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Culture Is Our Weapon: Making Music and Changing Lives in Rio de Janeiro
An inspiring mission to rescue young people from drugs and violence with music
At a time when interest in Brazilian culture has reached an all-time high, and the stories of one person's ability to improve the lives of others has captured so many hearts, this unique book takes readers to the frontlines of a battle raging over control of the nation's poorest areas. Culture Is Our Weapon tells the story of Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, a Rio-based organization employing music and an appreciation for black culture to inspire residents of the favelas, or shantytowns, to resist the drugs that are ruining their neighborhoods. This is an inspiring look at an artistic explosion and the best and worst of Brazilian society.
At a time when interest in Brazilian culture has reached an all-time high, and the stories of one person's ability to improve the lives of others has captured so many hearts, this unique book takes readers to the frontlines of a battle raging over control of the nation's poorest areas. Culture Is Our Weapon tells the story of Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, a Rio-based organization employing music and an appreciation for black culture to inspire residents of the favelas, or shantytowns, to resist the drugs that are ruining their neighborhoods. This is an inspiring look at an artistic explosion and the best and worst of Brazilian society.
- GenresNonfictionMusic
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 2, 2013
I suspect that there are many different ways to read this book – as an study of the conditions for the emergence of a musical style, as an account of life in the favelas during the late 1990s and early 2000s, as an exploration of creation of criminality; for me, it is an excellent exploration of a social movement (and I admit, that is the approach I came to it with – social movement analysis).
Many of us in academia spend an awful lot of time getting our theoretical perspective right, sorting out our analytical frame to ensure that our analytical frame is either irreproachable or anticipates objections, when sometimes there is just a really good story to tell – and Neate & Platt have a really good story to tell. It is a tale about a bunch of people in the favelas of Rio who want to get away from el trafico, the drugs business, that is a glamorous trap for young men (mainly) who live fast, loud and die young – see the movie City of God. What’s more, from time to time, the war breaks out between the factions, highly militarised police raids bring carnage to the streets, police corruption is widespread as are summary killings (by both police and traficos).
Various of the favelas are controlled by one of the three main factions, and although the numbers of traficos is small, their power is huge – the have both wealth and from the point of view of outsiders define the hundreds of thousands of favela-dwellers as criminals. In the midst of all this sits an NGO (although it is unusual), a social movement (certainly), a music business (yes), a set of community cultural centres (certainly) – AfroReggae is all of these things and none of them in the way we’d usually expect.
Their highest profile comes from their main band – AfroReggae – whose style incorporates funk, reggae (more dancehall than roots), hip hop and assorted other influences, some Brazilian indigenous, some less so; it is pretty hard to describe, but several of their albums are on Spotify. But in the favelas AfroReggae is also computer classes, a circus school, dance classes, dance parties (it is a rare event for these to be separate from the drug factions – Afroreggae’s are) and a whole bunch of other community based and specific initiatives; this is not a one-size-fits-all NGO. As a group, they refuse funding from cigarette and alcohol companies, maintain a distance from the state, intervene in the communities where and when they can to broker truces; all because they seem to have considerable respect from all factions – illegal and legal. Their website – in Portuguese is http://www.afroreggae.org/.
Neate and Platt do not romanticise (although they have huge respect for the group’s leader, known here as Junior) and are clear about the limits, but are also clear that the situation is changing; this was published in 2006 based on research in 2005, I doubt that the context is anywhere near the same – but AfroReggae as a social movement continues.
For me, the power and strength of this book comes from Neate & Platt’s willingness to go wide, to engage with a wide range of views – official and unofficial – as well as drill deep into the world the AfroReggae occupies. The downside of this is that it tends to result in a slightly scattered style, and it is sometimes difficult to keep a grasp of who is who. Despite that limitation, in marrying breadth and depth they give us as readers (and in my case, someone whose work has explored social movements) rich insights to a messy and complex world. This is exactly the kind of analysis we need more of not only to understand self-determining social movements but also to explore the kinds of things, ideas and approaches that seem to work and that allow this group to straddle the legal, semi-legal and illegal worlds of a major urban centre, and in doing make a real difference many people.
Many of us in academia spend an awful lot of time getting our theoretical perspective right, sorting out our analytical frame to ensure that our analytical frame is either irreproachable or anticipates objections, when sometimes there is just a really good story to tell – and Neate & Platt have a really good story to tell. It is a tale about a bunch of people in the favelas of Rio who want to get away from el trafico, the drugs business, that is a glamorous trap for young men (mainly) who live fast, loud and die young – see the movie City of God. What’s more, from time to time, the war breaks out between the factions, highly militarised police raids bring carnage to the streets, police corruption is widespread as are summary killings (by both police and traficos).
Various of the favelas are controlled by one of the three main factions, and although the numbers of traficos is small, their power is huge – the have both wealth and from the point of view of outsiders define the hundreds of thousands of favela-dwellers as criminals. In the midst of all this sits an NGO (although it is unusual), a social movement (certainly), a music business (yes), a set of community cultural centres (certainly) – AfroReggae is all of these things and none of them in the way we’d usually expect.
Their highest profile comes from their main band – AfroReggae – whose style incorporates funk, reggae (more dancehall than roots), hip hop and assorted other influences, some Brazilian indigenous, some less so; it is pretty hard to describe, but several of their albums are on Spotify. But in the favelas AfroReggae is also computer classes, a circus school, dance classes, dance parties (it is a rare event for these to be separate from the drug factions – Afroreggae’s are) and a whole bunch of other community based and specific initiatives; this is not a one-size-fits-all NGO. As a group, they refuse funding from cigarette and alcohol companies, maintain a distance from the state, intervene in the communities where and when they can to broker truces; all because they seem to have considerable respect from all factions – illegal and legal. Their website – in Portuguese is http://www.afroreggae.org/.
Neate and Platt do not romanticise (although they have huge respect for the group’s leader, known here as Junior) and are clear about the limits, but are also clear that the situation is changing; this was published in 2006 based on research in 2005, I doubt that the context is anywhere near the same – but AfroReggae as a social movement continues.
For me, the power and strength of this book comes from Neate & Platt’s willingness to go wide, to engage with a wide range of views – official and unofficial – as well as drill deep into the world the AfroReggae occupies. The downside of this is that it tends to result in a slightly scattered style, and it is sometimes difficult to keep a grasp of who is who. Despite that limitation, in marrying breadth and depth they give us as readers (and in my case, someone whose work has explored social movements) rich insights to a messy and complex world. This is exactly the kind of analysis we need more of not only to understand self-determining social movements but also to explore the kinds of things, ideas and approaches that seem to work and that allow this group to straddle the legal, semi-legal and illegal worlds of a major urban centre, and in doing make a real difference many people.
May 27, 2010
i jsut stumbled upon sacramento book review. it seems pretty nice
http://sacramentobookreview.com/
i really liked patrick neate's noir novel set in london. this nonfiction about rio favelas, while interesting, was repetitive and not very informative as to WHAT affroreggae is. in the news though that govt is taking over the favelas to get ready for the Olympics. wtf?
http://sacramentobookreview.com/
i really liked patrick neate's noir novel set in london. this nonfiction about rio favelas, while interesting, was repetitive and not very informative as to WHAT affroreggae is. in the news though that govt is taking over the favelas to get ready for the Olympics. wtf?
June 29, 2016
Read this sucker.
November 29, 2013
Interesting look into the favelas in Rio. I didn't know much about them before reading this, and the book made me want to change that.
July 11, 2020
This book gives the reader an inside view of AfroReggae, a Brazilian organization founded in 1993 by José Junior with a clear mission: to reduce the use of drugs, disease, and crime in the favelas trough artistic education. Life in Rio for those without means typically leads to drug trafficking, and AfroReggae was founded to make that fate less inevitable. The portraits of some of those who have left the life for one of art and culture are fascinating and you want to root for their success. Meanwhile, the bullet fly in the favelas, young people, particularly boys get drawn into the life, despite their parents attempt to keep them safe. One gets a real feel for life in Rio and gets drawn in to the spirit and mission of AfroReggae in this book. What they have accomplished is amazing, and I hope other NGOs can learn from their experiences.
May 1, 2021
Amazing book.
December 19, 2010
I read this because I was going to Brazil over the summer and wanted to learn a bit about current-day Brazilian culture. While I can't say that I didn't learn anything from the book, the subject (music and favelas--Brazilian slums) is more conducive to explanation via a visual medium. To that end, the writers of this book were also involved in the making of a documentary film called Favela Rising. I haven't seen it yet, but probably recommend that instead of reading the book.
August 11, 2018
Beautiful story showing how culture can heal communities and help overcome social issues.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews