Beating the drum for hope

Sometimes it takes an outsider to put your problems into perspective. Juninho and Luciano, two young drummers from the Brazilian music group and social phenomenon Afro Reggae, seem unfazed by London's current spate of knife and gun crime. “We have been in the favelas and we have been in Hackney,” Juninho tells me through a translator. “It is better to live in Hackney.”

The favelas, the vast rambling shanty towns that sprawl over the hills on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, are where AfroReggae do most of their work. Founded in the northern favela of Vigário Geral in 1993, they are a band that has supported The Rolling Stones on Copacabana beach and will thrill the Barbican in September with their frantic blend of samba, reggae and hip hop. But they are also an extensive network of community workers who offer Brazil's young people a creative alternative to getting involved in the drug trade.

Working with around 3,000 kids every day, they teach music, theatre, dance and circus skills to both those in school and without an education. Their new three-storey cultural centre in Vigário is open 24 hours a day because the drug traffickers work 24 hours too. “But it's not about trying to create artists,” emphasises Juninho. “It's a place where you learn who you should be. It's a place where you learn about citizenship, responsibilities, your rights.”

The brutality of life in the favelas will be familiar to many of us who have seen the hit film City of God. The story of AfroReggae's success within what is regularly described as a war zone is told in the extraordinary 2006 documentary Favela Rising.

It focuses on AfroReggae co-founder Anderson, who lost his brother in an infamous 1993 massacre in which the police randomly shot dead 21 Vigário residents. None were connected to the drug trade. Rather than revenge, Anderson sought to build something positive from this tragedy. He is now so respected in the favelas that they say wearing an AfroReggae T-shirt is like wearing a bulletproof vest.

Juninho joined AfroReggae when he was 11, Luciano when he was eight. They are now 24 and 22, and both are making sure that the upcoming Barbican shows are more than just gigs by visiting London schools and working with the children, some of whom will be involved in the “favelisation” part of the performance.

The pair are introduced to the Year 6 children at Lawdale Junior School in Bethnal Green, who shyly reveal the sum of their knowledge of Brazilians — they speak Portuguese and like football. When asked to choose between the 20 percussion instruments arranged in a circle, there's a mad scramble for the biggest drums, but even those who end up with the cowbells enjoy being a part of the deafening jam that follows.

Juninho speaks no English but his frequent yells of “Uma! Duas! Três! Quatro!” are easily understood. The kids love the noise they make, although this time there is little mention of the Brazilian men's bleak background. AfroReggae worked with one group of older students from Hackney Free Secondary School two years ago. Now some of those students are leading their own drumming and dance workshops.

Hackney may not be a ghetto on the scale of Rio's favelas but when its young people join the Brazilians on stage in September, it will be a clear sign that AfroReggae's incredible success story could work here too.

Barbican Theatre, 25-27 September (020 7638 4141, www.barbican.org.uk/www.favelatotheworld.org).