2005 PW Global Exchange to Brazil Participant Story

Culture in Brazil

By Kathy Wareham

The restaurant had pots of food on an open fire. Most meals included black beans and rice and lots of variety.The food was all delicious! Photo by Laura Lee

While in Brazil, do as the Brasileiras do, and we did. While in the former capital city of Salvador, we visited the Solar do Unhao, an early eighteenth-century sugar plantation. Now it stands as a museum and restaurant overlooking the Porto Maritimo where the slave quarters once were. The original cobblestones cover the entry doors; rusted rail tracks are embedded in the stones. You can follow the tracks to the half-circular entry where the ships' cargo was emptied—victory spoils and trade materials bound up for delivery—including human cargo. Four million slaves entered Brazil during the slavery period.

This woman greeted us in the buffet area, once the holding area where slaves were kept after they were unloaded from the slave ships. Photo by Laura Lee

All this was on my mind, as the restaurant hostess greeted us in her full, white dress and red head wrap. Despite the awkward feeling, we entered the pier seating area and politely ate a lavish buffet. Many of the local dishes have the same African spices and ingredients used for generations. Brazilians are a people from many backgrounds. Their varied heritage and traditions contribute to the country's enormous wealth of cultural manifestations. Following dinner, we attended a traditional show put on for tourists. The dances were accompanied by drums and drummers who call back to a time many will never forget. Athletic dancers performed the capoeira, a Brazilian martial art whose rhythms and high leg kicks were disguised as dance to allow slaves to develop a means of self-protection; maculete, a dance with swords; the samba; and the shamanistic dances of Candomblé. The spirits in the walls came alive. This sacred memorial ground became an entertainment center.

The Brazilian language, although essentially Portuguese, has been enriched by many indigenous and African words. Likewise, though Portuguese Catholics introduced street processions into Brazil, it was African slaves who provided the rhythmic percussion for dances and pageants. For five days a year, just before Ash Wednesday, it's Carnival time! The other 360 days, we can experience the fun, feathers and flavor of Carnival through a famous show in Rio called Plataforma.

These dancers performed in the Solar do Unhao dance show in Rio. Photo by Laura Lee

The mixture of samba d'Angola and hand claps creates the samba de Roda. In the state of Bahia, people have remembered their African roots; the influence of African culture on music, rhythm, religion and cuisine has been apparent since the days of slavery. The samba is more than a national beat; it is said to be a life force—and to some, a religion. The key to dancing samba is a springy step, that uninhibited joie de vivre that most of us haven't felt since we walked home from grade school.

This fusion of races, language, cuisine and culture makes Brazil a vibrant and unforgettable country.