Jackson: University Press of Mississippi Jackson, MS, United States
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
The Brazilian berimbau, a musical bow, is most commonly associated with the energetic martial art/dance/game of capoeira. But the instrument has played a prominent role in several genres of Brazilian music from the 1950s to the present, including bossa nova, samba-reggae, música popular brasileira (MPB), electronic dance music, Brazilian art music, and more. Berimbau music spans oral and recorded historical traditions, connects Latin America to Africa, juxtaposes the sacred and profane, and unites nationally constructed notions of Brazilian identity across seemingly impenetrable barriers. The berimbau is discussed beyond the context of capoeira, exploring the bow's emergence as a national symbol. It engages and analyzes intersections of musical traditions in the Black Atlantic, North American popular music, and the rise of global jazz.
This study investigates the importance of the bullroarer cult in Cuban orisha worship. Though the cult was one of the most feared collectives of precolonial Yorubaland, carrying out the executions of criminals and witches on behalf of the state councils, the cult that came to be recreated in Cuba after the transatlantic separation took on a quality that was more devotional, though equally secretive. Given that so much change has occurred among the bullroarer cults in Cuba and Yorubaland since the termination of the slave trade, the conspicuous links between the two cults have all but disappeared. However, by lending particular attention to the bullroarer and other accouterments of the cult in Cuba, links can be re-established that explain the persistence of the cult in Cuba and demonstrate the ways in which ironically this emblematic sounding instrument of the cult is often constructed in a manner that actually mutes the instrument., [unedited non–English abstract received by RILM] Este estudio es una investigación sobre la importancia del culto “zumbador” (xiloaerófono) en la religión oricha en Cuba. Aunque el culto fue una de las colectivas precoloniales más temidas del mundo Yoruba, asesinando a criminales y brujas a nombre de los consejos del estado, después de la separación transatlántica la recreación del culto en Cuba asumió un carácter más devocional. Dado a la magnitud de los cambios ocurridos entre los cultos zumbadores en Cuba y en la tierra Yoruba desde que finalizó la esclavitud, los vínculos obvios entre los dos cultos prácticamente han desaparecido. Sin embargo, se puede argumentar que, al prestar atención particular al zumbador y a otros objetos del culto en Cuba, es posible establecer vínculos que explican la persistencia del culto en Cuba y demuestran como este instrumento icónico del culto, irónicamente, ha sido construido muchas veces de una manera que deja al instrumento “mudo.”
