💃🏾🎶🥁✊🏾🇵🇷#ArtIsAWeapon reposted from @knowyourcaribbean - #Bomba is a traditional dance style originating from #Loíza, #PuertoRico at the end of the 17th century by #WestAfricans and their descendants who worked the colonial sugar plantations along the coast of Puerto Rico. Through fiery #drum #rhythms and improvised #dance, the cane workers released feelings of anger, resistance and sadness about their condition. It is the mixture of the 3 different cultures of the island, the #African, #Spanish & #Taino #cultures. The base rhythm is played by 2 or more drums. Bomba was developed in PR some time after the trans-Atlantic African Slave trade in 1501. Although it is unclear when exactly Bomba was developed, the first documentation dates back to 1797. During the 1800s there were several documented accounts of the use of Bomba as a rebellion tool against the slave owners, and organizational methods for initiating #slaverebellions.This particular style of music originated amongst the slaves who worked the sugar cane fields. These slaves came from different regions of #Africa so they could not easily communicate with each other but they found common ground in #music. With the migration of these slaves to different regions of the island bomba was practiced in different regions of the island each giving their personal twist to bomba music, for example in the region of Ponce they play with larger drums than other regions that are played by placing the drum completely horizontal. After a few years songwriter Rafael Cortijo introduced bomba to the Concert Halls by arranging it with brass instruments & more simple rhythm patterns, today bomba can be found anywhere on the island and in fusion with different styles like Jazz or Salsa music. Up until the 1940s & 1950s, Bomba was heavily racialized & associated as premodern & Black. Bomba had been a marginalized music genre until musical artists like Rafael Cortijo and Ismael Rivera popularized bomba by taking it to various parts of the Americas and the world. #MusicIsLife #DancingIsFreedom #TheAncestors #Spiritual #AncestralDance #TheDrum #AfroPuertoRican #WEPA #TraScapades https://www.instagram.com/p/Br-zF2tFtr8/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=18iu1o68bgwvu
