Andrew Sullivan

Salvador, Brazil: Samba da Bahia

   
At the Feira de Sao Joaquim, a man walks past an advertisement for ingredients crucial to Bahian cuisine. Acaraje, a street food that originated in West Africa, is also used in rituals to a Candomble goddess. Samba's rhythm's emerged from Candomble ceremonial music.
   
A delivery man passing this waitress said, "Beleza pura," pure beauty. Beleza pura is the title of a famous samba by Bahian sambista Caetano Veloso.
     
  
On the city docks, a young man unloads sugarcane, a crop introduced by the Portuguese almost 500 years ago. Sugarcane bears the weight of its history, from the initial enslavement of indigenous Brazilians and subsequent importation of African slaves to today, where crops are increasing to feed demand for ethanol.
   
With a fistful of medicinal herbs, sambista Joao de Boi finishes his day as a street cleaner in the village while his granddaughter carries his gear for him.
   
Sambista Joao de Boi walks into his backyard to help his wife. Known for his 800 samba repertoire, he performs a traditional form of the music that samba expert Randy Roberts of Cana Brava Records compared to the Mississippi Delta Blues.
     
  
Riding with two of his grandsons, Joao de Boi, John of the Bull, goes to water his cattle before sunset.
   
Samba at home, in the night.
   
The young sister of a samba singer stays up late to listen to her brother's band rehearse.
     
  
In Pelourinho, the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Salvador, people gather ouside a samba club.