Documents from Gilberto Gil's Private Archive

Surnmerland THE PRESS DEMOCRAT, SUNDAY, MARCH 19, 1989 010 Brazil's struggling new black voice rises in song Musician leads movement major new efforts to save the historic city's cultural heritage. principally the fine old churches in the hilly, cobblestoned neighbor- hood of Pelourinho, including one whose vaulting nave is exquisitely adorned with gold leaf painstaking, ly applied by black slaves. From his government post Gil helped launch foundations and cul- tural centers celebrating Salva- dor's blackness. He used his promi- nence as Salvador's best-known citizen to demand attention from state authorities and the central government in Brasilia Today in Pelourinho some of the old buildings are still in danger, but at least more people are paying attention. Civic and cultural groups abound, and it is nearly impossible to find one that doesn't bear a plaque or certificate citing Gil as a prime moving force who managed to come up with money. office space or some other desperately needed help. "I didn't ask for all the plaques," he says. "It makes me uneasy to see my name all over the place like that. I guess I'm used to being known, but that was different." Pelourinho, like other parts of the city, is a celebration of Brazil's rich black culture. Brazil's black population is at least 70 million larger than that of any country on earth except Nigeria. Some believe even more Brazil- ians have at least some African blood, as many as 80 percent. Salvador is the capital of this nation-within-a-nation. In a plaza surrounded by four of the city's many churches, young men gather to practice capoeira, an indigenous martial art that began centuries ago when slaves were not allowed to fight among this is just something you have to themselves. do, if you feel it. It makes you a They solved the problem of target in many ways, even physical- settling their disputes by develop ly. But once you decide it's impor ing a fighting style disguised as a tant, you take the consequences of dance. It features cartwheels and what that brings." karate-like kicks, and looks harm- less enough until the guys on the plaza get a bit carried away, stop pulling their punches and show how deadly serious it really can be. Two years ago, Gil was appointed to his first public office, as secre- tary of education and culture for the city of Salvador. He launched By EUGENE ROBINSON Washington Post SALVADOR DA BAHIA, Brazil - A new black consciousness is brew- ing in Brazil, and its birth was evident even in that apotheosis of the don't worry-be-happy Brazilian experience, carnaval. The lyrics being sung by those sleek, G-stringed throngs gyrating through the streets in February were all about black pride and empowerment, about the struggle for equality in a country that abolished slavery 101 years ago and ever since has steadfastly clung to the fiction that racism simply doesn't exist. The center of this nascent black cultural and political surge is Salva- dor da Bahia, Brazil's oldest city and, through most of its history, the entry point and trading block for millions of slaves. And the movement's focal per- sonality is a slight, wiry, almost elfin man much better known for his singing, songwriting and guitar- playing than his status as an advo- cate for Brazil's impoverished black majority His name is Gilberto Gil, and he is one of Brazil's bigger musical stars. He is also newly elected as one of the city of Salvador's verea- dores, or city council members, the first in this overwhelmingly black city ever to take office after run- ning on black-related issues. "This is a new phase, and we'll see how it goes," says Gil. "I'm going to have all kinds of new responsibilities. It's already gotten so that performing is a vacation." As he speaks, Gil is curled into a compact ball on his living-room couch in Rio de Janeiro, where he also maintains an apartment. He is exhausted; he's in Rio to open a new show, record a new album and rest a bit before going back to Salvador, his unforsakable home except when business calls, to take office in March. The Rio apartment is actually in Sao Conrado, a glorious seaside suburb with a postcard view of cliffs, beach and sea. It's a commu- nity of exclusive high-rises and luxury hotels, all ringed by high fences and protected by armed-to- the-teeth security forces. "For most people around the world, this is Brazil," Gil says. The reason for all the security is that spilling down into Sao Conrado from a hillside to the north is the other Brazil - the favela of Rocin- ha, one of South America's larger slums. Last year Rocinha was in the news when a gang of drug dealers took the place over, holding press conferences and defying police to come up the hill and get them. Finally police did just that, in a brutal raid that left several of the major dealers dead. The people who live in Rocinha - like the people who live in the slums of Salvador, Sao Paulo and the rest of Brazil's big cities, and like the people trying to scratch out a living on the farms of Brazil's crowded, dirt-poor northeast-are black Yet the official line in Brazil has always been that this is a col- or-blind society, a true rainbow. It is true that Brazilians come in the most amazing variety of hues, and that the line between white and black is nowhere near so sharp as in the United States. "I don't know where that myth started," Gil says. "Black people JOIN US EASTER SUNDAY! Michele here always knew what was going on. They didn't always say it, but they knew. Even whites knew about all the inequalities. They'd always give you a little look that said, 'Yes, that's the way it is." A decade ago, Gilberto Gil was just another in the remarkable generation of Brazilian singer-song- writers who took samba-flavored rhythms, sweet kinda-blue melo- dies, an international jazz- and rock-flavored sensibility and mod ern production techniques and cre- ated a distinctive, wildly successful sound. Then he took a trip to Africa and underwent what could mildly be called an attitude readjustment. "I don't know what really did it," he says, in good English that improves as the conversation goes on. "I suppose it was seeing how black people are treated all over the world. I saw what they were left with after colonialism. Then when I got back to Salvador, I could see much more clearly what had hap- pened to us." The transformation was gradual. First he began writing songs around political and cultural themes. Then he began speaking out, holding press conferences and using his concerts to preach the cause. Brazil never had a civil rights movement or a black-is-beautiful awakening like that in the States, in part because there have long been strong laws against racism. Even racial slurs, like a popular television personality's recent equation of blacks with apes, are illegal and can bring arrest. But in The government in its public stance may stand more strongly for racial equality than any other in the world, but in the real world its policy can most charitably be described as benign neglect. There are, of course, other black spokesmen in Brazil. But because of his fame as an entertainer, Gil is the best known. People come to his press conferences. He compares his trajectory to that of Stevie Wonder, who under- Gilberto Gil, one of Brazil's bigger musical stars and a political activist, has helped launch foundations and cultural centers celebrating Salvador's blackness went a similar metamorphosis by first inserting social commentary into his music, then becoming involved in civil-rights causes and eventually leading the successful fight to have the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday made a federal holiday. "I've talked to Stevie Wonder about it," Gil says. "He told me that WASHINGTON POST