This: Samba (disambiguation)

Samba (pronunciation) is a Brazilian musical genre derived from African and European roots. It is worldwide recognized as a symbol of Brazil and Carnival.

Etymology

The name samba likely comes from the Angolan semba (or mesemba), a type of ritual music, but this has been disputed.Fact: date=October 2008 Portuguese ethnographer and folklorist Edmundo Correia Lopes talks about a dance from the Portuguese Guinea to which Brazilian people gave the name of samba, which would be, according to him, a very close relative to Brazilian samba.

According to sambist and samba studies academic Nei Lopes,

The origin of the term samba has always been connected to semba, a Congo-Angolan style of dance characterized by the bellybutton-bump with which the gentleman distinguishes the lady, gesture which was reenacted in old Afro-Brazilian dances. However, much more than bellybutton, the multilingual African term semba also means "pleasing, enchanting" (in Kimbundo), besides "honoring, revering" (in Kikongo). From semba originate disemba and masemba which then yes, mean bellybutton-bump, respectively in Angolan Kimbundo and in Kikongo.

Nei Lopes also points out it should be observed that the bellybutton-bumpy trump, much more than the "gross representation of the sexual act" as was pointed out by Portuguese missionaries of the colonial times, represented an affability, an act of seduction and a reverence from the man towards the woman.

Samba is also a surname among the people of the Wolof nation who primarily live in the Senegambia.Fact: date=April 2007

History

Samba origins

The origin of samba is from an Afro-American couples dance, including capoeira, which was from certain circle dances that originated from Angola and the Congo. Characteristic of the umbigada or folk samba is the way the couples dance navel to navel. In its origins, singing always accompanied the dancing.

Samba first appeared as a distinctive kind of music at the beginning of the 20th century in Rio de Janeiro (then the capital of Brazil) under the strong influence of immigrant black people from the Brazilian state of Bahia. ( ) The title samba school (escola de samba) originates from samba's formative years. The term was adopted by larger groups of samba performers in an attempt to lend acceptance to samba and its performance; local campuses were often the practice/performance grounds for these musicians and these escolas gave early performers a sense of legitimacy and organization to offset samba's somewhat controversial talking atmosphere.

Despite some similarities, jazz and samba have distinctively different origins and line of development - one of the factors which adds to this is that Brazilian slave owners allowed their slaves to continue their heritage of playing drums (unlike U.S. slave owners who feared use of the drum for communications).