[RHYTHMIC VOCAL MUSIC] {DAVID YETMAN} Slavery in Brazil was the same as slavery everywhere, built on brutality and dehumanizing.

It continued for nearly three centuries.

Part of Brazil's emerging heritage is recognizing the horrors of the institution.

But even more, the resistance, creativity and heroic endurance that we see today in Brazil's African heritage.

[MUSIC FADES] {ANNOUNCER} Funding for In the Americas with David Yetman was provided by Robert and Carol Dorsey [MUSIC] The Guilford Fund.

Arch and Laura Brown.

And Hugh and Joyce Bell.

[THEME SONG PLAYING] {DAVID} The Brazilian city of Salvador, in the state of Bahia, sits at the edge of the great bay called Todos os Santos.

All Saints Bay.

[SEAGULLS VOCALIZING] [SAMBA MUSIC] It was one of the best locations for commerce in all of South America, and the slave trade prospered here.

And expanded greatly for over three centuries.

[SAMBA MUSIC CONTINUES] African culture expanded quickly after the emancipation of slaves in the late 19th century [RHYTHMIC DRUMS] [CLAPPING] Today, its influence is celebrated throughout Brazil and especially in the city of Salvador, and it is alive and thriving and very interesting.

Historians are discovering the rich heritage of African culture long suppressed by slavery and racism.

Female historians can best express the double oppression experienced by slave women.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {TRANSLATION} {ALANA PERONIO} As a black woman, It is very important for me to bring to my students and to my research other perspectives about Brazil's history.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] It is important for us to understand the role of the elites in the construction and development of the city.

But it's essential to understand the participation of African and African and Brazilian populations, as well as of the indigenous peoples.

They were the people who were there in the day to day.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] It's beautiful to walk around the city, see the big houses and know that those houses belonged to certain wealthy families.

But we need to understand that those families were not the ones who got their hands dirty, who laid the bricks, and who thought about the houses structural support.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] Salvador is a city committed to preserving its history, and its history is derived from the colonial period.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] Today, we have a vast amount of buildings and monuments in the preservation process.

It's a preservation of memories from the colonial period, but it's a memory of everyone, including indigenous people and African people.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] We're here in the Pelourinho It's the historic downtown of the city of Salvador.

Here we have buildings that have been preserved since colonial times.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] They are a way to keep history alive, but also to rethink Bahias story and the story of Brazil in general.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {DAVID} The city of Salvador has for a long time been split into two parts the upper city and the lower city, and the upper city, which is where the more affluent people live, the lower city where the workers, the slaves, the African Brazilians lived.

We are in the upper part.

And down there below is the lower part.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {TRANSLATION} {ALANA} The upper part of the city has always served as an administrative hub.

It was where where the government offices and the affluent people were located.

But the lower city had a popular character.

It was where the common people lived.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] There's an idea Bahia that is sold.

But Salvador is not just carnival.

Brazil is not just soccer.

We have contributions from African populations and from indigenous populations in our culinary, our art, our architecture.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] To get to know these historic processes from other perspectives from the perspectives of the ganhadoras, from the women, from the children, makes us understand how some remnants of the colonial period impact our lives today.

[CAPOEIRA STYLE MUSIC] [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] The participation of women in the colonial period is undeniable.

But for a long time it was a marginalized issue.

in historiography.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] With the rise of gender studies, and growing discussions of the social history of women, they have been gaining recognition for participating in spaces that were previously attributed to men Women participated in the colonial economy and they were active in religious organizations, not only in African and Afro-Brazilian religions, but also in the Catholic religion.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] [“Lucro” - BaianaSystem playing] {DAVID} Salvadors African Brazilian influence everywhere expresses the city's roots in African culture and religion.

[SEAGULL VOCALIZING] [MUSIC CONTINUES] This little bay holds a special place in African Brazilian culture.

It's a bay dedicated to the goddess Iemanjá, the goddess of water.

Once each year, the celebrants bring flowers here They have a ceremony and mass inside the church, and then bring and cover the entire beach with flowers.

Fishermen with their boats fill up their boats and flowers.

Take them out into the bay and deposit them in honor of the goddess Iemanjá [“Lucro” - BaianaSystem playing] One major repository of African religion around Salvador is the Terreiro a quasi religious site where the rights of traditional religion are routinely practiced.

The terreiros are often presided over by a Mãe de Santo a priestess with great public influence.

Mãe de Santo Alda explains the importance of the Orixás The pantheon of gods derived from Africa.

[DRUMS PLAYING] [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {TRANSLATION} {MAE ALDA} Candomble is an African-based religion [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] The Orixas had lifes, like we do [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] Elidumare, the great father, organized a meeting to give the roles to the Orixas [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] First is Exu who is the great messenger Ogum is the one who developed technology [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] Who makes tools, including for his siblings to use for hunting.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] Oxossi is the great hunter, who hunts to feed us.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] Theres Xango, the Orixa associated with justice But not revenge justice, Rather, the justice of democracy.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] Oxum is the queen of the fresh waters.

She takes care of matters of love.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] Ode is an Orixa that to suffered a transformation.

That's why we say he doesn't know death.

So we sing a song to let him know that we'll be paying tribute to someone who has passed.

[SINGING] We're dependent on Ossain, the Orixa of the leaves, For everything.

Without leaves, we can't summon the Orixas So the leaf is a weapon for us that we use to bless, to renew energies.

[SINGING AND DRUMMING COLLECTIVELY] [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] Iemanja was destined by the father to take care of the salt waters.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] [RHYTHMIC DRUMMING] [CHANTING] [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] Oyá Padá is who shows the way, who brings light.

Like a candle.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] Omolu took care of the spirits and the body, the flesh After the person has passed.

[DRUMMING] [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] Our lives don't depend only on our own Orixas.

Our lives are guided by our path The sum of your birth, which is your Odu [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] [CHANTING] [DRUMMING RHYTHMICALLY] [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] Lets go through here, “Orixas Avenue” {DAVID} We have Oya and Xango {ALDA} Xango.

La Oxum {DAVID} Oxum [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {DAVID} Each of the Orixas has their own place, their own small building, almost a chapel.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {TRANSLATION} {MAE ALDA} Here is the Iroco The Orixa we turn to for calm.

[SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE] [SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE] {DAVID} Then I go now to a sacred place, where there is a ceremony that involves shells [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {TRANSLATION} {DJALMA FILHO} The drums are also Orixas We feed them as well, and they establish this connection.

So when we want to call for the Orixas to descend, we start playing for them.

[DRUMMING] [SPEAKING POTUGUESE] [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] [SHELLS DROPPING] [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {TRANSLATION} {MAE ALDA} Your Odu, your path, belongs to Oxaguian The great warrior.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] Here it shows that you are a reflective person and you're someone who has faith in everything that you do.

You are also very resilient.

{DAVID} Shes saying that in my life I've had a number of challenges that I've been able to overcome because, she says, I have confidence in myself.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {TRANSLATION} {MAE ALDA} I see a conflict between Iemanja and Oxaguian, also known as Oxala the Great warrior.

{DAVID} I am in conflict between two Orixas One of them is Iemanja, the other could be Oxala [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {TRANSLATION} {MAE ALDA} We read the shells using numerology.

Each number represents an Orixa.

If only one shell is turned, it means Exu is speaking.

And then I ask Exu a question.

[DRUMMING] {DAVID} -going to the house of Oxala -was one of the two Orixas that are in conflict According to Mae Alda [SAMBA MUSIC] [DRUMMING RHYTHMICALLY] [PEOPLE SINGING TOGETHER] [DRUMMING RHYTHMICALLY] [DRUMMING] [CLAPPING] [MUSIC TRANSITION TO SAMBA] {DAVID} On the other side of a city is a church with a most distinctive role in Salvadoran life, one of the more spectacular features of this church is the hundreds of thousands of ribbons that greet the visitor.

[SAMBA MUSIC] This is the church of Our Lord of Bonfim In the mid 18th century, a unusual custom began where the whites ordered slaves to wash the steps of the church which they did.

After the emancipation of the slaves, and African Brazilians took over the ceremony.

And today they wash the steps and there's a festival of two million people in the middle of January every year for the washing.

The saints of Our Lord of Bonfim [SAMBA MUSIC] [MUSIC STOPS] [WIND BLOWING] The church sits on high ground above the water of the bay, overlooking the city, close by and next to the water.

The market of Sao Joaquim retains the spirit of Africa so closely that it can almost be in Africa.

[DRUMMING AND CHANTING] My guide is a prominent historian.

{CARLOS DA SILVA JR.}

This place is the Feira de Sao Joaquim Or the Sao Joaquim Market So here you can find people of poor neighborhoods, non-privileged groups that come here to buy food stuff, vegetables, meats, dry meat and etc.

because it's very expensive to shop this stuff in other places, in the supermarkets.

The beginning of the African presence in Brazil started in the early 16th century.

In Salvador, more specifically, Africans started to disembark from the slave ships in the 1580s.

And then in the 17th century.

You have these strong presence of West Central Africans that we know here as Angolans and people from Congo.

Most of these African captives were acquired to work on the sugar plantation, a part of these also works in the mining regions of Minas Gerais 60 years ago, small boats like this, that we call Saveiros used to cross the Bay of All Saints, for the Bahia hinterland, for the Reconcavo to Salvador Bringing food stuff, seafood, bringing all the products to be sold to the non-privileged population [SPEAKING POTUGUESE] {CARLOS} During the period of the transatlantic trade of enslaved Africans, Bahia established very close connections with West Africa.

Because of these connections, you can see these West African more specifically background, very strong here in Salvador, but also in other places.

{DAVID} Carlos, most of the stuff I see here is new to me.

{CARLOS} Here you can find different kind of stuff.

Food stuff, religious articles.

{DAVID} You can get pigeons.

{CARLOS} Like the pigeons, uh, for example, are used in the African Brazilian religions {DAVID} So it's a religious item {CARLOS} Yeah.

{DAVID} What am I looking at here?

{CARLOS} This is, uh- tobacco.

{DAVID} That's tobacco?

{CARLOS} That's tobacco.

Because this kind of tobacco was transported to West Africa to be exchanged by human beings.

{DAVID} You see necklaces, strong, long necklaces.

Tell me about those.

{CARLOS} Okay, so each color represents a different Orixa This one is probably, a color associated with the Orixa Ogum.

Because of the color yellow.

Yellow is associated with the Orixa Oxum Iemanja would be- {DAVID} The color of the sea.

{CARLOS} But in the African context, Iemanja is the Orixa of the rivers But she became the Orixa of the saltwater, the Orixa of the sea.

{DAVID} Because of the crossing of the ocean.

That interminable journey.

{CARLOS} So people ask for the protection of Iemanja to survive the Atlantic crossing So she became associated with the sea instead of the rivers.

[MUSIC ENDS] This woman here, she's working in a very similar way, in which black women in 19th century used to work.

She was explaining to me that she has been working here for 55 years.

{DAVID} 55 years?

{CARLOS} 55 years, she's 76 now.

Black women, they used to walk through the streets of Salvador selling food and selling asorted products.

Today we have the black woman selling food.

Selling different products at the Sao Joaquim Market but also in different places on Salvador So you have these connection between the past and the present.

[DRUMS PLAYING] [ROOSTER CROWING] [PEOPLE CHATTING] {DAVID} This market is not just a place of sales, it's social interactions on a big scale.

{CARLOS} Yes.

So, you know, people are circulating, people are talking, and people are discussing, thats what makes the Sao Joaquim Market so fascinating.

{DAVID} It is fascinating {CARLOS} When you talk about slavery, in Bahia or in any other parts of the Atlantic world, we talk more about the violence of the institution, and that's correct, because we cannot forget how violent was the process of slavery.

But it's also equally important to emphasize the resistance, the experience of the African population.

Brazil cannot be reduced to the violence.

We have creativity, this culture of resistance that I think the world still need to know [DRUMMING AND CHANTING MUSIC] {DAVID} One of the many features of the market is the availability of ingredients and foods that make up African cuisine for which Salvador is internationally renowned.

{CARLOS} Here you can find pepper, different kind of pepper But also, what we call Azeite de Dende, or palm oil Palm oil came from West Africa to here in the late 18th, early 19th century.

{DAVID} We were in a stand featuring most famous food in Salvador: Acaraje.

It is bean flour fried in the dende oil, which is a palm oil, originated in Africa.

This is the Acaraje [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {TRANSLATION} {VENDOR} The dough is made of black eyed peas, onions and garlic.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {DAVID} So, peppers here [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {DAVID} Hot peppers [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {DAVID} This is a Vatapa [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {DAVID} Shrimp [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {DAVID} And a vinaigrette here, which is tomatos, and maybe celery and onion?

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {DAVID} This is delicious stuff Salvador's food heritage ranges far beyond Brazil's borders.

Equally international is the traditional martial art that grew from slaves strategies for protecting themselves.

Capoeira, a dance expert, now incorporates multiple cultural themes into these distinctly Brazilian forms of resistance that have survived the oppression of slavery and express the irrepressible spirit of their African origins.

{CAPOEIRA MUSIC} We're in a neighborhood well outside of Salvador, and what we have here is a Casa de Cultura, a cultural house [SINGING] [CAPOEIRA MUSIC] [SAMBA MUSIC] [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] {TRANSLATION} {BIBINHA} We'll start our activities with an Afro-Brazilian dance.

Then we'll do a bit of Samba de Roda which is officially recognized as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] We will also perform Maculele a traditional warrior dance and fight.

Here we practice all these cultural manifestations.

Capoeira is our main attraction, but we also feature other popular dances that are part of our culture.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian cultural expression.

African cultural practices were brought to Brazil during the slavery period.

Some were combined with other martial arts And Capoeira was created [SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] Capoeira speaks of the history of Brazilian people, of our legacy of resistance and our ancestral legacy.

Capoeira carries the power to create social change.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] My biggest responsibility today is to teach the next generations about the power of social transformation that capoeira carries.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] We dedicate our lives to doing something that we believe in We see how important it is for the new generations to have access to culture.

Capoeira has always been a fight and it became a means of liberation fighting without weapons or our weapons were our bodies.

We were many times successful.

And that's why we're here today.

We know that us, women, for decades have faced lots of discrimination and challenges.

That is undeniable.

I develop work that fights against all types of violence against women.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] Women weren't part of Capoeira groups and that's not true anymore.

Women are in Capoeira today.

A huge part of the kids here are female and that is great.

[SPEAKING PORTUGUESE] So this is the biggest challenge for me today to bring more women to Capoeira to make them feel safe, respected and empowered through art as well.

[SENTIMENTAL MUSIC] {DAVID} Salvador's African legacy penetrates the ethos of all Brazil, a country that experiences all the divisions and hostilities brought on by a heritage of conquest and oppression.

[DRUMMING AND CLAPPING] [SENTIMENTAL MUSIC] Salvadorans lead Brazil in demonstrating how emergence from slavery can result in boundless human creativity.

[DRUMMING AND CLAPPING] [SENTIMENTAL MUSIC] [SENTIMENTAL MUSIC] [MUSIC ENDS] {DAVID} Join us next time In the Americas, with me, David Yetman {DAVID} Trees cast long shadows into human history and the human brain.

They affect us in ways we do not fully understand.

No trees forge such a deep impression as California's great trees.

Giant sequoias and coastal redwoods, trees with lingering power to influence the people who have lived among them.

And it's not just because they are the world's tallest trees.

{DAVID} In the heart of the Pelourinho district is the very famous house of Jorge Amado, a Nobel Prize winning novelist who wrote about the street life, the real life of Salvador.

But he loved the people here.

He looked at their lives, their suffering, their joys, their prejudices, their loves and brought them into literature in a way no other novelist has ever done.

[MUSICAL STING] {ANNOUNCER} Funding for In the Americas with David Yetman was provided by Robert and Carol Dorsey.

[MUSIC] The Guilford Fund.

Arch and Laura Brown.

And Hugh and Joyce Bell.