The pain of a cuíca is universal: paradoxically lingers and travels, leaves the song carrying all the beauty and pain humans suffer. The cuíca sings the lament of the soul: long lost love romantic or otherwise, even Socrates does not have enough philosophy to explains its sound. If the Greek philosophers had listened to a cuíca's lament, Greece would be silent of poets, playwrights and muses, and the Turkish soldiers could have been kept at bay, if from Greece's shore had they heard the sound of a cuíca carried by the waves: lamenting its dying days on the crashing waves.
Only an African could have invented an instrument that refuses to be contained within the constraint of a song, an instrument that asks no permission to be free. if you want to support a negro join Black Lives Matter but if you want to understand his centuries old struggles and pain, listen to a cuíca. It carries 300 years of suffering.
At 3:33, you hear a cuíca in this song of Brazilian poet and diplomat, Vinícius de Moraes ( who called himself "the whitest negro in Brazil ") Sao Demais os Perigos Dessa Vida" which translates to "there are a lot of dangerous things in this world", which bring us right back to Black Lives Matter protesters who understand that sentiment throughout.
In the United States of America jaywalking for a negro can be a death sentence; enjoying a late night walk listening to Motown's Hits, a suicidal gesture. Yet, I do this almost every moonlit night or otherwise in total safety unless I open my latino mouth; racism in America is a descending stairway to the darkest corners of a red neck muted soul.
While we fight for a more just world for everyone, I listen to a cuíca; one day, I hope, our descendants will look back at us in dismay for how primitive we were, and they will play the cuíca to understand the pain, caused by the oppression of an entire group of people due to the color of their skin. It will echo the lament of a mother watching her son dying under the weight of prejudice and despise.
It will echo the lament of Palestine.
