Afrocult Foundation - 1978 - Black Goddess

Afrocult Foundation
1978

Black Goddess

01. Brothers And Sisters
02. The Quest
03. Slave March
04. Black Goddess
05. The Quest (Piano Solo)
06. The Warrior

Drums [African], Keyboards – Remi Kabaka Adenihun
Keyboards, Bass Guitar, Percussion – B. D. Wright
Lead Guitar, Keyboards – Joni Haastrup
Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Percussion – Dele Okonkwo

The soundtrack from Ola Balogun's film: Black Goddess. An Afro-Brazilian film. Written and directed by Ola Balogun. Delegate Producer Jece Valadao. Starring: Jorge Coutini, Sonia Santos, Zozimo Bulbul, Lea Garcia

Olá Balógun is not just a pioneer of African cinema, he was the first black film director who shot a movie in Brazil! “A Deusa Negra” (Black Goddess, 1978) is another amazing story - click the video above for a preview. We recently published an article on this blog (see The 19th century Yoruba repatriation) that was shared very often on Social Media. It explains the intense relations between Yorùbáland and Brazil and the returned Aguda slaves from Salvador da Bahia, who became a kind of elite among the early Lagosians. One day a Brazilian businessman appeared in Lagos and asked Balógun, who himself has ancestors among the returned slaves, if he was interested in shooting a movie. Balógun developed a very unique screenplay: A young Nigerian Yorùbá man, called Babátúndé, talks to his dying father, whose last wish is that his son travels to Brazil to search for the lost part of the family. The father speaks to his son about their Aguda ancestors, who returned as freed slaves from South America to Yorùbáland. One of the establishing shots for the scene focuses on an old house in the Brazilian quarter in Lagos, probably demolished today like the Il?´j?` Bar, as the architectural heritage, built by returned slaves in the baroque "Portuguese" style, is not protected by the city of Lagos. The dying father continues to tell his son that it was promised to the rest of the family, left in the diaspora, that one day they would be taken back to Yorùbáland. Unfortunately, this never happened, and now all the hope lies within the young man to fulfill this promise of his ancestors. His name, Babátúndé, literally means “the father has returned again”. Traditional Yorùbá believe in reincarnation, in the sense that a part of the ancestor's multi-dimensional soul - and not the whole individual soul - shapes the newborn child's destiny.

Babátúndé, who thus bears the "Brazilian heritage" in his name, then receives from his dying father a carved statue of Òrì?à Yem?ja. Let's better call it in Portuguese spelling Orixá Iemanjá, because the statue has been brought back from Brazil. The father gives it to his son and wishes that the deity may guide him on the way. In Brazil he should look for a similar carving, a replica, and find the lost family members. The carved image is interesting, it is shaped in the form of a typical “ab?`b?`”, a ritual fan, used very often in the Brazilian diaspora for Oxúm or Iemanjá. Françoise Balógun describes this statue in her essay as “sea goddess”, which is a Brazilian (Iemanjá) or Cuban (Yemayá) expression and a view that became popular in the West through many academic diasporic publications on the Orisha religions. To the Yorùbá people in Nigeria and Benin Yem?ja is a riverine deity, associated with the river Ògùn and not connected to the ocean, where Òrì?à Olókun (Yor. “owner of the ocean”) resides. In the movie itself it is never mentioned that Yem?ja was the deity of the sea. I am quite sure that ?lá Balógun lf is aware of this story and chose Yem?ja as a symbol for both the connection and separation of the Yorùbá people, she is the perfect symbol for this movie. All the actors were Brazilians, but the ones who are playing the Africans pronounce the Òrì?à as Yorùbá "Yem?ja", while all the others in the Candomblé temples call her in Portuguese "Orixá Iemanjá". They clearly must have been instructed by the Yorùbá film director.

Babátúndé arrives in Rio, gets into contact with Candomblé practitioners and in a ceremony a mounted priestess of Iemanjá sends him to the city of Salvador da Bahia. It is an interesting image, that this young Yorùbá man gets explanations on Orisha trance by the Brazilian practitioners of the religion. I am sure when the movie was shot in 1978 the Yorùbá traditionalists at home were in an even worse situation than today, discriminated by Christians as idol worshippers, while in the diaspora Yorùbá culture was already officially supported by the state since decades (see Communism and Yorùbá culture). On the other hand Babátúndé answers contemporary questions on African languages or politics to the Brazilians. He enters the mystical and magic world of Òrì?à, abroad from his original Yorùbá home. All the houses Babátúndé enters in Brazil have split palm fronds, Yor. màrìwò, above their entrance doors, a typical Yorùbá sign for sacred Orisha spaces that have certain taboos - while the dying father in Lagos had an image of Jesus Christ next to his bed. It is really funny getting into the movie's details and all the different levels of what is "original" and what "diaspora" Yorùbá culture. Babátúndé gets a reading with cowry shells, Port. "jogo de búzios" or Yor. "?`rìndínlógún", and participates in Orixá ceremonies and Afro-Brazilian folkloric dances. At the end of his journey his ancestors appear to him in trance. The story goes back to colonial times and the cruel life of the plantation slaves. Like in every good movie, Babátúndé also falls in love and at the end - no, I do not tell the whole story here... What a great movie! It addresses many topics of the diasporic dimension of Yorùbá culture, from the point of view of a Yorùbá filmmaker. As far as I know this is absolutely unique. The Portuguese version is on Youtube now. Many of Balógun’s original movie soundtracks were released on vinyl, the records are highly sought after by collectors and DJs. ?lá Balógun had to face some difficulties in the organization of “A Deusa Negra”, but at the end he got a professional film crew and actors and all the production facilities he needed. It is “Ola’s best film, the one which comes closest to a successful work” (Françoise Balógun). Highly recommended for all the people interested in Yorùbá transatlantic culture!

A Deusa Negra is a love story that spans two centuries. In 18th century Yorubaland, Prince Oluyole is taken prisoner in the course of internecine warfare fanned by overseas slave traders. He is sold into slavery in Brazil. In present day Nigeria, at his father’s deathbed, the young Babatunde promises to go to Brazil and search for traces of their once-enslaved ancestors. Beginning with a Candomblé ritual, his journey takes him ever deeper into this culture and, in a dream-like sequence, affords him a deeper understanding of his ancestors’ suffering and powers of resistance. Balogun effortlessly links present with past, real with magical worlds and discourse with trance. The hypnotic atmosphere is also heightened by the music of the Nigerian drummer Remi Kabaka, which plays with repetitive patterns and distortions.