Part 2 - The Afro-American/Afro-Brazilian Connection - A Cultural Essay & Critical Analysis |
by Mark Wells & David Rambeau |
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Date: Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:46:58 -0800 David Rambeau: Just wanted to give you an update on what's happening down here. I forgot to tell you that I'm meeting more and more people who have either attended the Unipalmares (the black university in Brazil) or know people who have attended. The president of the college is Jose Vicente. I've reported on Unipalmeres and Vicente in past segments on FMP. I don't know if I told you before, but this seems to be another situation of a good idea in theory but not quite so in reality. I had already known about this situation last year when an African professor at the school was fired for asking why so many of the college's heads and influential people behind the scenes were white. The Trófeu Raça Negra awards is another example. Vicente, Unipalmares and the NGO AfroBras are responsible for the awards show. I've now gone to two Trófeu Raça Negra award shows. Before I actually attended, I had seen photos of the previous 5 shows to get a feel of what it looked like. Seeing the photos and attending the last two live still make me ask why it is that a supposed "black" award show (that is supposed to honor the year's best Afro-Brazilians) gives half of the night's honors to white Brazilians. Actually, it's kind of obvious. These are the supporters and financial backers. The governor was onstage in blue jeans in what is supposed to be a black tie/elegant event. Vicente spent a lot of time onstage honoring the white folks his organization gave awards to. Someone who used to go the Unipalmares also told me that Vicente is stealing quite a bit of money from the school. You know Malcolm X's famous house negro/field negro comparison? Here they call it the "negro do senzala (negro of the slave house)" and the "negro do Casa Grande (negro in the master's house)"; some people in the know say that Vicente is a "negro do Casa Grande". Looking at how he seems to to bow down to white elites, I don't think this term is undeserved. But knowing this kind of puts me in a dilemna; I have spoken on the accomplishments of Vicente and Unipalmares on FMP. As I continue to hear things about Vicente, do I put it out there to our audience, not speak on the negative things I've heard or only present positive reports? What do you think? Yesterday was the big annual Day of Black Consciousness march. One of my friends who is a militant with the Movimento Negro Unificado (MNU), Brazil's conglomeration of hundreds of Black Civil Rights groups, told me the day before the event that this year the crowd would not be as big as last year's. He told me that he and many others help organize this event every year but that he and many others decided not to contribute this year. My friend feels that his contributions are not recognized. He does a lot of graphics and leaflets for the organization that he feels go unappreciated. He went on to criticize the flyers that the MNU was putting out for this year's event, saying how plain they looked. Well, I have to admit, he was right. Although there was still a nice crowd of people at the event yesterday, there were far fewer than last year. What I'm hearing from my friend and others is that there is inner turmoil within the MNU. Some people believe the leaders of the MNU are too conservative and don't want to "rock the boat" politically. I've heard this about the MNU over the years. It's ironic; I just did a presentation in front my other friend's English class explaining the meaning of black politics in the era of Obama as well as the warring factions behind the scenes of the Civil Rights/Black Power Movements. In the same way that SCLC, NAACP, Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers all believed in the emancipation of African-Americans, they all had different ideologies on how to achieve this. It seems the MNU is a victim of this as well. Yesterday's event came up short for another reason too: the weather. After about 2 or 3 P.M., it rained heavy off and on for the rest of the day! A drizzle would not have been so bad, but it started raining cats and dogs. It would start, go for about an hour and then stop, disappear for an hour and start up again. The performers kept right on singing; the outside stage had a roof so they didn't get wet, but the audience had to run for cover at least every hour. Raincoat and umbrella vendors were making a killing yesterday! On Thursday I went to what was supposed to be a meeting of 30 African-American and Afro-Brazilian photographers at the Afro-Brasil Museum. It is located way across town from where I'm staying. I pulled out of an important interview because I didn't want to be late for this event. After riding the subway and catching a cab there, I was very disappointed with what I saw! There were about 4 African-American photographers that presented their work and 4 Afro-Brazilian. The entire audience was about 20-25 people, which included the photographers themselves. The African-American photographers that presented their work were all from D.C. There's a long story to tell behind the scenes of what happened Thursday that involves the sudden death of the African-American woman who was supposed to be head of the event. She was an historian and museum curator, also from D.C. She died about a week before she was supposed to fly to Brazil. Her name was Donna Wells (no relation, but ironic). The museum posted a photo of her on the wall outside of the auditorium where she was supposed to moderate the event. http://www.provost.howard.edu/DonnaWells.pdf One of the African-American photographers was Victor Holt, a personal photographer for Barack Obama. My friend and I are working on a quasi-documentary. He wants to start editing it soon. I do too but there are a few key interviews that I want to record first. Today is the one year anniversary of ODUN, one of the independent documentary film groups here, so I'll be going to that event later today. There should be a lot of good people there today. I already know three people here who have put together documentaries, one of them flew down from Bahia yesterday. I have exactly one week left and still a lot to do. I'll write again soon... Mark Wells 313-414-8234 mrmarques72@yahoo.com ABA - Afro-Brazil America
Sent: Sat, November 21, 2009 8:12:03 AM Mark Wells:
Tell the truth to the people. Tell no lies; claim no easy victories. People are much the same all over the world, so what is happening in Brazil is no surprise, no disappointment. President Vincente is stealing money; no surprise. Nor any other of his tactics. Booker T. Washington did the same thing with Tuskegee Institute decades ago. The presidents and trustees of U. S. black colleges and universities did/do the same thing. The fired African professor should have set up a front group to raise his issues, unless he wanted to be fired. He raised the issues; you can raise the same issues and more. With regard to the awards show, tell the truth as you see it. Put it on the Internet - ABA, FMP, etc. - and let the chips fall where they may. You have even more leverage in telling like it is; you're from the U. S. You're with Project BAIT, For My People. You're already getting the most hits from projectbaitdet on youtube.com. With this data and your analysis you're in position to get even more. About the Black Consciousness Movement. Again, nothing new. All movements start with a burst of energy and decline. The key question is whether they survive, slowly rebuild collectively, and grow in upcoming years even while every individual group maintains survival, independence and growth. This doesn't make the movement a victim; somebody should have already known and planned for this to happen. People have to recognize themselves, if recognition's what they want. For you, the question is how you develop with BAIT & FMP as you develop with ABA. You always need alternatives whether it's with a group or with your job (especially in this time period). Never put all your eggs in one basket. Companies are always going bankrupt. So are organizations. So are individuals. About the weather and the program. The key points are as follows: the show went on, some folks were prepared; some weren't. Did you get wet? And, you can make money even when it's raining cats and dogs. In this depression in the U.S., some people are still making big bucks, bonuses, living large, working overtime. Again, the question is how are you/we doing? If you have a team, a good, prepared team, a productive organization, you will survive, maybe even thrive. So it was only 8 photographers and 25 people at the event. Did you meet all of them, get all of their email addresses, their websites (and those who were supposed to attend, but didn't)? Did you give everyone your bait card? If you do one, only one photo essay or documentary with each of them for ABA or FMP in the coming year, you will have 8 photo essays or ducumentaries more than you have now. That alone would be a full-time job. We have D.C. contacts who can do follow-up with the D.C. people. Do you have the 4x5 yellow BAIT cards to hand out to everybody. You never know where and from whom action will develop. If you don't have many, have some printed up. You've already done 2 drafts of the cards; you know the content from memory. With a week to go, it's time to press the production accelerator. Regards,
David Rambeau |