The message from Pierre Verger

“Verger and I had a lot in common. One of our common things was the search of a broader and deeper knowledge of black culture.”

This quote was professed by Gilberto Gil in an interview to O Globo newspaper on December 1st, 1997, the day the documentary Pierre Verger: A Messenger Between Two Worlds would be aired in a special session at GNT channel, for the first time.

The “two worlds” outlined in the title were the two lives lived by Verger in the middle of two distinct universes.

Verger spent his life torn between the modern and European world of Paris, his hometown, and the exotic and African world of Bahia, the city that has become his home for over 50 years.

The friendship between singer and songwriter Gilberto Gil and the French photographer and ethnologist Pierre Verger (1902–1996) has been properly crowned with the releasing of documentary Pierre Verger: A Messenger Between Two Worlds, directed by Lula Buarque de Holanda.

Released by the Conspiração Filmes movie company, the film had Gil as a narrator, following some of the photographer’s steps across France, Africa, and Brazil.

Throughout the journey, the Bahia-born musician interviewed partners, collaborators, and people close to Verger, and was surprised to discover little-known facts about the photographer’s life, also chatting a lot with his own friend for the movie.

Gilberto Gil also had a long interview with Verger for the feature film. The conversation turned out to be a farewell, for it had happened hours before Verger passed away, at the age of 93 years old, of heart failure.

Pierre was defined by Bahia-born writer Jorge Amado as the “the most Bahia-native out of the Frenches.” His relationship with photography first started in 1932, when he learned basic techniques from his friend Pierre Boucher. He also developed a liking for photographic expeditions across the world.

From 1932 on, he went all around the world producing photographic coverage, always trying to explore more places. He would use Paris as a base and, from there, make contacts for new jobs. On August 1946, he arrived in Bahia, fell for the place and there he stayed.

In the African continent, he went through a rebirth. In 1953, Pierre was ordered babalaô [priest] and baptized “Fatumbi”, which means “reborn thanks to Ifá (knowledge orixa).” In the picture, Pierre and Gil during a visit to Benin in 1987.

“I appreciate what this religion is capable of doing in favor of the African descents,” told Verger to Gilberto Gil in the movie.

“The possession of the orixa is a manifestation of our true nature, the possibility to forget all things that have nothing to do with you, get back to the human essence, to the original being,” said the photographer.

Scene of the documentary Pierre Verger: A Messenger Between Two Worlds

As soon as they met, Gil and Verger became friends and identified a common curiosity towards the African legacy so latent in Bahia. The musician had already been to Africa, and so had the scholar, and they ended up going back to the continent together, in 1987.

While presiding the Gregório de Mattos Foundation, in Salvador, a chair equivalent to city secretary of Culture, Gilberto Gil led an excursion to Benin.

Besides Gil and Verger, were also travelling along the then-mayor of the city, Mário Kertész, the Argentinian–Brazilian naturalized and rooted in Bahia artist Carybé, ialorixá [priestess] Mãe Stella de Oxóssi, from the temple Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá, among other personalities.

In the 1990s, the friendship went on alive and kicking. There are records of meetings even hosted at the house of singer and songwriter Caetano Veloso, with the presence of songwriter Dorival Caymmi.

During the preparation of the documentary about the photographer, Gilberto Gil went back to the regions they had crossed together in 1987, so that he could transmit a little of the stories and words of Verger to those who have not known him.

In the continent, he even joined a ceremony organized by a babalorixá [priest] in honor of the photographer. Additionally, he had met, both in Africa and in Salvador, several crucial people for the discovery of Bahia and of the orixas universe for the photographer.

Author of over forty books on African culture and religion, Verger remembered his knowledge and the discoveries he made about this universe, during his conversation with Gil.

Cleverly, Gil kept from asking details about the candomblé rituals to the participants. Then he tried to just observe while the French would expose his knowledge.

“I am a rationalist idiot from France”, joked Verger in the documentary.