Global histories a student journal Musical Lusofonia and the African-Diaspora in Postcolonial Portugal: Batida and Lisbon as a Global Cultural Capital Author: Harry Edwards DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/GHSJ.2019.323 Source: Global Histories, Vol. 5, No. 2 (November 2019), pp. 8-23. ISSN: 2366-780X Copyright © 2019 Harry Edwards License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Publisher information: ‘Global Histories: A Student Journal’ is an open-access bi-annual journal founded in 2015 by students of the M.A. program Global History at Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. ‘Global Histories’ is published by an editorial board of Global History students in association with the Freie Universität Berlin. Freie Universität Berlin Global Histories: A Student Journal Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut Koserstraße 20 14195 Berlin Contact information: For more information, please consult our website www.globalhistories.com or contact the editor at: [email protected]. Musical Lusofonia and the African-Diaspora in Postcolonial Portugal: Batida and Lisbon as a Global Cultural Capital by HARRY EDWARDS Harry Edwards | Musical Lusofonia and the African-Diaspora in Postcolonial Portugal 9 VI - 2 - 2019 | ABOUT THE AUTHOR transform as they travel around the world. in Global History at Freie Universität Berlin and of electronic dance music transfer, translate and of electronic dance music transfer, Harry is currently completing his master’s degree Harry is currently completing his master’s Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Since starting the He is particularly interested in how different forms been on music in history and how it intersects with MA Global History program, his research focus has power, politics and identity in post-colonial contexts. politics and identity in post-colonial contexts. power, Global Histories: a student journal ABSTRACT This paper investigates the role of music as an agent of change since the 1990s, using batida, an African-diaspora in Portugal inspired and created electronic dance music from Lisbon, Using music as a focal point, it will analyse as a case study. national identity postcolonial discourses around Portuguese community within and the status of the African-diaspora The paper will seek to address whether society. Portuguese it is possible to transform unequal cultural and linguistic relations established under colonialism into new egalitarian and multicultural urban spaces and cultures. It argues that while the artists is greater than has previously agency of African-diaspora been acknowledged, structural constraints of poverty and to which the postcolonial racism still undermine the extent national identity has shifted to truly embrace its Portuguese population. African-diaspora l a g u “As a portuguese Girl Eurovision however, the Portuguese t r o living in a foreign country i planners decided to share a very P l a i Can’t be more Proud of my different musical offering with n o l country for showing to the the estimated 186 million viewers o c t 2 s World our multicultural roots tuning in from around the world. o P with those African beats with The performance was notable n i a r these Amazing artists and giving because unlike most Eurovision o p s them the spotlight they deserve. performances, it blended together a i D We don’t forget about you,you several musical styles originating - n a guys are part of our history/ from migrant and African-diaspora c i r f A culture and we love you Cap communities in Lisbon. Since the e h vert,Angola,Mozambique,Sao 1990s, an increasing number of t d n Tomé, Guinée-Bissau and Timor young artists from predominantly a a i oriental. Africa and Portugal disadvantaged diaspora communities n o 1 f united” – valoo2807, 2018. have created new types of music o s u inspired by various musical styles L l a As vivid red light engulfed from Portuguese-speaking African c i s u the stage of Lisbon’s Altice Arena, countries (PALOP), their material M | a man dressed all in white is conditions in postcolonial Lisbon, s d r revealed to the twenty-thousand and other global youth cultures, a w d capacity crowd gathered for the primarily electronic dance music and E rd y 63 edition of the Eurovision Song hip hop. Fernando Arenas claims that r r a Contest. Scheduled to perform the dissemination of these artists’ H just after the overwhelming sonic music has fundamentally changed smorgasbord of the main contest, popular culture in Lisbon, be that in João Barbosa (better known by everyday language, fashion trends his artist alias Branko)— the man or in the city’s nightlife.3 It seemed dressed all in white—starts to play somewhat apt, therefore, that the his melodic electronic beats for the interval performance at Eurovision night’s interval act. 2018 was the 2018 was sound-tracked by Lisbon first time Portugal had hosted the born veteran DJ and producer world’s largest music event and the Branko, famous for his role in the interval performance was one of band Buraka Som Sistema who the main platforms the organisers popularised Angolan kuduro music had to stamp their own mark on the around the world, alongside three event. Rather than remain within Lisbon based vocalists all of Cape the traditional musical paradigm of 2 Evert Groot, “186 Million Viewers for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest,” Eurovision.tv, May 1 Comment by YouTube user valoo2807 on 23, 2018. https://eurovision.tv/story/186-million- Eurovision Song Contest, “Interval Act: Branko viewers-2018-eurovision-song-contest. & Sara Tavares / Dino D’Santiago / Mayra 3 Fernando Arenas, “Migration and the Rise of Andrade – Eurovision 2018.” YouTube Video, African Lisbon: Time-Space of Portuguese May 15, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/ (Post)colonialit,.” Postcolonial Studies 18, no. 4 watch?v=1w1lLjEeDw0. (2015): 159-160. 10 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 H a r r Verdean descent: Sara Tavares, Dino significance that music originating y E D’Dantiago and Mayra Andrade. from Lisbon’s African-diaspora d w a The inclusion of African-diaspora communities has gained. This is r d s musicians as representatives of testament to the ability of the music | M Portugal on such a prominent stage is and those who make and support it u s i c testament to the country’s increasing to insert themselves into and alter a l L emphasis on diversity as a part of popular conceptions of lusofonia. u s o Portuguese national identity. However, the choice of Branko, who f o n i Left under the official video is White, as the central artist of the a a of the Eurovision 2018 interval performance is also indicative of n d t performance, valoo2807’s YouTube the limits of official expressions of h e comment quoted above is illustrative lusofonia. A f r i of a developing postcolonial After first analysing c a n - Portuguese identity that embraces postcolonial discourses around D i a multiculturalism domestically and Portuguese national identity and s p o historic ties to Portugal’s former the status of the African-diaspora r a 4 i colonies abroad. While seemingly community within Portuguese n P o well-intentioned, the comment is society, this paper will thoroughly s t c nonetheless tone-deaf to a longer investigate the role of music as an o l o n history of colonial inequalities and agent of change in Portugal since i a l racism in Portugal. Jorge de la Barre the 1990s. In doing so, it will seek P o r t and Bart Vanspauwen argue that to address whether it is possible u g a it can “neither be discarded nor to transform unequal cultural and l asserted” that lusofonia, the idea linguistic relations established under alluded to by valoo2807 that the colonialism into new egalitarian Portuguese-speaking world shares and multicultural urban spaces a unique cultural and historical and cultures? This is an important bond that should be celebrated question for researchers, not only and strengthened, is “a mere in Portugal, but across Europe extension of Portugal’s imperial as changing demographics alter dream in the postcolonial age.”5 postcolonial European identities.6 However, lusofonia is a contested This paper will supplement the ideology in itself which cannot be existing literature by using the purely defined as an elite project. underutilised case study of batida, The fact that Branko was made the African-diaspora inspired and the designated performer by the created electronic dance music from Portuguese Eurovision organising Lisbon in the 2000s and 2010s.7 committee demonstrates the national 6 Derek Pardue, Cape Verde, Let’s Go: Creole Rappers and Citizenship in Portugal (University 4 Ibid., 358. of Illinois Press, 2015), 11. 5 Jorge de la Barre and Bart Vanspauwen, “A 7 For an insightful overview of contemporary Musical ‘Lusofonia’? Music Scenes and the electronic dance music in Lisbon alongside a Imagination of Lisbon,” The World of Music New general history see Sam Backer, “Afro-Lisbon Series 2 (2013): 119, 125; 139-140. and the Lusophone Atlantic: Dancing Toward Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 11 l a g u Using a mixture of secondary and identity had focused around t r o sources and primary reporting on asserting the Portuguese’s unique P l a i Lisbon’s music scene, this paper will facility to promote cross-cultural n o l argue that the agency of African- exchange and fusion between o c t s diaspora artists is greater than has different world cultures. However, o P been acknowledged in the existing these new discourses came imbued n i a r historiography, thanks in part to the with considerable imperialist o p s democratising effects of the internet.