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Samba is a Brazilian musical genre derived from African and European roots. It is worldwide recognized as a symbol of Brazil and Carnival.Samba ( pronunciation (help·info)) is a Brazilian musical genre derived from African and European roots. It is worldwide recognized as a symbol of Brazil and Carnival.
O mais grande!
The name samba likely comes from the Angolan semba (or mesemba), a type of ritual music, but this has been disputed.Portuguese ethnographer and folklorist Edmundo Correia Lopes talks about a dance from the Portuguese Guinea to which Brazilian people gave the name of samba, which would be, according to him, a very close relative to Brazilian samba.
According to sambista and samba studies academic Nei Lopes,
The origin of the term samba has always been connected to semba, a Congo-Angolan style of dance characterized by the bellybutton-bump with which the gentleman distinguishes the lady, gesture which was reenacted in old Afro-Brazilian dances. However, much more than bellybutton, the multilingual African term semba also means “pleasing, enchanting” (in Kimbundo), besides “honoring, revering” (in Kikongo). From semba originate disemba and masemba which then yes, mean bellybutton-bump, respectively in Angolan Kimbundo and in Kikongo.
Nei Lopes also points out it should be observed that the bellybutton-bumpy trump, much more than the “gross representation of the sexual act” as was pointed out by Portuguese missionaries of the colonial times, represented an affability, an act of seduction and a reverence from the man towards the woman.
Samba is also a surname among the people of the Wolof nation who primarily live in the Senegambia.