History of the Negro People; Brazil: The Vanishing Negro

National Educational Television and Radio Center · November 2, 1965

This vivid documentary, filmed in Brazil, explores the experience of 30 million Negroes in the country reputed to be a "racial paradise." Brazilian novelist Jorge Amado, historian Gilberto Freyre, Professor Thales de Azevado an anthropologist, Columbia University professor Marvin Harris, and other experts on Brazil appear in on-camera interviews. Ossie Davis is narrator. This vivid documentary, filmed in Brazil, explores the experience of 30 million Negroes in the country reputed to be a "racial paradise." Brazilian novelist Jorge Amado, historian Gilberto Freyre, Professor Thales de Azevado an anthropologist, Columbia University professor Marvin Harris, and other experts on Brazil appear in on-camera interviews. Ossie Davis is narrator. In Brazil, a melting pot of people and races, the experience of the Negro differs fundamentally from that of the North American Negro. Ossie Davis and guest experts explore Brazil's past and present for an explanation and appraisal of this unique experience. The cameras capture Brazil at Carnival time, visit the port city of Salvador, once the New World's largest port of entry for Negro slaves, in a special side-trip, and look on during traditional Afro-Brazilian religious ceremonies for a glimpse at the African influences which permeate Brazilian culture. At a candomble ceremony, the climax of the Afro-Brazilian rites. Olga, housewife and high-priestess, explains her responsibilities as a moral and spiritual leader. Other Negro Brazilians talk about the significance of being a Negro in their country. Olga's son Lauro says: "I prefer that my wife would be lighter than I because I would like to have lighter children. If I marry lighter and have children who look more white, they will have more opportunity to get ahead in life." Ossie Davis observes that "money whitens in Brazil...If a Negro is wealthy enough and well educated, he can share the advantages of Brazil's upper class whites." Novelist Jorge Amado says that the Negro is disappearing in Brazil because of intermixing, that "a new race is emerging." "We are convinced we are taking the right path," he says, "and that racial democracy may really be Brazil's great contribution to a universal humanistic culture." (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche) The little known and long ignored heritage and history of the Negro people is explored in an unprecedented television effort. To prepare this series of nine half-hour episodes, N.E.T.'s cameras traveled throughout the United States, to Africa, and to Latin America. Hosted and narrated by Broadway actor Ossie Davis, History of the Negro People also calls upon the talents of novelists John A. Williams, Cyprian Ekwensi, Jorge Amado, and Chinua Achebe; Basil Davidson, noted British writer and historian on Africa; actors Frederick O'Neal, Roscoe Lee Browne, and Hugh Hurd; John Henry Clark, writer and teacher; historian Gilberto Freyre, actress Ruby Dee; the choral group "The Voices Inc.," and a number of other personalities. The episodes vary in format, with dramatic, documentary, and discussion techniques employed according to the subject and content of each half-hour. The final episode is extended to 75 minutes. In addition to being host on the series, Mr. Davis has written the script for episode 3, Slavery, a dramatic and choral work adapted from the testimony of former slaves. He appears in the episode with his wife, actress Ruby Dee, and the choral group The Voices, Inc. History of the Negro People is a 1965 production of National Educational Television. The 9 episodes that comprise this series were originally recorded in black and white on videotape. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)