Music Monday: "Ponta de Lança Africano (Umbabarauma) - Jorge Ben

Ponta de Lança Africano (Umbabarauma) in 1976 as part of Jorge Ben's album Africa Brasil. The well-known song celebrates an unnamed African striker.

The lyrics say the entire city is empty on a beautiful afternoon, gathered at the stadium to watch the "African spearhead", the "goal man" play.

The album was released during Brazil's military dictatorship, which was of course supported by the United States. Censorship was extreme and torture and extra-judicial killings were common place.

Jorge Ben did not deal with any censorship with his groundbreaking album, which mixed genres and focused on Afro-Brazilian music traditions, along with implementing other Western Hemisphere black music traditions. The album was celebratory, and took pride in Brazilian identity.

Not a political rebuke of the military dictatorship, no, but this song, and the rest of the album is a direct counter to what that oppressive government wanted to portray about Brazil. It celebrates Afro-Brazilian identity and culture while Ben and his fellow musicians were living under a conservative, brutal dictatorship.

This song in particular places a young, black athlete as a hero of the entire city. And, I don't know, that feels like it's own kind of statement. Like, sure, you want the people to march toward this goal, and this particular sense of morality and nationality, but it is this young man they empty the streets for, this young man is who is nothing like you, that is who they praise.