User:Gqc5313/Brazilian Samba

Introduction
Brazilian samba has been around for a very long time. Brazil is mostly known for Samba, people see the extravagant outfits on women and huge floats describing history by dance. But something that many may not know is that a lot of the culture behind samba had been from Africa! African culture has spread throughout Brazil and embraced in many aspects in Brazilian culture.

African Migration Into Brazil Shaped Samba
African culture came to Brazil through over four million slaves that had migrated from different areas of Africa to multiple locations throughout Brazil. This migration to Brazil from Africa happened for over 300 years, this explains why there is such a heavy influence of African culture, due to the amount of Africans that migrated over time. The migration took place throughout the 1800's, this is back when the slave trade was still occurring in Brazil, and finally abolished in 1888. The influx of African's that migrated caused a majority of the population to consider themselves black or mixed race. These black people with African backgrounds, took sambas dance history and implemented it into Brazils culture, causing it to be widely acknowledged by Brazilian natives and further used for their Carnival.

Samba's History
The word Samba derives from the word semba, which is rooted from an African language called Kimbundu, this word meaning belly button. Samba uses a lot of belly movements, and the dancers even exposing their bellies dominantly with their outfits. This significance traces back to the root word of belly button, because the navel is important in samba. The belly in samba is used to make people want to join into the dance. Samba is passionate and hopeful of many things This long history of samba displays how these emotions could occur, and certain floats in Carnival reflecting history of African heritage. In its early stages, samba was illegal, people dancing samba on streets were put to jail, this was seen as a crime before it was normalized.

The music of samba sings about happiness and sadness, prosperity and poverty. Around the 1910's a song called "Pelo Telefone" got released by Donga, or formally known as Ernesto Joaquim Maria dos Santos. This song is considered to have made a huge impact to get the word Samba to be what it is, a song that shaped what we know as Samba today. Many songs have also been discovered to have been traditional samba songs. Songs from Fred Figner and Mello Moraes Filho have been known as traditional songs in sambas history.

Samba in Carnival
Samba has its biggest hit in Rio de Janeiro, this city being the most visited city during Carnival from many people around the world. Over 1 million people visit Rio de Janeiro to see Carnival, and over 5 million people taking part in the celebration overall. Carnival is a holiday that is celebrated all over Brazil, helping bring people together and celebrate. Christians celebrate the holiday as the day of Lent from Portuguese colonists, others that aren't Christian celebrate freedom or culture. Carnival. Carnival is not only a Christian holiday and dancing, carnival takes influences like different dance moves, or different genres of music from black neighborhoods to be included into carnival, making it influenced by all Brazilians and African cultures.

Conclusion
Samba is a huge in Brazilian culture, it's what Brazil is sometimes most known for. Samba is a dance that is seen during carnival, and that is all people know about it at times, yet its history stems far from that. African culture helped shape what Samba is known as today. Samba took in influences like dance and music from black Brazilian neighborhoods and African traditions to make it what it is today. Also different artists like Donga and Fred Figner composed music that is now known as "traditional" samba. All of these influences came together to form one thing that helps bring people together, Samba.