Aruanda Ê

History and sentiment behind song

Oxalá refers to the creator God in Candomblé - a spiritualist religion in Brazil.

The word Aruandê was derived from the word Luanda, the capital and largest city of Angola, Africa. Luanda, once known as Loanda, was founded by Portuguese explorer Paulo Dias de Novais in 1575 who named it "São Paulo de Loanda". The city became the center of slave trade from Africa to Brazil from c.1550 to c.1850, growing to be the largest port for the Portuguese trafficking of slaves to Africa for over 300 years. It was in Luanda that the slaves were gathered, chained, stored in the basements of ships and sent off across the Atlantic to be sold.The transformation from the word Luanda to Aruanda occured slowly overtime. To the early generations of slaves, Luanda burned deep in their memory as the last vision they had of home, their last taste of freedom. For this reason, wherever the slave was transported in Brazil, he fondly recalled and spoke of his African city "Luanda." Slavery continued on for centuries, though, and as time passed, children who were born into slavery never saw Africa, nor a city called Luanda. They had never travelled on ships, never seen a port.