3774  Africa and tango

Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2005 00:08:24 +0000
From: Sergio Vandekier <sergiovandekier990@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Africa and tango

Jean_Pierre says: (among other things) "....Or go jump into the river!!!!"


He talks about " all the great contributions Black Africans made to the
different cultures of the world"

I think that his position would be stronger if he would mention and describe
those contributions rather than attacking anyone that gives an opinion on
anything black.

I will try to mention some of those contributions to our ballroom dances.

It is logical to distinguish North Africa with a predominantly
Ethiopian-Arab culture from the sub-Saharan area that has different cultures
of Black ethnias.

Most of the Spanish territory was controlled by Moorish Arabs for about 800
years (from 718 till 1492) .

Moslem rulers allowed the Christian and Jewish societies an independent
cultural and religious life. By the time they left Moors had made
important contributions to culture in general, art, architecture, philosophy
and mathematics in particular. The city of Cordova in Southern Spain was a
great cultural center of that time. They also left about 4 or 5 % of the
words of our Castilian language. The arab influence is obvious in the
music, the songs and the dance of Andalusia (in Southern Spain).

Spain brought their rich musical heritage to the colonies where it gave rise
to an amazing folklore and interacted with Black-African music and dances to
originate most of the ball-room dances of our time. (I Ignore what if any
contributions Black Africans made to Spanish Culture).

Jazz, Blues, Swing, rock & roll, etc, in North America.

Rumba, Bolero, Cha-cha, Mambo in Cuba.

Merengue in The Dominican Republic.

Salsa in Puerto Rico.

Cumbia in Colombia.

Samba in Brazil.

Tango in Argentina and Uruguay.

And many musical forms and dances in each one of the other Latin American
countries that are less known by the outside world.

Now I am going to apologize for writing the above as some members will
certainly accuse me of being pedantic, repetitive, delirious, racist, etc,
etc, etc.

So I apologize in advance.

Have a good evening, Sergio.

Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2005 23:03:03 EDT
From: Bill King <Euroking@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: Africa and tango

Sergio,

Good points. The Russian poet Yevtushenko once wrote "It would be far more
terrible to mistake a friend than an enemy". Sometimes I don't know which is
which when I read some of the postings.

Your historical commentary is on point but I think you missed a couple of
points. As an American studying history a long time ago, I like so many others
learned History from a particular point of view, but in many cases our teachers
did not know or provide us with important links. In this case who influenced
the Moors or North Africans? From about 400 AD, the Berbers moved south into
Mauritania. From 8th through 15th Centuries, The black kingdoms of Ghana (not
to be confused with present day Ghana), Mali and Songhai, moved north, thus
intermingling the great cultures of the south with those of the North. Influence
from all abounded. So I offer that there was a fair amount of Black African
influence a culture assimilated into the Moorish culture. Note it took over 500
years for the Islamization of that part of Africa.

But influence is just that: influence. It is not necessarily a cornerstone.
The Transatlantic Slave traffic brought many Black Africans to the new world.
Just because they were enslaved and poor, it did not mean they did not have
and express themselves in music, dance, poetry of there ethic cultures. However,
societies ignore these activities because societies largely ignore the poor
(less true in recent times on some levels, but my intent is not to go into that
discussion.) History is what recalls it. These cultural activities stilled
play a part in the overall cultural world they were part of. Thus influence.

Argentineans created Tango not Argentina. It was and is the people over time
that created the dance, the music, and the lyrics Lucia mentions. The passion
comes from the people, those people came from various ways of life and from
various parts of the world, and their diversity was the genesis for Tango, in
varying degrees but a needed presence.

Everyone that loves and experiences Tango is continuing the passion and
history, no one owns it.

I apologize for the rambling, but I am sometimes bothered by the arrows
tossed at each other, especially over comments on a book that is still 13 days from
publication. I wonder what we will say after we have had a chance to read it.

Again Sergio nice comments, in actuality I think everyone was on point, we
each are working from our own position of understanding, and sometime we read
too much into something and react.

As Yevtushenko admonished "It would be far more terrible to mistake a friend
than to mistake an enemy."

Just some thoughts,

Bill in Seattle