âTalk to Me on the Phone Once a Dayâ: Arab Migration to Brazil, Music, and Memory

Diogo Bercito

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Chapter 1 âTalk to Me on the Phone Once a Dayâ: Arab Migration to Brazil, Music, and Memory

äºArt and Politics between the Arab World and Latin America

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Diogo Bercito

Diogo Bercito
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DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004724815_003

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Abstract

Taking Nagib Hankachâs song âHakini Al Telephoneâ (âTalk to Me on the Phoneâ) as a case study, this chapter argues that music was a fundamental aspect of Arab social life in Brazil in the first half of the twentieth century. It also posits that Hankachâs music was neither Arab nor Brazilian but rather a digest of both, which helps explain his long-lasting success. I take the idea of âdigestâ from Oswald de Andradeâs seminal art manifesto on âanthropophagy.â Finally, this chapter claims that the music that Hankach made in Brazil impacted his homeland in the Levant. This is an intervention in the historiography of Arab migration to Brazil, which to date has privileged the written word to the detriment of sound. There is little material on a figure like Hankach, who played a central role in the diaspora. Born in 1904 in Zahle, in present-day Lebanon, Hankach migrated to Brazil in 1922; he made a career in commerce, but it was his music and jokes that made him famous. Hankach returned to Lebanon around 1955, where he kept writing and singing until he died in 1977. It was Hankach who arranged Khalil Gibranâs verses into the song âAateny El Nay We Ghannyâ (âGive Me the Nay and Singâ), which Fairuz famously sang. This chapter draws on written and aural documents that Arab migrants produced in Arabic and Portuguese. It also benefits from oral history interviews, during which interviewees recalled âHakini Al Telephoneâ and sang it passionately, reliving years long gone.

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Art and Politics between the Arab World and Latin America

ä¸ç¼ï¼ Islamicate and Ibero-American World Connections, å·ï¼ 1

ISBN:: 9789004724815

åºçç¤¾:: Brill

å°å·åºçæ¥æ:: 26 May 2025

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African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

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Chapter 1 âTalk to Me on the Phone Once a Dayâ: Arab Migration to Brazil, Music, and Memory

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Chapter 1 âTalk to Me on the Phone Once a Dayâ: Arab Migration to Brazil, Music, and Memory

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