Common origins According to
George Reid Andrews, a historian of
black communities in Latin America, after the middle of the 19th century younger black people began to abandon the
candombe in favor of practicing European dances such as the
waltz,
schottische, and
mazurka. Following this new twist, other Uruguayans began to imitate the steps and movements. Calling themselves Los Negros, upper class porteños in the 1860s and 1870s performed blackface and formed one of the carnival processions each year. African-Uruguayans organized candombe dances every Sunday and on special holidays such as New Year's Eve, Christmas, Saint Baltasar, Rosary Virgin and Saint Benito. They would set a fire to heat the drums and play candombe music, especially during the night in certain neighborhoods such as
Barrio Sur and
Palermo in Montevideo. The typical characters on the parade represent the old white masters during slavery in old Montevideo city. It was a mockery to their lifestyle with a rebel spirit for freedom and a way to remember the African origins. In 1913, an anonymous dance historian identified only as "Viejo Tanguero" ("Old Tangoer") wrote about the 1877 creation of a dance referred to as a
tango but featuring ideas from the
candombe. This dance, which later became known as "soft tango," was created by African Argentines. Writing in 1883, dance scholar and folklorist
Ventura Lynch described the influence of Afro-Argentine dancers on the
compadritos ("tough guys") who apparently frequented Afro-Argentine dance venues. Lynch wrote, "the
milonga is danced only by the
compadritos of the city, who have created it as a mockery of the dances the blacks hold in their own places". Lynch's report was interpreted by Robert Farris Thompson in
Tango: The Art of Love as meaning that city
compadritos danced milonga, not rural gauchos. Thompson notes that the population of city toughs dancing milonga would have included blacks and mulattoes, and that it would not have been danced as a mockery by all the dancers.
In Argentina The seeds of candombe originated in present-day
Angola, where it was taken to South America during the 17th and 18th centuries by people who had been sold as slaves in the
kingdom of Kongo, Anziqua, Nyong, Quang and others, mainly by Portuguese slave traders. The same cultural carriers of candombe colonized Brazil (especially in the area of Salvador de Bahia), Cuba, and the Río de la Plata with its capital Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The different histories and experiences in these regions branched out from the common origin, giving rise to different rhythms. The African influence was not foreign to Argentina, where the candombe also has been developed with specific characteristics. A population of black African slaves had been present in
Buenos Aires since around 1580. However,
miscegenation with an increasingly white population (as Argentina received up to
6 million European immigrants) and structural racism (such as state-sponsored
blanqueamiento policies) led to the progressive invisibilization of the
Afro-Argentine population. In Buenos Aires, during the two governments of
Juan Manuel de Rosas, it was common for “
afroporteños” (black people of Buenos Aires) to perform candombe in public, even encouraged and visited by Rosas and his daughter, Manuela. Rosas was defeated at the battle of Caseros in 1852, and Buenos Aires began a profound and rapid cultural shift which saw a bigger emphasis on European culture. In this context, afroporteños replicated their ancestral cultural patterns increasingly into their private life. For this reason, onwards from 1862, the press, intellectuals and politicians began to assert the misconception of Afro-Argentine disappearance that has remained in the imagination of ordinary people from Argentina. Many researchers agree that the Candombe, through the development of the Milonga, is an essential component in the genesis of the tango. This musical rhythm influenced, especially the "Sureña Milonga". In fact,
tango,
milonga and candombe form a musical triptych from the same African roots, but with different developments. Initially, the practice of Candombe was practiced exclusively by black people, who had designed special places called “Tangós”. This word originated sometime in the 19th century the word "Tango", but at that time not yet with its present meaning. Today, candombe is still practiced by Afro-Argentine and non-black populations across Argentina. In
Corrientes Province, candombe is part of the religious feast of
San Baltasar, a folk patron saint for Black Argentines.
In Uruguay The word
candombe comes from a
Kikongo word meaning "pertaining to blacks," and was originally used in Buenos Aires to refer to dancing societies formed by members of the
African diaspora and their descendants. It came to refer to the dance style in general, and the term was adopted in Uruguay as well. In Uruguay,
candombe fused multiple African dance traditions into a complex choreography. Movements are energetic, and steps are improvised to suit. == Present ==