The Afro Reggae Cultural Group (GCAR) was initiated in January 1993 with a newspaper called the Afro Reggae News - whose objective was to create a means to diffuse information aimed at valorizing and spreading black culture, specifically for youth connected to rhythms such as reggae, soul, hip hop, etc.
In 1993 we inaugurated our first Culture Community Center in the favela of Vigario Geral, which began to develop our social projects aiming to have a direct intervention with the Afro-Brazilian population. Soon after, this same center was consolidated through its first programs that included; dance, percussion, recycling, soccer and capoeira, which later opened the door to new commissions.
Since the beginning and until the present day the objective that defined our institutional mission was clear: To offer a cultural and artistic formation for the youth living in the favelas (shantytowns/ slums) as a means for them to create their own citizenship and have access to alternatives to narco-trafficking and menial jobs, and to furthermore transform themselves and empower other youths along the way. With the passing of time, the projects began to be perfected, an institution began to grow, and results began to appear. In 1997, Afro Reggae inaugurated the Afro Reggae Cultural Center Vigario Legal, which was an important step in our history. With a physically well-structured space in our community, our work could be developed with bettor quality and planning. In this process this initiative became an attributing socio-cultural practice in the city of Rio de Janeiro. From the beginning we have been and continue to be an organization that is in a permanent state of growth and maturation. It is for this reason that we do not get fixed to only one way of working, only one project, or only stay in the community of Vigario Geral. Presently, GCAR is involved in 4 different communities and in a number of diverse projects.
In Vigario, the social program includes a variety of workshops including; music, capoeira, theatre, hip hop and dance, the Crianca Legal (Legal Children) is a support program for children who are in the pre-school age group, where for 2 years they participate in literacy and socialization activities, and are also guaranteed enrolment in a public school within the municipal networks. The parents also frequent weekly meetings where discussions are opened with such themes as domestic violence, citizens with personal hygiene, and receive basic food packages as well. In its entirety, this program works to bettor the condition of life in each family that is integrated in this project.
In spite of all the diverse activities in Vigario Geral music has been the best instrument to attract the participation of the youth in GCAR. The success obtained from the Afro Reggae band, artistically as much as an example of a social project has inspired other youth to follow in the same path. Today in Vigario, there are three more musical groups that are in training, but none the least have already performed in public concerts; Banda Makala Musica e Danca, Afro Lata e Afro Samba. The following sub-groups have also emerged from Vigario Geral: Afro Mangue, Tribo Negra, Akoni e Kitoto.
City Begins
In Parada de Lucas, we initiated a project called Rompendo Fronteiras (Breaking Borders) in October of 2001. Parada de Lucas is a neighboring favela to Vigario Geral where rival narco-traffic factions have been living at war since 1985. The objective of this project is to implement social work where it is necessary and independent from the fact that one side may be in conflict with the other, because the truth is that the war we are fighting is a war against poverty and violence. In Parada de Lucas the main weapon against this war are our basic information-technology and computer skill classes. These classes are being offered to the community with the support of the Associacao de Moradores and the CDI whom donated 10 computers.
In Cantagalo-Pavao-avaozinho, the language and expression the GCAR uses is that of the Circus: juggling, trapeze, acrobatics, etc. The realization of this work is to bring happiness and consciousness to the youth that live on a tight rope, in many senses of the meaning. Since 1996, CIEP (a public government program) opened an amphitheatre in Ipanema where circus workshops are held and open to the participation of the community. As a result of these classes we created a group called Trupe Levantando a Lona that do public performances and provide students with a professional artistic formation. As of February of 2002, we initiated video workshops that capacitate the youth through out the year, where they produce documentaries along the line of popular communication. The idea of this course was that the GCAR would form an audiovisual nucleus that would absorb its own students and later form an output of professionals.
In the City of God we have a partnership with Casa de Santa Ana that gives a daily service to the elders of the community. The project here consists of the development of a seniors’ choir called Coral de Idosos that sings to the percussion of the Banda Makala (old Band Afro Reggae II), which in doing so, brings together the young-hearted elders with the adolescents of the band through the rhythms of samba.
Furthermore, we have a Communication Program, which is comprised of a newspaper called the Afro Reggae News (ARN); the radio programs of AfroRitmia and Baticum, which are transmitted by the radio station Viva Rio GO 1180 KHZ and Viva Favela; the internet site www.afroreggae.org that is going to be a big source of information on the internet about the GCAR as well as on afro-Brazilian culture in general; and finally, AfroNet, which is a service that maintains everyone registered connected and informed about GCAR activities, events and initiatives via email.
The Health Program is composed by the Trupe da Saude, which is a theatre group formed by adolescents of Vigario Geral that uses circus elements, theatrical skits and a lot of humor to give important health care tips for low income communities. The Barraca da Saude distributes informative publications in 2 points of the city of the Rio de Janeiro - in the Morro de Cantagalo and in Lapa (as well as in GCAR events) about STD’s/AIDS, hygiene, general illnesses, breast-feeding, infant care-taking and proper condom use. Furthermore, Kizumba is an informative bulletin produced by GCAR to divulge matters related to the Health Program.
An NGO Enterprise
If this were not enough, Afro Reggae also created a socially minded production company called ARPA, Afro Reggae Artistic Productions. ARPA gives commercial support to the professional careers of the subgroups created from our social projects, specifically for the Afro Reggae band. ARPA contributes 30% of the resources obtained with the production events back to GCAR. To the contrary of the way the mass-market works, where big companies create institutions or foundations to support cultural or social projects, we are a foundation that created a company to support our own social work.
Since the creation of the performance Nova Cara in 1998, the Afro Reggae band began to travel on a path towards its professionalization that culminated in signing a contract with Universal Recorders for their first CD Nova Cara. This is was an important event because it was the first time in Brazilian history that a band rising from of a social project obtained to produce their first CD with such a big label record company.
Institutional Framework
In the time that we current live, where the mentality of economic liberalism dominates and government authorities insist that there are not enough resources to fight poverty, Afro Reggae has stepped in to invest the few resources it has into the potential of the youth born into poverty (the favelados). They take education, culture and art to territories plagued by police violence and drug trafficking, and through an institutional framework obtain to create alternative jobs and leisure activities. While only a minority of people are able to armor their cars and transform their houses into fortresses surrounded by security systems that give the illusion of protection, Afro Reggae has worked through out the years to breach the abyss that separates the blacks from the whites, the rich from the poor, and do so because they are certain that this is the only alternative to build a long and lasting peace. Our belief is that the most efficient way to promote development in this country is to begin by creating opportunities for those who are in situations of personal risk. In doing so these people can stop being just another statistic of poverty and violence, and become contributing citizens in the construction of wealth, and furthermore, justly have the right to enjoy from these same riches.
Vigario was our first experience, and thanks to the self-esteem of the inhabitants of this favela that is famous in all of Brazil for its violence, it is now being recognized for generating art and culture. In the future, we hope to be able to speak the same for Parada de Lucas, Cidade de Deus, Cantagalo, Pavao-Pavaozinho.