Candombe Nights

Candombe (can-dome-bey) is an African derived rhythm that has been an important part of Uruguayan culture for over two hundred years. Uruguay is a small country located in South America, bordered by its two massive neighbors, Brazil (162 million) to the East, and Argentina to the West. This rhythm traveled to Uruguay from Africa with black slaves, and is still going strong in the streets, halls and carnivals of this small enchanting country. Candombe is what survives of the ancestral heritage of Bantu roots, brought by the blacks arriving at the Río de la Plata. In 1808 the citizens of Montevideo requested that the governor repress these dances even more severely and "prohibit the tangós of the blacks.".The Tambor of candombe is the presence of ancestral Africa in Uruguay.

On Montevideo, Uruguay On Sunday nights, the drummers of Barrio Sur assemble by firelight at an intersection in the historic black neighborhood in a tranquil corner to celebrate an often-ignored piece of history.