A critical analysis of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s PBS documentary film series Black in Latin America. The author discusses Gates' exploration of the history of early race mixture, the contemporary valorization of Blackness, and racial inequality in Brazil.
The article reviews the book "Black Atlantic Religion: Tradition, Transnationalism, and Matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé," by J. Lorand Matory. "My extensive use of superlatives throughout this review should make it clear that I find the book to be invaluable and extraordinarily well researched. With that said, Black Atlantic Religion is not for the reader interested in the spiritual and/or practical side of Candomblé (e.g., practices/rituals, theology, internal hierarchy, etc.). In fact, I would argue that by focusing on the humanity of the practitioners (their interests, desires, strategies, and ideologies), Matory depicts Candomblé more as a political organization than a religious one." --Michael Iyanaga
Blacks; Women; Brazil; South America; Book reviews; PERRY, Keisha-Kkan Y; BLACK Women Against the Land Grab: The Fight for Racial Justice in Brazil (Book)
Provides information on how the enforced diaspora of the slave trade shaped Brazil as a nation. Information about the coming of the first African slaves in 1538; Burgeoning of Brazil's African descended population in the sixteenth century; Reasons for the survival of African cultural traditions in Brazil; Distinctive African stocks in Brazil; Abolishment of the slave trade in Brazil in 1850; Percentage of the 1997 Brazilian population that is of African descent.
Explanations of the Abolitionist movement's success in Brazil (1888) have, since the 1960s and 1970s, emphasized the movement's material context, its class nature, and the agency of the captives. These analyzzes have misunderstood and gradually ignored the movement's formal political history. Even the central role of urban political mobilisation is generally neglected; when it is addressed, it is crippled by lack of informed analysis of its articulation with formal politics and political history. It is time to recover the relationship between Afro-Brazilian agency and the politics of the elite. In this article this is illustrated by analysing two conjunctures critical to the Abolitionist movement: the rise and fall of the reformist Dantas cabinet in 1884-85, and the relationship between the reactionary Cotegipe cabinet (1885-88), the radicalisation of the movement, and the desperate reformism that led to the Golden Law of 13 May 1888.
Discusses the relationship between squatters and the state in Brazil. Information on redemocratization in Latin America; Return of electoral democracy; Political transition from authoritarian to procedurally democratic regimes; Detailed information on the squatter settlements in Brazil; Distribution and sale of cocaine from public low-income housing projects; Information on prison authorities in Brazil.
Analyzes the socioeconomic history of the slave system of Minas Gerais in Brazil from 1776 to 1821. Transition from slave-based economy to agricultural and cattle economy; Economic dependence on slave labor; Slave importation; Contributing factors to decline of slave practices.
