To discuss Lamento Negro, it’s essential to address Peixinhos, a neighborhood on the border between Recife and Olinda, steeped in history. It emerged as an extension of Quilombo Catucá and was officially founded as a neighborhood in the late 19th century, taking its poetic name from the Beberibe River (known as the “river of little fish”). The neighborhood’s establishment coincided with the start of construction of the Olinda Municipal Industrial Slaughterhouse (which, by the turn of the 21st century, would become the Nascedouro).
Since the early 20th century, the neighborhood has been marked by contradictions, such as the creation of the Municipal Slaughterhouse, the Santa Maria Tannery, and, by mid-century, Fosforita Olinda S/A, which made Peixinhos internationally known as a source of phosphate.
In the 1970s, the slaughterhouse, Fosforita, and the tannery were shut down, leaving Peixinhos on the periphery of capitalism’s periphery, vulnerable to all ensuing implications and cyclical crises.
However, these hardships fostered a unique sense of community in Peixinhos, which organized itself in various ways—from the fight against the waste transfer station to the creation of athletic and cultural associations.
In the 1980s, Peixinhos faced the crisis diagnosed in the Mangue Manifesto. As part of this clogged city, it was plagued by high rates of unemployment and violence. It was in this context that Lamento Negro emerged—born as an Afoxé and evolving into a social initiative for the community. Though it became known for its samba-reggae beat, it was not a samba-reggae bloc. The band incorporated elements of coco, Afro-Brazilian rituals, maracatu, ciranda, and samba de roda, becoming a stronghold for these ancestral expressions.
It was in this environment that Chico Science and Lamento Negro arose, blending funk, rock, hip-hop, and samba-reggae with strong political expression. This project would later become Chico Science & Nação Zumbi. The distinct Mangue sound present in Nação Zumbi is directly linked to Lamento Negro’s roots.
h.d.mabuse
Designer e pesquisador, mestre em Design pelo PPGDesign da UFPE, onde cursa o doutorado. Tem trabalhado desde 1990 com colaboração, comportamentos emergentes e remix de várias linguagens nas áreas das artes visuais, design, música e filosofia. Nos últimos anos tem mergulhado nas transformações nas pessoas humanas e não-humanas que se dão por meio do design, com ênfase nas relações com as tecnologias.
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