Afro-Peruvian Sounds
4 Apr
I recently heard about the Peruvian band Novalima through the BBC World Service, which made sitting in Nairobi’s infamous bumper-to-bumper traffic, I daresay, a pleasant experience. Novalima do not claim African ancestry, however, they have an appreciation and hold great value of the sounds and rhythms exported to Latin America by African slaves brought over by the Spanish and Portuguese, which they cover to create a new sound, in the spirit of promoting the place of Black Peruvians in society and making a stance against racial inequality in Peru by reminding Peruvians their ties with Africa. Afro-Peruvians may make up a tiny 3% of Peru’s population, however, in musical festivals and the like, the huge impact of these distinct sounds is apparent.
Novalima’s co-founder Carlos Li-Carillo says:
Most of the traditional music here, except for the Andean music, has African influence. In the coast, we have the valse, the creole valse, and the marinera. Now marinera is used for military bands and stuff. But it’s all started with African styles.
I am not a Latin America expert, but this is likely a familiar scenario across Latin America, with the well known example of Rio de Janeiro’s annual carnival.
Although the history of the birth of Afro-Peruvian music resonates with that of other parts of Latin America, Afro-Peruvians have a distinct repertoire of instruments and unique dance. Because musical instruments amongst slaves were forbidden, thought to be due to their powerful impact and trance-like states the audiences fell into (which was also related to their Spiritual practice) and their possible use as communication aides between slaves, the ingenious and creative use of objects such as the quijada de burro (a dried up donkey’s jawbone with knocked out teeth, used as a scraper) or cajon (a large wooden box used as a drum) were used, creating a new generation of instruments and ensuing sounds that were adopted in a new culture of the slaves’ descendants. Read more here.
Back to Novalima – the title of their latest and 3rd album Coba Coba, is an Afro-Peruvian expression which is used to spur on a musician in the middle of a great solo (much like the Spanish olé!).
The first line of a song written decades ago, ‘Liberta’, is Negro sera presidente… (A black man will be president…) was a song of hope for freedom for Black Peruvians, and was recently brought back from the archives with President Barack Obama’s win. Despite the disparities in racial geography, culture and politics in USA, it is nevertheless a source of inspiration for many in Latin America. And beyond. Source
Check out this tune by Novalima on Cerulean’s love of music
Tags: afro-latin america, afro-latino, afro-peruvian, novalima
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