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Kimberly Cleveland’s, “Abdias do Nascimento: Afro-Bazilian Painting Connections Across the Diaspora,” essay on Abdias do Nascimento, who passed away on May 23, 2011, is a timely reflection of his work on many levels. Born in 1914, Nascimento was politically active in Brazil and became the first Afro-Brazilian congressman (1983-1986) and Senator (1991, 1997, 1999). However, his lesser-known life’s work as a visual artist was about guiding this political-cultural lens to a deeper understanding of the African influences in Brazilian art. Between 1968 and 1981, Nascimento lived in a self-imposed exile in the United States taking on the role of cultural ambassador between Black Brazilians and African Americans. He intellectually embraced the ideas of Negritude, Pan Africanism, and the politics of Diaspora, which, as a cultural exchange, enriched his perspective and work as a painter.

This chapter discusses the meeting of UN ambassador Andrew Young and his deputy Donald McHenry with Angolan prime minister Lopo do Nascimento and foreign minister Paulo Jorge, who were in New York for the special UN session on disarmament. The Americans expressed their concerns—namely, the Katangan invasion of Zaire, the Cuban troops in Angola, and the negotiations on Namibia. The Angolans, in turn, expressed theirs: Zaire's support for the Angolan insurgents and, above all, the threat from South Africa. Young reported, “Nascimento said that everyone seemed to be complaining about the Cubans while ignoring the attacks of South Africa on Angola… . He said that attacks from the South Africans and indirectly from Zaire made it difficult for Angola to maintain non-alignment… . He expressed a desire for continuing communication with the U.S. There was a sense of helplessness about Nascimento.”

This chapter describes three individuals within Brazilian popular music who have moved the berimbau into genres beyond capoeira: Naná Vasconcelos, Dinho Nascimento, and Ramiro Musotto. Vasconcelos brought the berimbau from Brazil into a global jazz marketplace and, through his recordings, inspired the Bahian Nascimento and the Argentinean Musotto to follow his ideas for developing new concepts. Nascimento developed alternative techniques for playing the berimbau, most notably the “blues berimbau,” which is a combination of berimbau tradition and his interpretation of North American blues music. Musotto is known for creating multiple layered berimbau arrangements, and for experimenting with electronic sampling and sequencing in a broad range of Brazilian popular music contexts.

Abdias Nascimento was an actor, activist, national politician, and self-taught artist from Rio de Janeiro. The chapter examines how this artist used his paintings to pay homage to the gods of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé, as well as everyday black Brazilians. The chapter then discusses how Nascimento exemplified the group mentality characteristic of modern black artistic production through his strong focus on honoring Brazil’s African cultural traditions and his self-identification with Africans from the continent and across the Diaspora. Lastly, the chapter explores how his American audiences had to be told that Nascimento’s works reflected “blackness” or African influences, as they could not read his visual vocabulary when the artist exhibited his religious-themed paintings in the United States during a period of self-imposed exile (1968-1981).

This chapter investigates how Brazilian musicians adjusted their approach to appealing to audiences in the United States and the United Kingdom once the Brazilian military dictatorship descended into the “Leaden Years.” Many Brazilian musicians sought to affiliate themselves with sounds that more directly linked them to the African diaspora and the Otherness of Brazilian indigeneity. Drawing on the coverage of this music in major music periodicals of the era, it shows the ways that attention to Brazilian music changed after the height of bossa nova. It features close discussions of the penetration of Brazilian musicians into the jazz fusion and funk scenes, including analyses of landmark recordings by Milton Nascimento, Sérgio Mendes, Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, and Deodato.