Canto das Três Raças (The Chanting of the Three Races) by Clara Nunes ~ Translated by Cecilia Beatriz Silveira-Marroquin

Canto das Três Raças – by Clara Nunes

(The Chanting of the Three Races – by Clara Nunes)

Composed by: Mauro Duarte e Paulo César Pinheiro

Song Video (Click here to listen to Clara Nunes' The Chanting of the Three Races)

Ninguém ouviu
Um soluçar de dor
No canto do Brasil
Um lamento triste
Sempre ecoou
Desde que o Índio guerreiro
Foi pro cativeiro
E de lá cantou

Negro entoou
Um canto de revolta pelos ares
No Quilombo dos Palmares
Onde se refugiou
Fora a luta dos Inconfidentes
Pela quebra das correntes
Nada adiantou
E de guerra em paz

De paz em guerra
Todo o Povo dessa terra
Quando pode cantar
Canta de dor
ô, ô, ô, ô, ô, ô ô, ô, ô, ô, ô,
E ecoa noite e dia
É ensurdecedor
Ai, mas que agonia
O canto do trabalhador
Esse canto que devia
Ser um canto de alegria
Soa apenas
Como um soluçar de dor ...

Nobody heard
The sobbing of pain
In Brazil’s chanting
A sad cry
Always echoed
Since the Indian warrior

Went in captivity
And from there, he sang
The Black echoed
A revolt chanting through the air
In the Palmares Kilombo
Where he took refuge
Besides the fight of the Inconfidentes
By the breaking of the chains
Nothing else worked
And from war to peace
From peace to war
All the People of this land
When they can sing
Sing in pain
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
And it echoes night and day
It is deafening
Oh, what an agony
The worker’s chanting
This song that should have been
A song of joy
It just sounds
Like a sobbing of pain ...
________________________________

Translated by Cecilia Beatriz

 Silveira-Marroquin

Abeng and My Conscious Pen readers, for starts I decided to translate this song for you, not only because it is one of my very favorite Brazilian songs of all times and because it is sung by this amazing singer, Clara Nunes who is no longer amongst us, but because it is about the Palmares Kilombo. I urge you to listen to it, following the translation.
What is interesting about it, is that it shows how the collaboration of the three races was important for the survival of the Kilombos. For some reason, it is almost never mentioned that the Indigenous Natives and the Inconfidentes (Whites who were actively working against African slavery in Brazil) were fundamental for the success of the Kilombos.
This singer, Clara Nunes, was very outspoken about the cultural mix in Brasil and the richness that it brought us, especially from our African roots. Most of her songs are about that. She was an amazing musician and human being…. her premature death due to medical error during a minor surgery, left a hole in the hearts of Brazilians of all heritages.
~ Love,
 Cecilia


Cecilia Beatriz Silveira-Marroquin was born and raised in Brasil but
lived most of her life in the San Francisco Bay Area, California where she mostly worked in the legal field. Cecilia has a degree in Paralegal Studies
and Criminology. Now back in Brazil, after 37 years, she makes a living
by teaching English and is a published writer. Her book Real Dreams and Daydreams: Sonhos Reais e Devaneios 
can be purchased on Amazon.

Perceptions In The African Diaspora- Latinos of African Descent (Part II)

copyright 2014 K. Omodele

...like the U.S. and the U.K., people in Latin American countries immigrated from all over the world...And yes, some of these Latin Americans are of African Descent.

"No matter where you come from/ as long as you're a Black man, you are an African."~ Peter Tosh

People of Latin America

Beginning in the late 15th and early 16th centuries (1400s and 1500s), Spaniards and Portuguese sailed to what we now know as the Americas. They promptly conquered the native people (Amerindians such as the Taino Arawaks, Caribs Incas, etc.), decimating whole populations of these people through warfare and disease. These Europeans first set up shop mining gold, forced Amerindians into slavery. After the Amerindian population was close to depletion, Europeans imported Africans to work the fields- mostly sugar cane and tobacco plantations in Brazil, Columbia, Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Cuba,et al. By the 19th Century, in Latin America there were three different races/ancestries (Amerindians; Blacks/Africans; Whites/Europeans) and people of mixed race/ancestry (such as Mestizos and mulattos).

Over time, more people immigrated to Latin America- Asians ( Chinese and East Indians), other Europeans (Italians, Germans after WWII), and Middle Easterners (Lebanese and Syrians). But regardless of the diverse ancestry, the common thread that now weaves through Latin culture is language (Spanish and Portuguese).

African (Black) Culture in Latin America

Latinos/Hispanics don't share an exact, uniformed culture because dialects, music and dance, and other customs vary from one region to the next. For instance, some Latin American countries have large populations of Blacks (descendants of Africans) who have heavily influenced culture. Notice how Latin countries in and around the Caribbean , along with Brazil, possess customs steeped in African traditions. African styles permeate music and dance in samba, rhumba, merengue and just check out the strong rhythm of congas in salsa. Notice the spirituality of Yoruba deities and Orishas found in Santeria.

During the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, more Africans were imported into Brazil than any other country. If we include light and brown-skinned people of African descent (the so-called "mixed" or Mulatto), then Brazil's Black population is roughly forty-five percent of its total population of 190 million*, which means that Brazil has the largest population of black people in any country other than Nigeria.

Presently, people of African descent make up around 12 percent of South America's population.(McLeish 1997) Counting these descendants in the whole of Latin America (from A-Z, Argentina to Venezuela), more Blacks speak Spanish/Portuguese than English across the Americas, period. And these Africans have made undeniable and significant contributions to the collective Hispanic heritage.

In sum, it's full time we realize that people only "look Hispanic" (or look Puerto Rican, Cuban, Columbian, Dominican) if we misunderstand the meaning of these terms. Knowing that during slavery Africans were widely scattered throughout the Caribbean; Central, South and North America is crucial in understanding the nuances of ethnicity, nationality and race.

Sources

*The World Almanac 2012 (states that Brazil's population is comprised of 6% Black and 29% Mulatto)

**McLeish, Ewan. South America. Continents. Austin, TX: Raintree Steck-Vaughn Publishers, 1997

Perceptions In The African Diaspora: Latinos of African Descent -Part I