April 2020 - Invento Semilla

Strap yourself in, this is a long one . . .

Around mid-2019 Ricky sent an instrumental to the group which was among the first few songs that we jammed when first starting to think about writing originals as SONIDO. He was a bit unsure about it and seemed like he instantly regretted putting it forward. I can't remember why we didn't keep jamming it (and the other few songs), I guess we got distracted with covers for a little while longer . .

Notwithstanding Ricky's reservations, there was some good stuff in that tune and I started to play around with it, de- and re-constructing it in a few different rhythms and structures. I didn't really have a purpose for the work I was doing on it at that stage, I guess it was just practice for a run of songwriting the was coming down the track.

Around the same time, I was reading "1491" by Charles C Mann, a book about the pre-Columbian Americas (highly recommend). Among many insights, there were a couple that stuck in my head: the first was the extent of the decimation of indigenous peoples in the Americas through the introduction of diseases (as well as colonist violence), with as much as 90% of the pre-Columbian population estimated to have been wiped out. The second was the story of how maize, which is indigenous to the Americas, was taken to Africa (via Europe) and was partially responsible for a population explosion that fed the trans-Atlantic slave trade. That migration of maize to Africa was instrumental in a system of incredible suffering; it was also central to the creation of some of the richest cultures in history, African-American, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Peruvian among them.

I wanted to try to tell some of this story in a way that referenced the cultural richness that has evolved from this suffering, the bringing together of the Spanish & Portuguese, American Indigenous cultures and African slaves and their descendants. Of course, part of representing that was the decima, with its origins in Spain and its appropriation throughout Latin America as their own (take that colonialism). Another part was incorporating multiple musical styles from Peru, an archetype of Afro-Latin culture. Moving from the indigenous huayno to the Afro-Peruvian lando and festejo, the music was a re-edit of Ricky's original instrumental, using some of the melodies as winds parts and others as the base of the chords and bass line. Cesar helped me work out the huayno variation in the first section of the song and the three of us jointly worked out the festejo section.

Because I wanted to tell two separate but related stories (the impact of disease on indigenous cultures and the role that maize played in the slave trade), the decimas are in two parts and written from two different perspectives. In the first half, the first person voice is the indigenous peoples, the second person is disease and the third person are the Spanish colonisers. In the second half, the first person voice is maize, the second person is the Africans stolen from their home to become slaves and the third person are again the Spanish colonisers. To emphasise the different perspectives, I asked Magdalena Mira to sing the second section for the album recording and she did an amazing job in coming up with and delivering her own take of the melody.

The third (festejo) section of the song is a tribute to Nicomedes Santa Cruz, one of the fathers of modern Afro-Peruvian culture and a master of decimas. It quotes one of his poems "Ritmos Negros Del Peru" and references another "Abrazo Latinoamericano". The lando section of the song is also musically inspired by the musicalisation by Jose Seves of "Ritmos Negros Del Peru".

Te presentimos de lejos

Hasta con vista nublada

Levantó la sombra mojada

Y te vimos en espejos

Te fuiste juntando viejos

Acaparando endebles

Sometiendo a los más fuertes

Incapacitando sanos

Derritiendo las manos

Dejando pueblos inertes

Tus anfitriones extraños

Adueñándose de todo

Llenan buques de tesoro

Costado vidas y años

Todo material y tamaño

De oro y plata que brilla

Y nuestro invento, semilla

Perfeccionado por siglos

Esencia de un pueblo digno

Diente dorado de vida

Transportado a estas costas

Arrancado de la casa

Suplente en cual tierra arrasa

Tu me siembras y me cortas

Surcando sendas angostas

Me trajeron caras extrañas

Regalo de abundancia

Su proyecto no previsto

Y como poder estar listo

Pa’ maligna artimaña

El engaño se arrima

Y los tornillos aprietan

Las carabelas esperan

Atroz cargo comprima

Tú con cadenas encima

Obrar sin pago alguno

Yo de cena y desayuno

Volvimos a mi inicio

A crear cruel edificio

Pero tu voz calló ninguno

Con cajones y tu canto

Mantuviste tradiciones

Una fuente de canciones

Llenas de risa y llanto

Eribo Mákamáka, Eribo. Eribo máka térere, Bárió 1

"Ritmos de la esclavitud

contra amarguras y penas.

Al compás de las cadenas

ritmos negros del Perú." 2

Eribo Mákamáka, Eribo. Eribo máka térere, Bárió

En honor a Santa Cruz

Padre voz Afro Peruana,

Latinoamericana

Abrazo mereces tu

Eribo Mákamáka, Eribo. Eribo máka térere, Bárió

1. This is an Abakua chant brought by African slaves to Latin America which features in the audio recording of the poem

2. A quote from "Ritmos Negros Del Perú"

Translation

We sensed you from afar,

Even with our sight clouded.

The damp shadow lifted

And we saw you in reflections.

You gathered the old,

Hoarded the frail,

Made the strong submit,

Incapacitated the healthy,

Wasted away our hands,

Leaving whole peoples inert.

Your strange hosts

Declared themselves owners of everything.

They filled ships with treasures

That cost us years and lives,

Of all materials and sizes,

Of shining gold and silver,

As well as our invented seed,

Perfected over centuries,

The essence of a proud people,

The gold kernel of life.

Transported to these shores,

Ripped from my home,

Destined for every piece of razed land,

You plant and sow me.

Traversing narrow paths,

A strange people brought me here

As a gift of abundance

With a purpose unforeseen.

How could you be prepared,

For such malignant deceit.

The deception approaches

And the screws tighten.

The ships await

Holding their terrible cargo.

You, in chains,

Working without reward,

Me, as breakfast and dinner.

We are returned to my beginnings

To create an edifice of cruelty,

But your voice was never quieted.

With cajones and your voices

You maintained traditions,

A fountain of songs

Full of laughter and sorrow.

Eribo Mákamáka, Eribo. Eribo máka térere, Bárió

"Rhythms of slavery

Against anguish and pain,

To the beat of the chains

the black rhythms of Peru play."

Eribo Mákamáka, Eribo. Eribo máka térere, Bárió

In honour of Santa Cruz,

Voice of Afro Peru,

Of Latin America,

It is you that deserves the embrace.

Eribo Mákamáka, Eribo. Eribo máka térere, Bárió