Dangerous Incorporated
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Olodum in TDCAU and Michael's Black Power Salute!
The Rhythm of the Saints, The Movement of the Jah People, and Pelourhino.
Say what?
The African diaspora. What Bob Marley called ‘The Movement of the Jah People‘. The colors, symbols, and history of Olodum with Michael in ‘They Don’t Care About Us‘, along with the significance of the location in Brazil in which one version of it was filmed.
Michael stated that he was proud of his heritage, proud to be black. For many reasons, one of which was because his skin lightened due to vitiligo, ignorants (some of them even of his own race), doubted his commitment and felt that Michael had somehow betrayed his own people.
But, as we delve deeper into the symbolism and meaning of his songs and videos we find that not only was Michael proud to be black but that he was deeply committed to his race, to fighting the causes of social injustice, and fighting for racial and social equality for people of all races and religions.
As in the video and song ‘Black or White‘, we find messages and symbolism beyond the obvious in ‘They Don’t Care About Us‘, too. If one looks just a little deeper, we find symbolic genius in Michael’s work that he never talked about – but was always there – quietly waiting to be discovered.
Samar Habib did just that. He did a little research and discovered some quite interesting gems about Olodum and the song ‘They Don’t Care About Us‘ as filmed in Largo do Pelourinho, Salvadore, Brazil. For instance, Samar found this:
Jackson’s great dancing, his readily apparent friendliness made all the people in Pelourinho smile with pride. Especially proud were the youths of Olodum, to have had the opportunity to showcase their talent to the world through Jackson’s video. The video was in fact filmed in the “Largo do Pelourinho,” the exact spot where hundreds of years ago slaves were whipped and tortured by their masters, hence the name “Pelourinho” (the Pillory). Olodum purposefully headquarters in Pelourinho to tap into the negative energy caused by the shedding of slave blood precisely to gain strength for their fight for Black equality and power.
-Pravina Shukla, Brazzil.com – ‘The Heartbeat of Bahia‘
Gabriel Rich, in a column for ‘SoulInterviews.com‘ last year a few weeks following Michael’s death, wrote:-Pravina Shukla, Brazzil.com – ‘The Heartbeat of Bahia‘
(Michael Jackson) Wrote one of the most kick-ass songs of revolt and raised his fist in a Black Power salute in his “They Don’t Care about Us” video, with everyone wearing red, black and green colors in their t-shirts. . .. Michael broke down racial stereotypes; he didn’t create them, unlike most entertainers today, and truthfully, like hip hop does nowadays.
-Gabriel Rich
And what about those colors? What do they mean?-Gabriel Rich
Stewart Clegg states in a fascinating paper he wrote all about Olodum called ‘The Rhythm of the Saints‘ (click to download and read – it’s in Adobe PDF format):
Olodum’s imaginative use of symbols expresses itself most symbolically in its colours of green, red, yellow, black and white. Each colour has a symbolic significance: green represents the rain forests of Africa; the deep red is symbolic of the blood of the people, shed in so many centuries of suffering, from the slavery days; golden yellow represents the colours of gold, for prosperity; black is for the colour and the pride of the people, while white is symbolic of world peace. Together, these colours are symbolic of the African diaspora, ‘the movement of Jah people’, as Bob Marley (1977) once put it.
-Stewart Clegg
The Rhythm of the Saints-Stewart Clegg
The Rhythm of the Saints was the title of a best selling record released by Paul Simon in 1990. The opening track introduced a new sound to many ears – recorded in Pelhourino Square, Salvador, Bahia, in Brazil – the sounds of Olodum. A martial, insistent, hypnotically rhythmic beat, the sound of a troupe of drums, percussive and shuffling, behind a typical Paul Simon lyric, ‘The Obvious Child‘. The name of the troupe of drummers was Grupo Olodum. Olodum and Pelhourino have become inseparable since the founding of the former in on April 25th 1979, in Pelhourino, the centre of old Salvador. Olodum means ‘The God of Gods’ or ‘The Supreme God’ in Yorubß. Although music fans may know Olodum as a band, they are, in fact, much more than that. They are a social and a cultural movement. . .
-Stewart Clegg
-Stewart Clegg
http://www.youtube.com/v/QNJL6nfu__Q&hl=en_US&fs=1&
Samar takes note of a couple of interesting things Michael does in this video:
@2.00 He sings the lines “Black man, blackmail (although this is transcribed as ‘black male’ in the official lyrics – probably for legal reasons)” while giving the Black Power salute
@2.35 He sings “The government don’t wanna see” and gives a Nazi-salute while saying the word ‘government‘
Sadly, the founder of Olodum, Neguinho do Samba, also left us in 2009 and has now joined Michael in spirit.
From Wikipedia:
Neguinho do Samba (? – October 31, 2009), whose real name was Antonio Luis Alves de Souza, was a Brazilian percussionist and musician. Samba was the founder of Olodum, an internationally known cultural group based in Salvador, Brazil. Samba, a resident of Pelourinho, was considered to be the “father” of samba reggae in Bahia.
Neguinho do Samba died of heart failure on October 31, 2009, at the age of 54. Samba was buried in the Jardim da Saudade cemetery in Salvador.
http://www.mj-777.com/?p=4088
