Brazil with Michael Palin (2012) - full transcript
Michael Palin travels around Brazil, from Amazonia to Rio, from the North East to the Deep South, to find out what makes this vast country tick.
- I've been travelling the world
for the past 25 years.
I've met so many people
in so many countries
that everyone thinks of me
as the man who's been
everywhere.
But in all these years,
there's been one big gap in
my passport.
Nothing less than the fifth
largest country on Earth.
A country blessed with a
melting pot of peoples
and an abundance of resources.
A country that's risen
almost out of nowhere
to become a 21st century
superpower.
It's the host of the next
World Cup
and the next Olympic Games.
It's a country whose time
has come.
How can I say I've seen the
world
when I haven't seen Brazil?
OK, waterfall, we defy you!
We defy you!
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
Pedro AÁlvares Cabral,
the Portuguese sea captain,
reputed to be the first European
ever to set foot in Brazil
did so completely by accident,
when he was blown off course
in April 1500
while trying to round Africa.
The Portuguese who followed him
found indigenous people here,
some of them cannibals, but
not enough of them to work
the vast plantations of sugar,
cotton and tobacco
that they set up,
so they imported slaves,
by the million, from Africa.
It is this improbable mix of
African slaves,
indigenous people
and relatively few Europeans
that created
some of the essential
characteristics
of Brazilian life.
Food, dance, music, a
multiplicity of religions,
and I will be sampling all
of them
as I travel through the
north-east,
where Brazil was born.
[upbeat music plays]
Where Brazil juts out
towards Africa
lie the cities that grew
rich on slave lab our.
I'm starting in Sao Luis,
capital of Maranhaão State.
It's the time of Festas Juninas,
when the religious rituals
of Europe and Africa come
together
in a typically Brazilian
celebration.
[singing in foreign language]
In Sao Luis, there is a
particular festival
that takes its name
from a slave-inspired
celebration
called Bumba-meu-boi,
Jump My Bull.
It's in the back-streets of
this once-rich city
that I find out more.
Bumba-meu-boi is
part-Pantomime, part-pageant,
and here in Floresta,
one of the poorest
neighbourhoods in Sao Luis,
they take it very seriously.
Augusto Mendes, an English
teacher in the city,
thinks the people here
are closest of all
to the real spirit of
Bumba-meu-boi.
How long would they prepare,
Augusto, the dance,
the music and all that?
How long would they spend
preparing?
- Some groups, in particular
the Floresta Group,
began in April or May.
- So that's about two
months, nearly.
This house in Tome de Souza
street
is the home of the two people
whose drive and energy keeps
everyone going.
'A 92-year-old called,
rather wonderfully,
Apolonio Melonio,
and his wife, Nadir,
who's somewhat younger.
Tell me about this ceremony
tonight.
Translation voice over: Tonight
is the Bumba-meu-boi baptism.
We'll baptise the bull you
see here.
The baptism is part of our
Bumba-meu-boi ritual.
It's part of the devotion we
have for our saints,
particularly St John.
According to tradition,
the bull can only leave here
for the main show after being
baptised.
- This is Mestre Apolonio
who got this whole thing
together
here in Floresta.
How old were you
when you saw your first
Bumba-meu-boi?
Translation voice over:
The first time I took part
in a Bumba-meu-boi group
I was only eight years old
and that was way back in 1926.
I knew then and there it was
going to be my mission in life.
It has been an hon our to
meet you.
I look forward to seeing
your footwork on the dance
floor later.
Translation voice over: Ah, I
can't dance like this any more.
I don't have the stamina.
Starting already!
My legs aren't up to it.
If they were, I'd be out
there dancing with the rest.
- The ceremony, in which
some play animals,
some play humans,
is based on a 200 year old tale.
It involves a slave stealing
and killing a cow,
to remove the tongue,
for which his pregnant wife
is desperate.
The slave is threatened
with death,
but at the last minute,
the bull is miraculously
resurrected
and everyone is happy.
As St John's Day draws
closer, more and more people
crowd round the altar to witness
the baptism of the bull.
[praying in Portuguese]
And firecrackers announce
it's midnight.
[firecrackers bang]
And this is just the
beginning of the celebration.
We will be back here.
When slavery was abolished
in Brazil in 1888,
the cotton and sugar-based
economy of Sao Luis,
deprived of cheap lab our,
nose-dived.
Now, thanks to nearby
mineral resources,
confidence is growing again.
But just across the bay is
Alcantara,
a once fabulously rich town
which never recovered.
I'm taking this rather long
trip across the sands
to get the ferry boat to
take me to Alcantara.
Normally, it would leave
from Sao Luis itself,
which is over there,
but it's low tide,
so they have to leave
from right out here on the
sand banks.
More charming, I think.
[laid-back music plays]
Alcantara has the lazy,
laid-back appeal
of somewhere whose best days
are over.
But what days they must have
been.
It was once the state capital
and the ghostly remains
of its great mansions give
some impression of the riches
accumulated by the
plantation owners
over nearly 300 years.
This is the "Pelourinho" or
pillory -
whipping post, as it was called,
where slaves were punished,
and they were also bought
and sold here.
It has recently been estimated
that of the 11 million slaves
brought from Africa to the
Americas,
over 40% came to Brazil,
six times as many as went to
the United States.
They worked here in tobacco
and sugar plantations
and created the wealth
that enabled their masters to
build this,
a little bit of Europe
on the other side of the
Atlantic.
Alcantara must once have
been a fine place to live,
a ruler's town.
Now the best they can do is
to gather
the old stones and leave them
for the tourists to wonder
at what went right,
and what went wrong.
The beaches of Brazil
are the country's great
public playgrounds
and the north-east has some
of the biggest of them all.
Big enough for people to
drive up and down them,
which is what myself and my
friend Augusto,
and hundreds of other locals,
like to do on a weekend.
By mid-morning,
the cars are parked up,
the chairs and tables set out,
and the beach soon resembles
a sort of semi-naked suburbia,
a family backyard
that's open to everybody.
Today is a Sunday.
But religion and pleasure
seem to mix quite comfortably.
Do people go to the church first
and then go to the beach?
They go to the church, pray,
and come here, and forget
their problems,
and forget their job.
Yeah, yeah.
Girl-watching, I learn from
Augusto,
is, rather like train-spotting,
largely practiced by
adolescent boys.
I'd seen some of them at
a cafe by the roadside,
passing round a pair of
binoculars,
scanning the beach like
naval officers
looking for U-boats.
And, he tells me bashfully,
there's a glossary of
girl-watching,
full of fruity metaphors.
If the girl has a big bum,
we call her Melon Woman.
OK. big bum, Melon Woman.
And watermelon,
if she has big, big...
Big, big, big hips, or...
Yes.
Buttocks.
OK, yeah, hips.
Watermelon, big hips.
And pear woman,
because of the shape,
like a guitar.
- Oh, right.
- It's the same shape.
[shrieking]
Wow!
This noise is everywhere.
Yes, everywhere.
People come to dance and eat
something,
have fun together with
family or friends.
In Brazil, it doesn't matter
if you make a lot of noise
from your sound system,
nobody worries.
In England, people would say
"Sssh, quieten down."
Oh, yes?
In Brazil, you are tolerant.
- Everybody can do noise
everywhere.
- 'A couple of days later,
'Augusto and I are back in
Floresta
for the climax of
Bumba-meu-boi.'
So this is the time
when all the various groups
come together
and they show the rest of
the city
what they have been preparing?
Today is a big night for
the many groups here
because we celebrate
St Peter's Day.
Yeah.
It's the most important day here
for the Maranhaão people, yeah.
- 'Clutching their emu
feathers and their costumes,
'the people of Floresta take
the bus to the city.'
'There's an air of nervousness
'as the time approaches
'for their moment in the
public spotlight.'
[singing and drumming]
'They needn't have worried.
Their performance is fantastic.
'As I watch Nadir and the
troupe take the stage,
'I'm really moved by the spirit
and the quality of their
performance.
'They tell the story as it
should be told.
'With their
richly-embroidered costumes,
'and original and inventive
masks, there's a real feeling
'of a community creating
something out of nothing.'
[singing]
The Florestans may come
from one of the poorest parts
of the city,
but tonight, as they take over
the old streets of Sao Luis,
'they shine the brightest.'
There's one thing Augusto
will not let me leave
this part of the north-east
without seeing,
and that's the extraordinary
landscape
of the Lençóis Maranhenses
National Park,
200 miles south of Sao Luis.
A rare combination of strong
winds, shifting sands,
and heavy rainfall has
created a unique landscape.
Monster sand-dunes,
blown 50 kilometres inland
from the sea,
are advancing over
the surrounding countryside
at the rate
of 200 metres a year.
But what makes the National
Park so special are not just
the shifting, whispering sands,
but the water that falls on
them.
Augusto, if this was the Sahara
all this would be a mirage,
but the water is real.
So it rains a lot here, does it?
- A lot here, yes.
In March, April and May,
and in August until December
is our dry season.
- Yeah.
So these sand dunes,
are they sort of moving all
the time,
moving inland, I suppose,
as well?
Yes, every day
the landscapes change
because of the wind that comes
from the ocean, and the
dunes form many shapes.
So it's never, from one day
to the next,
it's never quite the same.
Never.
That must be a big selling
point.
The only National Park
in the world where whenever
you go,
whichever day you go,
it will be different.
'Mind you, on a day like today,
'you rather wish it would
stay like this for ever.'
My next destination takes me
down the coast to Recife,
capital of the resource-rich
state Pernambuco.
It was originally Dutch,
whose particular brand of
hard-line Calvinism
didn't go down well,
and it passed to the Portuguese,
who made much money
from its location as
Brazil's nearest point
to Europe and Africa.
Much of its trade has passed
to a super-port down the coast,
but Recife remains Brazil's
fourth biggest city,
with an increasingly lively
cultural scene.
I'm with Paulo Andre,
a music promoter who is
dedicated
to selling Recife to the world.
You know, we are culturally
and musically very strong
and I believe one day
it's going to be like,
let's say,
tango to Buenos Aires
or fado to Portugal
or jazz to New Orleans.
- Statues celebrate music
and musicians
like the country singer,
Luiz Gonzaga.
The walls and streets
of the city are covered with
striking images,
unselfconscious, expressive
and seemingly tolerated,
however obscure they may be.
'Paulo takes me to see a wall
'that's become the private
sketchbook
'of 24-year-old artist
Derlon Almeida.'
So is this official art
or is this graffiti,
under the wire?
Translation voice over: It's bit
of both,
it all depends on the wall
and the space.
If they're unused or derelict,
we don't bother to ask
for permission, but if
the wall has an owner
then we'll ask for permission.
- And where do the ideas
come from, like this one,
for instance?
Translation voice over:
It's everything going on
around me in Brazil
that I see in my day to day
routine
that influences my art.
Pitu is a popular local
brand of cachaca,
and the fish symbolises Recife
because we're on the coast -
fish are very common here.
So I've played around with
these two elements
and brought them together
to create a new creature
and hopefully put in a bit
of humour as well.
- I haven't seen so far a
fish drinking Pitu,
but this case...
This case it is the first
time, very good,
surreal image.
I would like him to come to
London
and do something in my street,
I know just the wall...
- Across the bay is Olinda,
founded in 1535,
and one of the oldest cities
in Brazil.
The streets have an
intimate, old colonial feel.
Nice way to end the day
Paulo, thank you!
Yeah, Michael, it was a
great day!
- A place like this,
a grocery shop where you can
buy nappies, cheese
and get a drink, is this
sort of familiar
kind of place in Brazil?
Yes, this a typical bodega
where you can shop
during the day, you know,
for stuff for the house,
food, but also, of course,
Brazilians are heavy drinkers
and they like beer,
so at the end of the day
you come for a cachaca or a
beer, just like in England
people go to a pub,
the Brazilians go to a bodega
and then you can eat
a sandwich with cheese or
salami.
They also sell CDs of the
local bands and paintings.
- Great picture.
As you can see, the bottle
in Brazil is big,
so it has to carry lots of beer.
Yes, well, cheers!
Should we tell the camera to
switch off?
- Yes.
- Probably! Good night!
'But Paulo has one more
surprise for me.'
Another typical night
on the streets of Brazil,
music everywhere.
But what's the music
we're going to hear tonight?
Is this a particularly local
thing?
It is, Michael.
It's a forro night with the,
played with the rabeca,
which is a kind of fiddle,
and, of course, we are
in the end of
our Sao Joao, St John season
where forro is the sound track.
- Forro, yeah.
I read somewhere that it was
a mishearing
of the English word
"For All" which the English
railway people
and the employers provided music
for everyone to dance to,
and it was called "For All".
Is that true or is it a myth?
I think it's a myth.
It comes from "Forrobodo"
which is a word that means
"party".
You know, "Let's go to a
forrobodo"
means "Let's go party" -
let's go dance, hear music,
have drinks,
so it's a short word for
forrobodo.
- 'The forro they dance here
requires a loose, sinuous,
'gyration of the hips,
which I can only stand and
admire.'
'But, as Paulo warned me
earlier -
in Brazil, everybody dances.'
[upbeat music]
I'm leaving the high life
of the cities behind
for a while,
for a glimpse of life
in the interior.
Well, I'm 500 miles inland
from the coast now
in the hot, dry, hard
outback of north-east Brazil.
They call this the Sertaão.
It's cowboy country, land of
the vaqueiros,
and I'm here for an event
called Pega de Boi,
Catch The Bull.
Says it all, really.
In a world of cars
and pick-up trucks,
the old-style cowboy
is becoming a threatened
species,
but these vaqueiros
are staunchly proud of their
traditions.
Pega de Boi is a chance
to show their skills,
win some money,
and for a while at least,
relieve the loneliness of
life in the bush.
[band plays Brazilian music]
Families and friends
do their best to create
a party atmosphere.
But some of the cowboys
are much older than I'd
expected.
Men with tired eyes and
deeply lined faces.
When the time comes to chase
the bull,
they protect themselves from
the viciously spiky scrub,
with the leather equivalent
of a suit of arm our.
I'm told that, despite this
comprehensive protection,
some of the cowboys will
deliberately leave a strap
untied
or a hand revealed,
as drops of blood are seen
as a badge of courage.
The man behind Pega de Boi
is a whippet-thin
70-year-old called Julio.
Of shrewd eye, and seemingly
insatiable energy,
he's totally committed to
the old way of life.
Julio, were you born into
a family of cowboys?
Translation voice over: I was
born into a cowboy family,
grew up a cowboy,
and still am one.
I'm proud to call myself a
cowboy,
it's a good profession.
How dangerous is it?
You seem to have got a...
on your head, here.
What happened there?
Translation voice over: Yes, it's
dangerous.
I got kicked in the head by
a cow!
I was nursing a wound she had,
and forgot to tie her legs
up and she kicked me.
But I don't blame the cow!
- 'The vaqueiros do have a
political and social ally
'in the shape of Tiago
Cancio, a local politician
'whose father gave up the life
of a priest to become
a cowboy.'
Tiago, what makes the vaqueiros
of the Sertaão here special?
Are they different from the rest
of the cowboys in Brazil?
Translation voice over:
The vaqueiro is unique
to the Sertaão.
They risk their lives to
earn a crust.
They ride headlong into the
jungle to chase wild bulls
and round up cattle,
they're very courageous
and fearless.
- 'Everyone's ready now for
the climax of the day.'
'With shouts of celebration,
'the five young bulls
are released from their
makeshift paddock.'
[crowd cheers]
'They're given 15 minutes to
get away before, at last,
'the cowboys are allowed to
chase them.'
[cheers]
The lucky ones who catch the
bulls can claim cash prizes.
Hey! Good, it's started.
They're off!
Almost 45 minutes pass
before a bull is spotted,
captured and led out of the
scrub and down the hill.
The prize is claimed by two
of youngest riders in the pack,
which must be a good sign
for the profession.
Despite some outward
appearances,
perhaps there is a new
generation
of cowboys waiting in the wings.
From the hot, dry heartland,
it's time to retrace my steps
to the coast, and the city
that is the undisputed jewel
of the north-east,
and one of the most exciting
in all Brazil.
Salvador.
It lies on the Baia de Todos
os Santos - All Saints Bay -
which gives its name
to the state of Bahia.
For over 200 years, Salvador
was the capital of Brazil,
as sugar and cotton production
made Bahia fabulously rich.
Salvador may have ceded its
capital status first to Rio,
then to Brasilia,
but it remains the third
largest city in Brazil.
Of its population of nearly
3,500,000,
82% are of black descent,
making Salvador the biggest
African city outside Africa.
'My guide is Sofia, daughter
of Irish-Brazilian parents,
'and currently studying
'architecture and city planning.
'The most eye-catching
architecture
'in Salvador is religious,
'reflecting the enormous wealth
of the Catholic church.'
So it is about the beginning
of the 18th century
all this was done?
All this was done, yeah.
So then, was a lot of money
coming into Brazil from sugar?
Sugar, tobacco, coffee and gold.
- 'Gold, for which this
church of St Francis
'is an extraordinary gesture
of thanks.'
Wow!
The effect is incredible.
I haven't seen anything
really quite like that.
It's just the sheer, the
sort of scale, isn't it?
There's not a bit of wall
that's not been covered.
A lot of gold, there.
A lot of gold.
But it's to show the world
that Brazil was one of the
main producers of gold.
- Sort of showing,
"This is what we've got,
plenty of this."
More where that came from,
sort of thing, yeah.
'It's a powerful display of
self-confidence.'
'Religion in Salvador
'expresses itself in many
different ways,
'as I learn when Sofia takes me
'to another grand 18th
century church.
'The church of Our Lord of
Bonfim.'
People in Bahia are very
superstitious,
especially in Salvador,
so people will come here
every first Friday
of the month to make their
wishes,
people even bring their cars
here to be blessed, you know.
So basically anything can be
blessed?
Anything can be blessed.
Your TV?
Maybe.
Possibly. Your mobile?
'The blessing is embodied in
these strips of ribbon,
'called fit as do Bonfim.'
'You wear one round your
wrist and make a wish,
'which will only be granted
when the ribbon falls apart.
'In some cases,
this can take months.
'Inside the church,
faith and superstition
'make more bizarre
bedfellows.'
Oh, good heavens.
This is very, very strange.
What are all these?
Wax, are they?
This is basically people who
got ill,
they bring the part of the body
which was ill and it got cured,
so they have all these wax
pieces.
Yeah.
All the different parts of
the body that were cured.
A little cluster of hearts
up there.
That's very strange.
Really is. It's like a kind
of gruesome shop, but again,
this is very powerful,
these photos around here.
- The photos are of people
who either made promises to
get cured
or to get into universities
or achieved what they want.
They come here with the
photographs.
- Yeah. So they believe that
the devotion,
by coming here to this church
has changed their lives,
basically.
Yeah.
Has cured them, has enabled them
to become successful in exams
and business and all that.
- Exactly.
- Wow.
[song in foreign language]
Everywhere in Salvador
I'm reminded of the city's
African roots.
These figures in a lake
in the centre of town
are Or is has,
the gods of Candomble.
Candomble is a religion
that fuses the African
spirit world
with Catholicism.
Officially banned until
the 1960s,
its popularity is now
countrywide.
Well, I'm all dressed in white,
because I'm going to something,
I've never done before,
which is to witness a
Candomble ceremony,
this African animist ceremony.
It's going to take place in
here and the Pai-de-santo is,
first of all, I think he's
going to read my fortune,
or the buzios, they call
them, the cowry shells.
So I might find out
something very unpleasant,
or pleasant, who knows?
'The Pai-de-santo, Father of
the Saints, is called John.
'He's the local Candomble
priest and this is his house.
'And in case you wonder,
we've never met before.'
Translation voice over: Or is has
open the table with good faith.
Oxossi opens your table
and talks about the struggles
in your life.
You are an intelligent man,
a man that fought hard to
accomplish
your goals and today you
have the opportunity to show
to the world much information
and all your knowledge.
Casado?
- Married?
- Yeah.
- Bambi no? Tres, quatro?
- Three or four children?
Three.
- Tres?
- Tres.
I hope you don't think
this is disrespectful,
Pai-de-santo,
but I have to ask
for my countrymen.
Will England ever win
the World Cup again?
[chants in Portuguese]
[speaks Portuguese]
No.
Thank you!
There we are, we can save
ourselves the trouble!
'The Candomble ceremony
takes place
in Pao Joao's front room.'
'It's confusing, and at
times mystifying,
'but that seems to be the
point.'
'The participants,
'representing the various
or is has,
'dance themselves into a
trance-like state,
'until they feel their
bodies are inhabited
'by the spirit of the gods.
'Unlike our western rituals,
'their performance is never
the same twice.
'No-one knows exactly
what will happen when
the drums begin.'
[singing and drumming]
'The people of north-east
Brazil love noise and colour.
'The two come together in
Salvador's Pelourinho area
'under the name of Olodum.
'It's short for Olodumare,
'the god of gods of the
Yoruba people of Nigeria.'
'Olodum is the name of a
social initiative to bring
'a sense of achievement
to the street children of
Salvador.'
'It teaches them the art of
African drumming
and through that,
'respect for the land of
their ancestors.
'They've taken over the streets
'of Old Salvador this morning
'without telling anybody,
but that's Brazil for you.
'And they have recruited
some rather old children.'
This is Pacote.
He's going to initiate me on
the ways of Olodum.
OK, Pacote, take it away!
Vou ensinar voce...
Life goes on, this is the
middle of the street.
A batida do coracao.
Oh, the beat of the heart.
My heart's going
boom-boom-boom-boom!
Isso.
OK, OK.
[drumming]
'I'm getting the hang of this.
'Time for a touch of
the Keith Moons.'
'Having rather disgraced
myself on the drums,
'I look for some solace
in the pleasures of Bahian
cuisine.'
Like religion, the food is
a fusion of cultures,
combining African,
Portuguese and indigenous
influences.
Given the abundance of seafood,
it's a welcome change
from the meaty fare
that most Brazilians seem to
prefer.
The personification of
Bahian cooking
is Aldaci dos Santos,
known to all as "Dada".
From selling snacks on the
beach,
she has risen to become
an inspirational restaurateur
and chef to the famous.
Who better to turn to for
consolation?
This is Dada, who is a superb...
one of the great cooks
of Salvador and Bahian cuisine.
And I am a great eater of
all food,
and Dada's going to show me
round,
buy some food at the market
and then we are going to cook
and then eat.
Vamos agora conhecer o
mercado do peixe.
OK.
- OK?
- Mercado do peixe.
OK, so we are at the fish
market, let's go!
Mercado do peixe.
He's had too much fish!
[Dada laughs]
Delicia!
- Think she's going to make
a moqueca,
which is a classic fish stew.
Polvo.
Octopus, yeah.
Gosh, fresh mud crabs.
Caranguejo.
- They're alive,
they look as though they're
about a thousand years old!
Ah, that's better, yeah.
Mmm. Marvellous.
So these, you cook with
them, you bathe in them
and you make tea with them.
I feel better already!
OK!
Fantastic, yeah.
[Dada laughs]
Made a pig's ear of that
one[!]
Do you want a hand?
[shrieks with laughter]
This is an Olympic sport!
Oh, Michael!
Oh-oh-oh!
I can't believe I'm going
to eat a meal
after this, as well.
I've eaten a meal just going
around the market.
Can I ask you, Dada, how did
you first learn to cook?
Translation voice over: I started
cooking when I was five.
I was working with my mother
as a housekeeper
in a large family house,
getting paid by the day
in order to earn a living.
My mother and I would find work
on these large farms
in the country
because we didn't have our
own place
to live so we had to earn
our keep.
When I cooked, it felt like
I was whole.
I was a child, but I didn't
have a proper childhood
because I had to work
from an early age,
and when I cooked,
mixing all the spices and
the food in my kitchen,
it was like heaven to me,
it was my fantasy world.
- Now you are a successful
business woman, Dada,
do you still enjoy cooking
as much as you did?
Mais.
More?
Muito mais.
Translation voice over: Each day
that goes by,
I like it more and more.
The kitchen and cooking for
me is like having sex.
When cooking,
I feel fulfilled as if I was
having a great orgasm.
- It must be exhausting
every time you make a meal.
Translation voice over: No, not
really,
I get more tired making love.
What is it about your food
that makes it very special?
Translation voice over: All the
ingredients are fresh
and bought with a lot of care,
but I think the main thing
for me
is the transformation that
love brings about.
When I cook, I cook for real,
it comes from inside Dada,
from inside my heart,
so it's love that transforms
the flavours.
Oh, fantastic!
Fantastic, yes.
Beautiful!
Look, I cut that!
- A calombreta?
- I cut that bit.
It's not cut very well.
OK, Michael!
Wow! Oh!
- Mmm.
- Comer um peixe?
Oh, wow!
'Some guide books
'I'd read were a bit sniffy
about Dada's restaurant,
'suggesting success
had spoiled her.
'But for me, Dada
'has been responsible
for the best meal
'I've yet had in the north-east.
'She's a remarkable women,
who you feel can do anything
'she sets herself to.'
You're a very good advert
for your own cooking.
'Except perhaps for one thing
'she really needs to be able
to do -
'clone herself.'
Comida deliciosa.
Muito obrigada.
Meus comprimentos ao chefe!
Muito obrigada.
'One of the poorest areas
'of Salvador is called
Liberdade.
'It's where the freed slaves
came to live
'after the abolition of slavery.
'It's still an area of
shanty towns, or favelas,
'like this one called
Vale das Pedrinhas.
'The Valley of Stones.
'I've come here to see something
'that Salvador has introduced
'to the rest of Brazil and
the world.'
[singing and drumming]
'On the roof of one of the
grander houses in the favela,
'they're practising a dance
'that grew from
'a self-defensive fighting
style.
'It's now the second biggest
'participation sport
in Salvador.
'It's fast and fluent
and it's called Capoeira.'
'If you're really good at
Capoeira
'you can become a master or
Mestre,
'and the trim, 66-year-old
'who's playing this
one-stringed berimbau
'is very good at it.'
'He's called Mestre Boa Gente.
'Though he's lived in the
Valley of Stones
'all his life,
'he's travelled the world as
a spokesman for his sport.'
The movements that
you do in Capoeira,
where do the movements come
from,
where did they originate?
[speaks foreign language]
Translation voice over:
The Capoeira movements
all come from Africa,
from African culture.
The moves are called jingas
and were brought by African
slaves to Brazil.
They also come from Candomble,
which is the first Brazilian
religion.
When people take on the
spirit of their gods,
their or is has,
they use their bodies to
express their or is has,
so out of that are born the
moves you see in Capoeira.
Xango, ela faz isso.
Entao, olha, quando voce
vem pra Capoeira,
voce ja ta bem flexivel.
Entende, como voce.
Voce ja ta...
Eu to conversando e voce ja
ta ai...
Isso ai, isso! E...
Do you like dance?
- Dance? Yeah.
- Samba?
I do my own version.
Isso.
[laughter]
That's the Scottish bit!
Muito legal.
Cade a palma, galera?
- 'That was the easy bit.
'The Mestre now takes me
'across the road to the radio
station
'he runs for a live,
'on-air grilling on Valley of
Stones Radio.'
♪ Esperanca e fe
♪ Mais o mundo nao e...
Translation voice over: Michael,
you're a very famous man,
not only in England
but all over the world.
You're an actor, a presenter.
Have you ever thought of
going into politics as a
councillor,
Member of Parliament or
maybe even President?
We don't have a President!
But...
Suas fas votando em voce,
voce ta eleito.
Maybe I could be Queen,
but that's taken already!
Translation voice over: What do
you think of gay marriage?
It's a big topic here in Brazil.
- I am up for gay marriage.
If people love each other,
look after each other,
as long as they support each
other
it doesn't matter
what they do in bed.
[singing]
'The Mestre has an endless,
irrepressible energy.
'Fresh from his afternoon show,
'he's out on the streets,
'mobilising participants for
the evening's Capoeira fest.'
[singing and drumming]
'The shanty buildings around,
'the roar of a nearby highway,
'and the smell of a stagnant
stream are all forgotten,
'as the shining, sweating,
white-toothed smiling Mestre
'infects everyone with
his enthusiasm.
'His work is known
across Brazil,
'yet he still stays true to
the favela
in which he grew up.'
'Home for the remarkable
Mestre Boa Gente
remains the Valley of
Stones.'
North and west of Salvador
is the Reconcavo,
an area which borders
All Saints Bay.
The towns I'm going to visit
there,
Cachoeira and St Felix,
grew rich from the produce
of fertile soils,
watered by the many rivers
that drain into the bay.
This is some of the most
productive land
in the country.
I pass sugar-cane plantations,
smaller than they once were,
but still contributing
to a buoyant local economy.
Where the river Paraguacu
divides Cachoeira from St Felix,
I cross the bridge
to find evidence of another
one-time source of wealth
at the Danneman Cigar Factory.
'Danneman's survived
'the decline in the tobacco
industry
'by concentrating on
a high-end product.
'It's currently run by
Dutchman Hans Leusen.'
Is the old legend
that it's rolled on the thigh
of the ladies
who make the cigar,
has that any credibility?
Credibility is always there,
but in the past,
the girls were making the
wrap on leaves on the legs,
but the cigars have never
been made on the legs.
So it is not a question you
can say
"There is Maria or there is
Matilda". That's not true.
Yes? Like you can feel.
No, no.
There's a story.
- Can you tell me a little
bit about
how Bahia and the north-east
is seen by the rest of Brazil?
- They always say bad things
about the north,
especially the north-east.
But it is not true,
the people work hard,
but they have a way of life
based on this tropical sun, yes?
So if you can't do it today,
you do it tomorrow.
In Sao Paulo, you have to
run, you have to do it today,
so there is a big difference
between the south and the north,
but I prefer the north,
where people still understand
how is life,
because here on Wednesday
you start to talk about
how you are going to spend
your weekend, yes?
- There was a time
when the wealth of Salvador
depended on
the sailing ships that
carried the goods
down from its rich hinterland.
The boats were called Saveiros.
In the 1950s,
there were thousands of them
working the bay.
Now there's only a precious
handful left,
and I'm on one of them.
The two men who are my fellow
crew members today are,
in their own way,
passionate about preserving
the last of the Saveiros.
One is a trim, dapper
and successful local artist
called Bel Borba.
His larger-than-life
companion is Malaca,
an engineer by trade.
If the Brazilians have a
word for extrovert,
Malaca would be its embodiment.
'But I'm sure they don't.
Brazilian means extrovert.'
How important do you think
it is to save these boats
and why is it important?
[translates in foreign language]
Translation voice over: Because
it's 400 years of history.
Bahia is summed up in these
boats.
The Saveiro was crucial,
not just the boat
but the way of life it
represented.
The handcrafts, the carpenters,
there's a whole working
history around the Saveiro.
It's pure culture, 400 years
of history and beauty.
- 'They seem to have their
priorities right, these two.
'Is this a Bahian thing?'
People from Rio and all that,
I've heard them say Bahians
are lazy.
What do you think about that?
Translation voice over: No, we're
not,
we just work in our own way.
Bahians are very caring -
we're just not stressed out.
How can you be stressed out
with all this natural beauty
around you?
We don't know the meaning of
the word stress.
- 'Are they jealous
of people from Rio?'
[speaks Portuguese]
Honestly... you...
[speaks Portuguese]
This is an old joke.
The carioca invites you to
have lunch at his house,
but don't give you the address.
Oh, right!
Captions edited by Ai-Media
ai-media. tv
for the past 25 years.
I've met so many people
in so many countries
that everyone thinks of me
as the man who's been
everywhere.
But in all these years,
there's been one big gap in
my passport.
Nothing less than the fifth
largest country on Earth.
A country blessed with a
melting pot of peoples
and an abundance of resources.
A country that's risen
almost out of nowhere
to become a 21st century
superpower.
It's the host of the next
World Cup
and the next Olympic Games.
It's a country whose time
has come.
How can I say I've seen the
world
when I haven't seen Brazil?
OK, waterfall, we defy you!
We defy you!
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
Pedro AÁlvares Cabral,
the Portuguese sea captain,
reputed to be the first European
ever to set foot in Brazil
did so completely by accident,
when he was blown off course
in April 1500
while trying to round Africa.
The Portuguese who followed him
found indigenous people here,
some of them cannibals, but
not enough of them to work
the vast plantations of sugar,
cotton and tobacco
that they set up,
so they imported slaves,
by the million, from Africa.
It is this improbable mix of
African slaves,
indigenous people
and relatively few Europeans
that created
some of the essential
characteristics
of Brazilian life.
Food, dance, music, a
multiplicity of religions,
and I will be sampling all
of them
as I travel through the
north-east,
where Brazil was born.
[upbeat music plays]
Where Brazil juts out
towards Africa
lie the cities that grew
rich on slave lab our.
I'm starting in Sao Luis,
capital of Maranhaão State.
It's the time of Festas Juninas,
when the religious rituals
of Europe and Africa come
together
in a typically Brazilian
celebration.
[singing in foreign language]
In Sao Luis, there is a
particular festival
that takes its name
from a slave-inspired
celebration
called Bumba-meu-boi,
Jump My Bull.
It's in the back-streets of
this once-rich city
that I find out more.
Bumba-meu-boi is
part-Pantomime, part-pageant,
and here in Floresta,
one of the poorest
neighbourhoods in Sao Luis,
they take it very seriously.
Augusto Mendes, an English
teacher in the city,
thinks the people here
are closest of all
to the real spirit of
Bumba-meu-boi.
How long would they prepare,
Augusto, the dance,
the music and all that?
How long would they spend
preparing?
- Some groups, in particular
the Floresta Group,
began in April or May.
- So that's about two
months, nearly.
This house in Tome de Souza
street
is the home of the two people
whose drive and energy keeps
everyone going.
'A 92-year-old called,
rather wonderfully,
Apolonio Melonio,
and his wife, Nadir,
who's somewhat younger.
Tell me about this ceremony
tonight.
Translation voice over: Tonight
is the Bumba-meu-boi baptism.
We'll baptise the bull you
see here.
The baptism is part of our
Bumba-meu-boi ritual.
It's part of the devotion we
have for our saints,
particularly St John.
According to tradition,
the bull can only leave here
for the main show after being
baptised.
- This is Mestre Apolonio
who got this whole thing
together
here in Floresta.
How old were you
when you saw your first
Bumba-meu-boi?
Translation voice over:
The first time I took part
in a Bumba-meu-boi group
I was only eight years old
and that was way back in 1926.
I knew then and there it was
going to be my mission in life.
It has been an hon our to
meet you.
I look forward to seeing
your footwork on the dance
floor later.
Translation voice over: Ah, I
can't dance like this any more.
I don't have the stamina.
Starting already!
My legs aren't up to it.
If they were, I'd be out
there dancing with the rest.
- The ceremony, in which
some play animals,
some play humans,
is based on a 200 year old tale.
It involves a slave stealing
and killing a cow,
to remove the tongue,
for which his pregnant wife
is desperate.
The slave is threatened
with death,
but at the last minute,
the bull is miraculously
resurrected
and everyone is happy.
As St John's Day draws
closer, more and more people
crowd round the altar to witness
the baptism of the bull.
[praying in Portuguese]
And firecrackers announce
it's midnight.
[firecrackers bang]
And this is just the
beginning of the celebration.
We will be back here.
When slavery was abolished
in Brazil in 1888,
the cotton and sugar-based
economy of Sao Luis,
deprived of cheap lab our,
nose-dived.
Now, thanks to nearby
mineral resources,
confidence is growing again.
But just across the bay is
Alcantara,
a once fabulously rich town
which never recovered.
I'm taking this rather long
trip across the sands
to get the ferry boat to
take me to Alcantara.
Normally, it would leave
from Sao Luis itself,
which is over there,
but it's low tide,
so they have to leave
from right out here on the
sand banks.
More charming, I think.
[laid-back music plays]
Alcantara has the lazy,
laid-back appeal
of somewhere whose best days
are over.
But what days they must have
been.
It was once the state capital
and the ghostly remains
of its great mansions give
some impression of the riches
accumulated by the
plantation owners
over nearly 300 years.
This is the "Pelourinho" or
pillory -
whipping post, as it was called,
where slaves were punished,
and they were also bought
and sold here.
It has recently been estimated
that of the 11 million slaves
brought from Africa to the
Americas,
over 40% came to Brazil,
six times as many as went to
the United States.
They worked here in tobacco
and sugar plantations
and created the wealth
that enabled their masters to
build this,
a little bit of Europe
on the other side of the
Atlantic.
Alcantara must once have
been a fine place to live,
a ruler's town.
Now the best they can do is
to gather
the old stones and leave them
for the tourists to wonder
at what went right,
and what went wrong.
The beaches of Brazil
are the country's great
public playgrounds
and the north-east has some
of the biggest of them all.
Big enough for people to
drive up and down them,
which is what myself and my
friend Augusto,
and hundreds of other locals,
like to do on a weekend.
By mid-morning,
the cars are parked up,
the chairs and tables set out,
and the beach soon resembles
a sort of semi-naked suburbia,
a family backyard
that's open to everybody.
Today is a Sunday.
But religion and pleasure
seem to mix quite comfortably.
Do people go to the church first
and then go to the beach?
They go to the church, pray,
and come here, and forget
their problems,
and forget their job.
Yeah, yeah.
Girl-watching, I learn from
Augusto,
is, rather like train-spotting,
largely practiced by
adolescent boys.
I'd seen some of them at
a cafe by the roadside,
passing round a pair of
binoculars,
scanning the beach like
naval officers
looking for U-boats.
And, he tells me bashfully,
there's a glossary of
girl-watching,
full of fruity metaphors.
If the girl has a big bum,
we call her Melon Woman.
OK. big bum, Melon Woman.
And watermelon,
if she has big, big...
Big, big, big hips, or...
Yes.
Buttocks.
OK, yeah, hips.
Watermelon, big hips.
And pear woman,
because of the shape,
like a guitar.
- Oh, right.
- It's the same shape.
[shrieking]
Wow!
This noise is everywhere.
Yes, everywhere.
People come to dance and eat
something,
have fun together with
family or friends.
In Brazil, it doesn't matter
if you make a lot of noise
from your sound system,
nobody worries.
In England, people would say
"Sssh, quieten down."
Oh, yes?
In Brazil, you are tolerant.
- Everybody can do noise
everywhere.
- 'A couple of days later,
'Augusto and I are back in
Floresta
for the climax of
Bumba-meu-boi.'
So this is the time
when all the various groups
come together
and they show the rest of
the city
what they have been preparing?
Today is a big night for
the many groups here
because we celebrate
St Peter's Day.
Yeah.
It's the most important day here
for the Maranhaão people, yeah.
- 'Clutching their emu
feathers and their costumes,
'the people of Floresta take
the bus to the city.'
'There's an air of nervousness
'as the time approaches
'for their moment in the
public spotlight.'
[singing and drumming]
'They needn't have worried.
Their performance is fantastic.
'As I watch Nadir and the
troupe take the stage,
'I'm really moved by the spirit
and the quality of their
performance.
'They tell the story as it
should be told.
'With their
richly-embroidered costumes,
'and original and inventive
masks, there's a real feeling
'of a community creating
something out of nothing.'
[singing]
The Florestans may come
from one of the poorest parts
of the city,
but tonight, as they take over
the old streets of Sao Luis,
'they shine the brightest.'
There's one thing Augusto
will not let me leave
this part of the north-east
without seeing,
and that's the extraordinary
landscape
of the Lençóis Maranhenses
National Park,
200 miles south of Sao Luis.
A rare combination of strong
winds, shifting sands,
and heavy rainfall has
created a unique landscape.
Monster sand-dunes,
blown 50 kilometres inland
from the sea,
are advancing over
the surrounding countryside
at the rate
of 200 metres a year.
But what makes the National
Park so special are not just
the shifting, whispering sands,
but the water that falls on
them.
Augusto, if this was the Sahara
all this would be a mirage,
but the water is real.
So it rains a lot here, does it?
- A lot here, yes.
In March, April and May,
and in August until December
is our dry season.
- Yeah.
So these sand dunes,
are they sort of moving all
the time,
moving inland, I suppose,
as well?
Yes, every day
the landscapes change
because of the wind that comes
from the ocean, and the
dunes form many shapes.
So it's never, from one day
to the next,
it's never quite the same.
Never.
That must be a big selling
point.
The only National Park
in the world where whenever
you go,
whichever day you go,
it will be different.
'Mind you, on a day like today,
'you rather wish it would
stay like this for ever.'
My next destination takes me
down the coast to Recife,
capital of the resource-rich
state Pernambuco.
It was originally Dutch,
whose particular brand of
hard-line Calvinism
didn't go down well,
and it passed to the Portuguese,
who made much money
from its location as
Brazil's nearest point
to Europe and Africa.
Much of its trade has passed
to a super-port down the coast,
but Recife remains Brazil's
fourth biggest city,
with an increasingly lively
cultural scene.
I'm with Paulo Andre,
a music promoter who is
dedicated
to selling Recife to the world.
You know, we are culturally
and musically very strong
and I believe one day
it's going to be like,
let's say,
tango to Buenos Aires
or fado to Portugal
or jazz to New Orleans.
- Statues celebrate music
and musicians
like the country singer,
Luiz Gonzaga.
The walls and streets
of the city are covered with
striking images,
unselfconscious, expressive
and seemingly tolerated,
however obscure they may be.
'Paulo takes me to see a wall
'that's become the private
sketchbook
'of 24-year-old artist
Derlon Almeida.'
So is this official art
or is this graffiti,
under the wire?
Translation voice over: It's bit
of both,
it all depends on the wall
and the space.
If they're unused or derelict,
we don't bother to ask
for permission, but if
the wall has an owner
then we'll ask for permission.
- And where do the ideas
come from, like this one,
for instance?
Translation voice over:
It's everything going on
around me in Brazil
that I see in my day to day
routine
that influences my art.
Pitu is a popular local
brand of cachaca,
and the fish symbolises Recife
because we're on the coast -
fish are very common here.
So I've played around with
these two elements
and brought them together
to create a new creature
and hopefully put in a bit
of humour as well.
- I haven't seen so far a
fish drinking Pitu,
but this case...
This case it is the first
time, very good,
surreal image.
I would like him to come to
London
and do something in my street,
I know just the wall...
- Across the bay is Olinda,
founded in 1535,
and one of the oldest cities
in Brazil.
The streets have an
intimate, old colonial feel.
Nice way to end the day
Paulo, thank you!
Yeah, Michael, it was a
great day!
- A place like this,
a grocery shop where you can
buy nappies, cheese
and get a drink, is this
sort of familiar
kind of place in Brazil?
Yes, this a typical bodega
where you can shop
during the day, you know,
for stuff for the house,
food, but also, of course,
Brazilians are heavy drinkers
and they like beer,
so at the end of the day
you come for a cachaca or a
beer, just like in England
people go to a pub,
the Brazilians go to a bodega
and then you can eat
a sandwich with cheese or
salami.
They also sell CDs of the
local bands and paintings.
- Great picture.
As you can see, the bottle
in Brazil is big,
so it has to carry lots of beer.
Yes, well, cheers!
Should we tell the camera to
switch off?
- Yes.
- Probably! Good night!
'But Paulo has one more
surprise for me.'
Another typical night
on the streets of Brazil,
music everywhere.
But what's the music
we're going to hear tonight?
Is this a particularly local
thing?
It is, Michael.
It's a forro night with the,
played with the rabeca,
which is a kind of fiddle,
and, of course, we are
in the end of
our Sao Joao, St John season
where forro is the sound track.
- Forro, yeah.
I read somewhere that it was
a mishearing
of the English word
"For All" which the English
railway people
and the employers provided music
for everyone to dance to,
and it was called "For All".
Is that true or is it a myth?
I think it's a myth.
It comes from "Forrobodo"
which is a word that means
"party".
You know, "Let's go to a
forrobodo"
means "Let's go party" -
let's go dance, hear music,
have drinks,
so it's a short word for
forrobodo.
- 'The forro they dance here
requires a loose, sinuous,
'gyration of the hips,
which I can only stand and
admire.'
'But, as Paulo warned me
earlier -
in Brazil, everybody dances.'
[upbeat music]
I'm leaving the high life
of the cities behind
for a while,
for a glimpse of life
in the interior.
Well, I'm 500 miles inland
from the coast now
in the hot, dry, hard
outback of north-east Brazil.
They call this the Sertaão.
It's cowboy country, land of
the vaqueiros,
and I'm here for an event
called Pega de Boi,
Catch The Bull.
Says it all, really.
In a world of cars
and pick-up trucks,
the old-style cowboy
is becoming a threatened
species,
but these vaqueiros
are staunchly proud of their
traditions.
Pega de Boi is a chance
to show their skills,
win some money,
and for a while at least,
relieve the loneliness of
life in the bush.
[band plays Brazilian music]
Families and friends
do their best to create
a party atmosphere.
But some of the cowboys
are much older than I'd
expected.
Men with tired eyes and
deeply lined faces.
When the time comes to chase
the bull,
they protect themselves from
the viciously spiky scrub,
with the leather equivalent
of a suit of arm our.
I'm told that, despite this
comprehensive protection,
some of the cowboys will
deliberately leave a strap
untied
or a hand revealed,
as drops of blood are seen
as a badge of courage.
The man behind Pega de Boi
is a whippet-thin
70-year-old called Julio.
Of shrewd eye, and seemingly
insatiable energy,
he's totally committed to
the old way of life.
Julio, were you born into
a family of cowboys?
Translation voice over: I was
born into a cowboy family,
grew up a cowboy,
and still am one.
I'm proud to call myself a
cowboy,
it's a good profession.
How dangerous is it?
You seem to have got a...
on your head, here.
What happened there?
Translation voice over: Yes, it's
dangerous.
I got kicked in the head by
a cow!
I was nursing a wound she had,
and forgot to tie her legs
up and she kicked me.
But I don't blame the cow!
- 'The vaqueiros do have a
political and social ally
'in the shape of Tiago
Cancio, a local politician
'whose father gave up the life
of a priest to become
a cowboy.'
Tiago, what makes the vaqueiros
of the Sertaão here special?
Are they different from the rest
of the cowboys in Brazil?
Translation voice over:
The vaqueiro is unique
to the Sertaão.
They risk their lives to
earn a crust.
They ride headlong into the
jungle to chase wild bulls
and round up cattle,
they're very courageous
and fearless.
- 'Everyone's ready now for
the climax of the day.'
'With shouts of celebration,
'the five young bulls
are released from their
makeshift paddock.'
[crowd cheers]
'They're given 15 minutes to
get away before, at last,
'the cowboys are allowed to
chase them.'
[cheers]
The lucky ones who catch the
bulls can claim cash prizes.
Hey! Good, it's started.
They're off!
Almost 45 minutes pass
before a bull is spotted,
captured and led out of the
scrub and down the hill.
The prize is claimed by two
of youngest riders in the pack,
which must be a good sign
for the profession.
Despite some outward
appearances,
perhaps there is a new
generation
of cowboys waiting in the wings.
From the hot, dry heartland,
it's time to retrace my steps
to the coast, and the city
that is the undisputed jewel
of the north-east,
and one of the most exciting
in all Brazil.
Salvador.
It lies on the Baia de Todos
os Santos - All Saints Bay -
which gives its name
to the state of Bahia.
For over 200 years, Salvador
was the capital of Brazil,
as sugar and cotton production
made Bahia fabulously rich.
Salvador may have ceded its
capital status first to Rio,
then to Brasilia,
but it remains the third
largest city in Brazil.
Of its population of nearly
3,500,000,
82% are of black descent,
making Salvador the biggest
African city outside Africa.
'My guide is Sofia, daughter
of Irish-Brazilian parents,
'and currently studying
'architecture and city planning.
'The most eye-catching
architecture
'in Salvador is religious,
'reflecting the enormous wealth
of the Catholic church.'
So it is about the beginning
of the 18th century
all this was done?
All this was done, yeah.
So then, was a lot of money
coming into Brazil from sugar?
Sugar, tobacco, coffee and gold.
- 'Gold, for which this
church of St Francis
'is an extraordinary gesture
of thanks.'
Wow!
The effect is incredible.
I haven't seen anything
really quite like that.
It's just the sheer, the
sort of scale, isn't it?
There's not a bit of wall
that's not been covered.
A lot of gold, there.
A lot of gold.
But it's to show the world
that Brazil was one of the
main producers of gold.
- Sort of showing,
"This is what we've got,
plenty of this."
More where that came from,
sort of thing, yeah.
'It's a powerful display of
self-confidence.'
'Religion in Salvador
'expresses itself in many
different ways,
'as I learn when Sofia takes me
'to another grand 18th
century church.
'The church of Our Lord of
Bonfim.'
People in Bahia are very
superstitious,
especially in Salvador,
so people will come here
every first Friday
of the month to make their
wishes,
people even bring their cars
here to be blessed, you know.
So basically anything can be
blessed?
Anything can be blessed.
Your TV?
Maybe.
Possibly. Your mobile?
'The blessing is embodied in
these strips of ribbon,
'called fit as do Bonfim.'
'You wear one round your
wrist and make a wish,
'which will only be granted
when the ribbon falls apart.
'In some cases,
this can take months.
'Inside the church,
faith and superstition
'make more bizarre
bedfellows.'
Oh, good heavens.
This is very, very strange.
What are all these?
Wax, are they?
This is basically people who
got ill,
they bring the part of the body
which was ill and it got cured,
so they have all these wax
pieces.
Yeah.
All the different parts of
the body that were cured.
A little cluster of hearts
up there.
That's very strange.
Really is. It's like a kind
of gruesome shop, but again,
this is very powerful,
these photos around here.
- The photos are of people
who either made promises to
get cured
or to get into universities
or achieved what they want.
They come here with the
photographs.
- Yeah. So they believe that
the devotion,
by coming here to this church
has changed their lives,
basically.
Yeah.
Has cured them, has enabled them
to become successful in exams
and business and all that.
- Exactly.
- Wow.
[song in foreign language]
Everywhere in Salvador
I'm reminded of the city's
African roots.
These figures in a lake
in the centre of town
are Or is has,
the gods of Candomble.
Candomble is a religion
that fuses the African
spirit world
with Catholicism.
Officially banned until
the 1960s,
its popularity is now
countrywide.
Well, I'm all dressed in white,
because I'm going to something,
I've never done before,
which is to witness a
Candomble ceremony,
this African animist ceremony.
It's going to take place in
here and the Pai-de-santo is,
first of all, I think he's
going to read my fortune,
or the buzios, they call
them, the cowry shells.
So I might find out
something very unpleasant,
or pleasant, who knows?
'The Pai-de-santo, Father of
the Saints, is called John.
'He's the local Candomble
priest and this is his house.
'And in case you wonder,
we've never met before.'
Translation voice over: Or is has
open the table with good faith.
Oxossi opens your table
and talks about the struggles
in your life.
You are an intelligent man,
a man that fought hard to
accomplish
your goals and today you
have the opportunity to show
to the world much information
and all your knowledge.
Casado?
- Married?
- Yeah.
- Bambi no? Tres, quatro?
- Three or four children?
Three.
- Tres?
- Tres.
I hope you don't think
this is disrespectful,
Pai-de-santo,
but I have to ask
for my countrymen.
Will England ever win
the World Cup again?
[chants in Portuguese]
[speaks Portuguese]
No.
Thank you!
There we are, we can save
ourselves the trouble!
'The Candomble ceremony
takes place
in Pao Joao's front room.'
'It's confusing, and at
times mystifying,
'but that seems to be the
point.'
'The participants,
'representing the various
or is has,
'dance themselves into a
trance-like state,
'until they feel their
bodies are inhabited
'by the spirit of the gods.
'Unlike our western rituals,
'their performance is never
the same twice.
'No-one knows exactly
what will happen when
the drums begin.'
[singing and drumming]
'The people of north-east
Brazil love noise and colour.
'The two come together in
Salvador's Pelourinho area
'under the name of Olodum.
'It's short for Olodumare,
'the god of gods of the
Yoruba people of Nigeria.'
'Olodum is the name of a
social initiative to bring
'a sense of achievement
to the street children of
Salvador.'
'It teaches them the art of
African drumming
and through that,
'respect for the land of
their ancestors.
'They've taken over the streets
'of Old Salvador this morning
'without telling anybody,
but that's Brazil for you.
'And they have recruited
some rather old children.'
This is Pacote.
He's going to initiate me on
the ways of Olodum.
OK, Pacote, take it away!
Vou ensinar voce...
Life goes on, this is the
middle of the street.
A batida do coracao.
Oh, the beat of the heart.
My heart's going
boom-boom-boom-boom!
Isso.
OK, OK.
[drumming]
'I'm getting the hang of this.
'Time for a touch of
the Keith Moons.'
'Having rather disgraced
myself on the drums,
'I look for some solace
in the pleasures of Bahian
cuisine.'
Like religion, the food is
a fusion of cultures,
combining African,
Portuguese and indigenous
influences.
Given the abundance of seafood,
it's a welcome change
from the meaty fare
that most Brazilians seem to
prefer.
The personification of
Bahian cooking
is Aldaci dos Santos,
known to all as "Dada".
From selling snacks on the
beach,
she has risen to become
an inspirational restaurateur
and chef to the famous.
Who better to turn to for
consolation?
This is Dada, who is a superb...
one of the great cooks
of Salvador and Bahian cuisine.
And I am a great eater of
all food,
and Dada's going to show me
round,
buy some food at the market
and then we are going to cook
and then eat.
Vamos agora conhecer o
mercado do peixe.
OK.
- OK?
- Mercado do peixe.
OK, so we are at the fish
market, let's go!
Mercado do peixe.
He's had too much fish!
[Dada laughs]
Delicia!
- Think she's going to make
a moqueca,
which is a classic fish stew.
Polvo.
Octopus, yeah.
Gosh, fresh mud crabs.
Caranguejo.
- They're alive,
they look as though they're
about a thousand years old!
Ah, that's better, yeah.
Mmm. Marvellous.
So these, you cook with
them, you bathe in them
and you make tea with them.
I feel better already!
OK!
Fantastic, yeah.
[Dada laughs]
Made a pig's ear of that
one[!]
Do you want a hand?
[shrieks with laughter]
This is an Olympic sport!
Oh, Michael!
Oh-oh-oh!
I can't believe I'm going
to eat a meal
after this, as well.
I've eaten a meal just going
around the market.
Can I ask you, Dada, how did
you first learn to cook?
Translation voice over: I started
cooking when I was five.
I was working with my mother
as a housekeeper
in a large family house,
getting paid by the day
in order to earn a living.
My mother and I would find work
on these large farms
in the country
because we didn't have our
own place
to live so we had to earn
our keep.
When I cooked, it felt like
I was whole.
I was a child, but I didn't
have a proper childhood
because I had to work
from an early age,
and when I cooked,
mixing all the spices and
the food in my kitchen,
it was like heaven to me,
it was my fantasy world.
- Now you are a successful
business woman, Dada,
do you still enjoy cooking
as much as you did?
Mais.
More?
Muito mais.
Translation voice over: Each day
that goes by,
I like it more and more.
The kitchen and cooking for
me is like having sex.
When cooking,
I feel fulfilled as if I was
having a great orgasm.
- It must be exhausting
every time you make a meal.
Translation voice over: No, not
really,
I get more tired making love.
What is it about your food
that makes it very special?
Translation voice over: All the
ingredients are fresh
and bought with a lot of care,
but I think the main thing
for me
is the transformation that
love brings about.
When I cook, I cook for real,
it comes from inside Dada,
from inside my heart,
so it's love that transforms
the flavours.
Oh, fantastic!
Fantastic, yes.
Beautiful!
Look, I cut that!
- A calombreta?
- I cut that bit.
It's not cut very well.
OK, Michael!
Wow! Oh!
- Mmm.
- Comer um peixe?
Oh, wow!
'Some guide books
'I'd read were a bit sniffy
about Dada's restaurant,
'suggesting success
had spoiled her.
'But for me, Dada
'has been responsible
for the best meal
'I've yet had in the north-east.
'She's a remarkable women,
who you feel can do anything
'she sets herself to.'
You're a very good advert
for your own cooking.
'Except perhaps for one thing
'she really needs to be able
to do -
'clone herself.'
Comida deliciosa.
Muito obrigada.
Meus comprimentos ao chefe!
Muito obrigada.
'One of the poorest areas
'of Salvador is called
Liberdade.
'It's where the freed slaves
came to live
'after the abolition of slavery.
'It's still an area of
shanty towns, or favelas,
'like this one called
Vale das Pedrinhas.
'The Valley of Stones.
'I've come here to see something
'that Salvador has introduced
'to the rest of Brazil and
the world.'
[singing and drumming]
'On the roof of one of the
grander houses in the favela,
'they're practising a dance
'that grew from
'a self-defensive fighting
style.
'It's now the second biggest
'participation sport
in Salvador.
'It's fast and fluent
and it's called Capoeira.'
'If you're really good at
Capoeira
'you can become a master or
Mestre,
'and the trim, 66-year-old
'who's playing this
one-stringed berimbau
'is very good at it.'
'He's called Mestre Boa Gente.
'Though he's lived in the
Valley of Stones
'all his life,
'he's travelled the world as
a spokesman for his sport.'
The movements that
you do in Capoeira,
where do the movements come
from,
where did they originate?
[speaks foreign language]
Translation voice over:
The Capoeira movements
all come from Africa,
from African culture.
The moves are called jingas
and were brought by African
slaves to Brazil.
They also come from Candomble,
which is the first Brazilian
religion.
When people take on the
spirit of their gods,
their or is has,
they use their bodies to
express their or is has,
so out of that are born the
moves you see in Capoeira.
Xango, ela faz isso.
Entao, olha, quando voce
vem pra Capoeira,
voce ja ta bem flexivel.
Entende, como voce.
Voce ja ta...
Eu to conversando e voce ja
ta ai...
Isso ai, isso! E...
Do you like dance?
- Dance? Yeah.
- Samba?
I do my own version.
Isso.
[laughter]
That's the Scottish bit!
Muito legal.
Cade a palma, galera?
- 'That was the easy bit.
'The Mestre now takes me
'across the road to the radio
station
'he runs for a live,
'on-air grilling on Valley of
Stones Radio.'
♪ Esperanca e fe
♪ Mais o mundo nao e...
Translation voice over: Michael,
you're a very famous man,
not only in England
but all over the world.
You're an actor, a presenter.
Have you ever thought of
going into politics as a
councillor,
Member of Parliament or
maybe even President?
We don't have a President!
But...
Suas fas votando em voce,
voce ta eleito.
Maybe I could be Queen,
but that's taken already!
Translation voice over: What do
you think of gay marriage?
It's a big topic here in Brazil.
- I am up for gay marriage.
If people love each other,
look after each other,
as long as they support each
other
it doesn't matter
what they do in bed.
[singing]
'The Mestre has an endless,
irrepressible energy.
'Fresh from his afternoon show,
'he's out on the streets,
'mobilising participants for
the evening's Capoeira fest.'
[singing and drumming]
'The shanty buildings around,
'the roar of a nearby highway,
'and the smell of a stagnant
stream are all forgotten,
'as the shining, sweating,
white-toothed smiling Mestre
'infects everyone with
his enthusiasm.
'His work is known
across Brazil,
'yet he still stays true to
the favela
in which he grew up.'
'Home for the remarkable
Mestre Boa Gente
remains the Valley of
Stones.'
North and west of Salvador
is the Reconcavo,
an area which borders
All Saints Bay.
The towns I'm going to visit
there,
Cachoeira and St Felix,
grew rich from the produce
of fertile soils,
watered by the many rivers
that drain into the bay.
This is some of the most
productive land
in the country.
I pass sugar-cane plantations,
smaller than they once were,
but still contributing
to a buoyant local economy.
Where the river Paraguacu
divides Cachoeira from St Felix,
I cross the bridge
to find evidence of another
one-time source of wealth
at the Danneman Cigar Factory.
'Danneman's survived
'the decline in the tobacco
industry
'by concentrating on
a high-end product.
'It's currently run by
Dutchman Hans Leusen.'
Is the old legend
that it's rolled on the thigh
of the ladies
who make the cigar,
has that any credibility?
Credibility is always there,
but in the past,
the girls were making the
wrap on leaves on the legs,
but the cigars have never
been made on the legs.
So it is not a question you
can say
"There is Maria or there is
Matilda". That's not true.
Yes? Like you can feel.
No, no.
There's a story.
- Can you tell me a little
bit about
how Bahia and the north-east
is seen by the rest of Brazil?
- They always say bad things
about the north,
especially the north-east.
But it is not true,
the people work hard,
but they have a way of life
based on this tropical sun, yes?
So if you can't do it today,
you do it tomorrow.
In Sao Paulo, you have to
run, you have to do it today,
so there is a big difference
between the south and the north,
but I prefer the north,
where people still understand
how is life,
because here on Wednesday
you start to talk about
how you are going to spend
your weekend, yes?
- There was a time
when the wealth of Salvador
depended on
the sailing ships that
carried the goods
down from its rich hinterland.
The boats were called Saveiros.
In the 1950s,
there were thousands of them
working the bay.
Now there's only a precious
handful left,
and I'm on one of them.
The two men who are my fellow
crew members today are,
in their own way,
passionate about preserving
the last of the Saveiros.
One is a trim, dapper
and successful local artist
called Bel Borba.
His larger-than-life
companion is Malaca,
an engineer by trade.
If the Brazilians have a
word for extrovert,
Malaca would be its embodiment.
'But I'm sure they don't.
Brazilian means extrovert.'
How important do you think
it is to save these boats
and why is it important?
[translates in foreign language]
Translation voice over: Because
it's 400 years of history.
Bahia is summed up in these
boats.
The Saveiro was crucial,
not just the boat
but the way of life it
represented.
The handcrafts, the carpenters,
there's a whole working
history around the Saveiro.
It's pure culture, 400 years
of history and beauty.
- 'They seem to have their
priorities right, these two.
'Is this a Bahian thing?'
People from Rio and all that,
I've heard them say Bahians
are lazy.
What do you think about that?
Translation voice over: No, we're
not,
we just work in our own way.
Bahians are very caring -
we're just not stressed out.
How can you be stressed out
with all this natural beauty
around you?
We don't know the meaning of
the word stress.
- 'Are they jealous
of people from Rio?'
[speaks Portuguese]
Honestly... you...
[speaks Portuguese]
This is an old joke.
The carioca invites you to
have lunch at his house,
but don't give you the address.
Oh, right!
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