We tell our story ourselves, says creator of Brazil’s 1st African block

Ilê Aiyê is the first Afro Carnival block in Brazil.

It was created in the 1970s, in Salvador, by Antônio Carlos dos Santos, known as Vovô do Ilê, at a time when black people could only access the festival by playing instruments or carrying floats.

In an interview with CNN Radio on CNN no Plural, Vovô do Ilê said that the idea for the block came up in the neighborhood of Liberdade, the blackest in the city.

“In an avant-garde street, with cultural and religious manifestations, where everything happened”, he said.

Even in the face of the Dictatorship regime, the idea got off the ground: “We were called racists, but we managed to hire 100 people in the first year, and we kept increasing.”

According to the president of the block, instead of letting “gringo researchers” document the experience of the black population, “we tell our story ourselves.”

“We used the music we thought of, worked on to rescue the self-esteem of black people, everything we heard negatively we sent back in a positive way”, he added.

Vovô do Illê stated that he has seen some significant gains since its creation, with the “emergence of other Afro blocks.”

“Blacks began to assume not only in Salvador but also in Brazil, this work developed with music, of resistance”, he analyzed.

According to him, blacks “need to participate in the discussion table.”

Vovô do Ilê criticized the fact that Salvador, the blackest city outside Africa, does not have a black person “in a prominent position”.

“We need to do our part too, not just blame the white people, we need to free ourselves from the staleness of mental slavery”, he added.

*Produced by Isabel Campos