Creative African diasporas in São Paulo: musicking and postcolonial heritages

• Grant number: 19/09397-7
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• Start date: September 03, 2019
• End date: November 14, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji
• Grantee: Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji
• Visiting researcher: Jasper Morgan Chalcraft
• Visiting researcher institution: European University Institute (EUI), Italy
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 16/05318-7 - Local musicking: new pathways for ethnomusicology, AP.TEM

Abstract

The objective of this project is to continue the development of the research project "Making African music and heritage in São Paulo", a partnership of Jasper Chalcraft with Rose Satiko Hikiji, professor in USP's Anthropology Department, as part of the thematic project "Local Musicking: new pathways for ethnomusicology".Jasper Chalcraft is part of the team of researchers of this thematic project and during this period will: edit an ethnographic documentary at LISA-USP, undertake further field research and audiovisual recordings, present research at USP and Unicamp, deliver a workshop for the thematic team, a short course and a lecture at USP. The objective of the project is to study the new African creative diaspora in Brazil: how do African immigrants express cultural identities? How do they negotiate the local politics of racial representation? How are music and locality used in the construction of identity narratives? African immigration to Brazil has grown significantly in recent years: most African migrants leave for economic reasons, but asylum requests increased from 566 in 2010 to 28,670 in 2015.The project is analyzing the meanings of music making for this young generation of African migrants in Brazil, specifically in São Paulo, a place that attracts an important part of this migration. We are following stories and life experiences of immigrants in São Paulo to understand how music relates to becoming/perceiving oneself as African in Brazil. Since 2016, the project has been accompanying musicians and artists from Senegal, Togo, DRC, Mozambique and Angola. Between 2016 and 2018, we made the documentary Woya Hayi Mawe - Where Are You Going To?, in which we followed Lenna Bahule between São Paulo and Maputo, her hometown, where she returns to perform a show, find family and research her roots. The documentary is being screened internationally and has been selected for the music documentary festival In-Edit 2019. During this visit we will continue our work with Lenna, and her renewed activism.Between 2016 and 2017 we made the short film Tabuluja (Wake up), in partnership with the Congolese refugee and artist, Shambuyi Wetu. The film was shortlisted for the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) Research in Film Awards, and a photographic essay and an article from this research experience has already been published in Brazilian journals, and a chapter in The Routledge Handbook of Ethnographic Film and Video (ed. Vanini), entitled Collaborative Post-Production, has been accepted for publication. The visit will involve further collaboration with Shambuyi, and the production of one more journal article from the analysis of this research material. The research and interviews already conducted have also resulted in a chapter in The Routledge Companion for Local Musicking (eds. Reily & Bruscher). The visit will continue the research on the types of localities and identities being produced by African musicians and artists in São Paulo, and how local musical scenes incorporate these immigrants and their expressive forms. Specifically, interviews with institutional and cultural producers, and other musicians who are beginning to take part in this nascent scene. Since 2016, we have promoted encounters between African and Brazilian musicians. These encounters were filmed, and some of them already edited into shorts that can be found in the project's LISA Vimeo album: Afrosampas. Through these musical interactions, aesthetic, but also political, identity and conflictual issues emerge that complicate the experience of the African creative diaspora in Brazil. This is the theme of the documentary we will be making during the visit of Jasper Chalcraft. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

ROSE SATIKO GITIRANA HIKIJI; JASPER CHALCRAFT. Gringos, nômades, pretos - políticas do musicar africano em São Paulo. Rev. Antropol., v. 65, n. 2, 2022-11-11. (19/09397-7, 16/05318-7)