Founding of Ilê Aiyê

Ilê Aiyê, the first afro-bloco of Brazil, was started in Curuzu, Liberdade, which with about 600,000 inhabitants is one of the most populous black neighborhoods in the country. The group was founded on November 1, 1974 to preserve, enhance, and expand exposure of the African-Brazilian culture in Brazil and has pursued this goal in different ways.

Throughout its history, Ilê Aiyê has been honoring African countries and Afro-Brazilian uprisings which has contributed strongly to the process of ethnic identity and the cultural self-esteem of black people. With its 3,000 members, Ilê Aiyê today is the heritage of Bahian culture, a milestone in the process of re-Africanization of the Bahia Carnival.

The musical rhythmic movement, invented in the 70s by Ilê Aiyê, was responsible for the revolution of the Bahian carnival which continues to develop and represent new rhythms derived from African traditions.

To promote political and educational consciousness, Ilê Aiyê does so through thematic selection of dance, gestures, language codes that transmits the African ancestry of the past with the historical and social context of blacks enslaved in Brazil, and then with the everyday Afro-Bahian of today, in addition to working in the pan-African universality of the Afro-descendant.

Ilê Aiyê also expresses the evolution of black/African renaissance and African American movements (adapted to the Bahian reality) focusing on the relationship and identification between black people from anywhere in the world, always emphasizing their common ancestral origin.

Source: http://www.ileaiyeoficial.com/