La community black from theslavery represents an important weight in the parent company of River Plate, throughout the 19e century and until the beginning of the 20th century. The end of the Juan Manuel de Rosas in 1852, a regime that was favorable to him, marked the beginning of the slow decline of this black population in the Rio de la Plata, until its virtual disappearance from theArgentina in the beginning of the 20th century. (This disappearance questions historians: Wars whose battalions will be made up of slaves Black and few will return, epidemics, growing rejection of blacks in society, miscegenation, etc.) The music and dances of this black community will constitute one of the fundamental pillars of the genesis of tango.
First, the term itself, composer, which has long circulated throughout Atlantic America, from Gulf of Mexico au River Plate, may be of black origin (the term tambo to designate a place or a meeting place previously exists in the Quechua language). The term will know different meanings, all of which are marked with the seal of slavery, blacks andAfrica :
- In language kongo, it would mean "closed place", place in which one must be initiated to enter and where rituals and drums are practiced. By autonomasia, the term would then have designated the drums themselves, then the music produced by these drums2.
- The slavewoman was calling composer the place where he parked the slaves before boarding. Later in America we called composer the place where they were sold. Various meanings then appear, such as: the closed place where the drums were stored, then finally: Bailes of tangos : the dances and the drumming of the blacks.
- In 1788, an authority of Buenos Aires considers it scandalous "that the multitude of free blacks and slaves who live in this city have been allowed for several years to this day to come together to make their tambos and dances outside the city, contravening divine and human laws” (Novati).
- À Montevideo in 1806, the municipality got angry with the “Tambos bailes de Negros”, “Los Negros con el tango”, and in 1816, on several occasions: "Se prohiban dentro de la ciudad los bayles conocidos por el Nombre de tangos2."
But before the end of 19th century, tango does not yet refer to a definite musical or dance form, but to very diverse music and dances, more or less ritualized, practiced by populations of black origin. (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tango_(danse)#Les_origines_noires_du_tango)
Following a meticulous work which lasted several years, the researchers of the UNLP determined the origin of the tango which, according to their affirmations “was linked to the presence of the descendants of the enslaved Africans in the city of Buenos Aires".
The research was carried out by the Free Chair of Afro-Argentine and Afro-American Studies directed by the graduate in Anthropology Norberto Pablo Cirio. The results will be presented at the exhibition “Retumba Tango. (Rediscovery of the black provenance of our music”, which will be held at the headquarters of the Museum of Musical Instruments Emilio Azzarini, of the UNLP.
Cirio explains that "in Argentina, there has never been much emphasis on identifying the origins or the African influence of Tango; on the contrary, we have always tried to make invisible or to hide this reality". He goes further: "For our white European pride, this represents a pebble in the shoe, a congenital stain that we have tried, if not to eliminate it, at least to hide under the rug. Argentina does not differ from the rest of the American countries because it does not have a black population, but because it has not recognized it as an integral and living part of our socio-historical and identity configuration.".
However, we have rediscovered, thanks to research, this black origin of our music and highlight it as a "historic claim ”Of a community which even until now continues to fight for its recognition.
Cirio's research is based on ancient documents and accounts of oral traditions, scores, images and especially interviews with descendants of black slaves themselves, originally from Africa.
"There is an immense amount of documents that account for the black presence in the tango "says the researcher. As an example, he reports that the words of the tango "El Entrerriano", which marks the beginning of the so-called Guardia Vieja (Old Guard), was composed in 1897 by Rosendo Mendizábal, an Afro-Argentinian composer descended from black slaves. And he continues: "although the majority of people don't know it, the famous pianist, composer and conductor, Horacio Salgán, has slave origins; same for Guillermo Barbieri (grandfather of actress Carmen Barbieri), who was composer and also guitarist of Carlos Gardel".
Regarding the rhythms that gave birth to the Tango, Cirio points out the 19th century Afroporteño sidekicks and candombes, which constituted one of the fundamental elements of the genre, which of course includes European instrumentation and ballroom dancing.
Translated from the Spanish by Guy Everard Mbarga (http://guyzoducamer.afrikblog.com)