Uruguay’s candombe brings streets to life as the once-banned musical tradition roars back

The Afro-Uruguayan rhythms, born among enslaved Africans and once banned, now draws thousands to public squares and carnival parades Like the blues in the US, samba in Brazil, rumba in Cuba and plena in Puerto Rico, candombe, Uruguay’s Afro-descendent music, was once reviled, marginalised and even banned – but managed to endure. But while other such genres have for decades formed part of the cultural mainstream across the Americas, only now is candombe experiencing its peak. A drone view of t...

By Tiago Rogero in Montevideo, photographs by Mariana Greif