From “Pai João” to “Laranjas da Sabina”

slavery and resistence in the imperial age

Abstract

Centered on one of the main themes of the Volume Zero of "Who has invented Brazil? – the music tells the history of the Empire and the onset of the Republic (1822-1906)” (Martins, 2023), this article demonstrates how lundus, modinhas, jongos, vissungos, nursey rhymes (cantigas de roda), tanguinhos, batuques, congadas and other musical genres dealt in a critical way with slavery and racism in the 19th Century. Frequently referencing the so-called "black people speech", the songs were originated in the slave quarters, places of labor, streets and fairs, and spread across the country vastly due to oral transmission and the circus and, later on, light musical theater. They clearly demonstrate that the captive did not passively submit to slavery, but resisted as they could to exploitation, dehumanization and disqualification. Relying on over a hundred songs, ranging from the "Pai João" cycle, at the start of the 19th century, up to the popular "Laranjas da Sabina", at the wake of the Proclamation of the Republic, the piece also describes how Brazil in a few decades transitioned from oral transmission into a modern cultural industry.