It was a mixture of chance, poorly tuned radio and much need for belonging.

In the late 1960 ’ s and early 1970 ’ s, in São Luís, some people began to pick up in short waves Caribbean seasons. Another version of the story says it was sailors and dockers who brought Jamaican Vinis through the port. One way or another, the records have arrived.

The first one was DJ Riba Macedo in 1975. He began playing the parties on the outskirts and the rhythm instantly glued to the black youth of the city. It wasn't just the music. That's what the lyrics said about poverty, racism, resistance, black pride. It sounded like their story, except with another accent.

And then came what really changed everything: the radios.

Inspired by Jamaica's sound systems, they became giant walls of sound boxes with dozens of amplifiers, lights, and a DJ in charge. Names such as the Golden Voice Canarinho of DJ Locksmith, one of the pioneers, became legendary. They dominated the clubs and the street parties. The radio dispute took thousands of people. And every booming song turned into a "melo" or a "stone" – the crowd often didn't even understand English, but baptised the music for the chorus I heard.

The reggae from there also looked different. More romantic, slower, to dance with two, quite different from the original Jamaican swing. Mixed with Bumba My Boi, Creole Drum, capoeira. It became fashion, way to talk, to dress in the colors green, yellow and red, to cut the hair.

For a long time he was marginalized and even repressed by the police, but he became too big to ignore. Today São Luís has over 200 active radiolas, hundreds of bands like the Jah Tribe, radio shows, theme bars. In 2018 the city inaugurated the Reggae Museum of Maranhão, the first outside Jamaica and the second in the world, and officially won the Reggae National Capital title.

That's why the nickname got so strong. As the director of the Museum said, Ademar Danilo: the reggae is Jamaican, of course, but it is also Maranhense now. It didn't come as a foreign invader, it came as a brother who was born elsewhere.