahia. It is a lovely city of about 3 million and the 3rd largest in Brazil. It was a one hour flight north of Rio, and yes, it was still punishingly hot. The city was founded by the Portugese in 1535 and was the capital of Brazil from 1547-1763. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1985.
The city sits on a peninsula at the mouth of the Bay of All Saints. Fairly close to the shore is the circular fort of São Marcelo, originally built of wood in 1624, but rebuilt with walls of stone after a Dutch invasion in 1728. Its main purpose was to defend the riches of the city which were derived from tobacco, gold, sugar cane, diamonds, and the importation of slaves. It served many other purposes: as a religious temple; an alarm clock-a cannon was shot off every hour with blasts that could be heard 60 miles away;
a de-embarkation point for slaces.
We had an extensive tour of Salvador's Old Town and learned much history. Salvador retains the highest concentration of descendants of the slaves who were mostly from Guinea and Angola. Though they weren't supposed to they held on to many of their religious and cultural traditions. Today those African influence are reflected in Brazilian dances, religious customs, foods and the population itself. Recent DNA sampling shows that 86%!o(MISSING)f Brazilians, of all races, have measurable African ancestry.
The first stop on our walking tour ( yes, 95 degrees and we were walking for hours) was the Museo Afro-Brasilerio. It told much of the story of slavery in Brasil which wasn't abolished until 1888. An entire room was devoted to
' orixas''. Lining the walls of one room were 10 feet tall wooden carvings of these god.
A stop in Pelourinhio square was, for me, chilling. Pelourinho means pillory and it was the spot were slaves were whipped. Several streets merge in front of the Casa de Jorge Amado (1912-2991). He was a famous novelist of such works as:
Gabriela; Clove and Cinnamon; Dona Flor and her Two Husbands. He was exiled many
times because of his political beliefs.
The street are old cobblestones which made for difficult walking. Lining the square were beautiful, elegant homes of the elite of the day, painted in bright Easter eggs colors of sky blue, rosy pink, marigold yellow, salmon,and jungle green. The irony was not lost on me that the slaves who built these mansions had to endure their degradation, humiliation, and pain as it was put on public display.
Salvador has a church for every day of the year. Thankfully, we only visited two but they were good ones. If you ever get here be sure to check out the solid gold altar at the church of San Francisco. Now, we were told this but I wasn't able to check it out for myself ( no binoculars ?). African slaves, who were forced to build the church but who couldn't practice their own religion, retaliated by adorning some of angel statues with huge sex organs or making them appear pregnant.
The other one not to miss is the church of Bonfim. Built between 1746-1762 it is famous for its power to effect miracles. People who live or visit Salvador often wear colored
wrist ribbons. We were instructed to tie it with 3 knots and to make a wish for each knot. The story goes that when the ribbon breaks the wishes will come true. I'm still waiting. But as evidenced by objects left in the 'room of miracles' many have had their wishes come true. While no longer displaying actual body parts now plastic replicas hang from the ceiling. There are the usual arms and legs but even more interesting were several internal organs and more personal body parts. Yep, hanging right there for all the world to see. This church is also the ' home' for Condomble which means a dancing for the gods. It has an oral tradition with no holy scripture. They believe everyone has their own 'protector' which controls his or her own destiny. Music and dance are important parts of their ceremonies. Every year on 3 King's Day the Bahia ladies who dress in puffy colorful garb walk in a 6 mile procession from downtown Salvador to the church. Once there they wash the steps and square in front of the church with aromatied water. All the while they are singing and dancing chants in the Yoruba
language. The celebration can last for 10 days.
That was great day with so much to new learn about a culture that is rich and deep and much more than almost naked dancers in the samba drone at Carnaval.
Next will be the story of the all day boat trip.... You won't want to miss it
Carolyn
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Fabulous photos!
I really enjoyed this blog...so interesting that they still sing in Yoruba (a Nigerian language I was familiar with as a child). Brazil is so fascinating!