(NNPA) - Brazil has long been the best kept secret of the Black Diaspora. Its population of more than 100 million Blacks (51 percent of the total population) makes it at least the second largest Black population in the world. This nation has been a sleeping giant in the global arena but is taking big steps to enter into the distinction of a First World Nation. Right now it is a leader of the emerging Second World nations and takes the leadership role with India at all global and United Nations conferences and summits. Brazil's President Lula da Silva proudly considers himself the leader of "People of Color". On the other hand, Brazil's bid via Rio de Janeiro was a super winner. It vowed to rebuild the slums of Rio and empower the masses. The infrastructure, job opportunities and contractual bidding would be thoroughly diverse and would make the Olympics Committee proud. It was a slam dunk! In the end it was Rio de Janeiro in first place, Madrid in second, Tokyo is third and the stinky Chicago bid dead last.
"These talented writers are about to embark on 14 wholly different and fascinating itineraries, from exploring ancient scrolls in Timbuktu, to the Anglican Church in Uganda, to Somaliland's elections, to name a few," says Tom Burke, the Achebe Center program manager. "It is a landmark project, and our partners - large and small - across the continent have lent enthusiasm and support. It's an exciting time to watch these pilgrimages unfold, and it will be quite something to read these books once their pages are written."
Brazil was discovered and, claimed by the Portuguese in 1500. By 1525, the first slave ships started to arrive. It was the first Western Hemisphere nation with slavery and it was the last (ending in 1888) to have this vile practice cease. The memories are bitter and hang over the head of this nation's history. This nation has been a sleeping giant in the global arena but is taking big steps to enter into the distinction of a First World Nation. Brazil's President Lula da Silva proudly considers himself the leader of "People of Color". He has even chastised President Barack Obama for not having enough concentration in this area. On the other hand, Brazil's bid via Rio de Janeiro was a super winner. It vowed to rebuild the slums of Rio and empower the masses. The infrastructure, job opportunities and contractual bidding would be thoroughly diverse and would make the Olympics Committee proud.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
221 p., Chronicling the period from the abolition of slavery in 1888 to the start of Brazil's military regime in 1964, Romo uncovers how the state's nonwhite majority moved from being a source of embarrassment to being a critical component of Bahia's identity.
Reiter,Bernd (Editor) and Mitchell,Gladys L. (Editor)
Format:
Book, Edited
Publication Date:
2010
Published:
Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
251 p., Tackles issues ranging from white privilege to black power, from government policy to popular advocacy, and from historical injustices to recent victories. Includes Gladys L. Mitchell's "Politicizing blackness : Afro-Brazilian color identification and candidate preference," Angela Figueiredo's "Out of place : the experience of the black middle class," Mónica Treviño González's "Opportunities and challenges for the Afro-Brazilian movement," Keisha-Khan Y. Perry's "Racialized history and urban politics : black women's wisdom in grassroots struggles," Sales Augusto dos Santos' "Black NGOs and 'conscious' rap : new agents of the antiracism struggle in Brazil," Fernando Conceição's "Power and black organizing in Brazil," and Renato Emerson dos Santos' "New social activism : university entry courses for black and poor students."
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.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Originally published: London : Latin American Bureau, 2006., 205 p., Relates the story of Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, an organization based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that employs music and an appreciation for black culture to inspire residents of shantytowns to resist the drugs that are ruining their neighborhoods.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
213 p., One hundred years ago in Brazil the rituals of Candomble were feared as sorcery and persecuted as crime. Its religious objects were fearsome fetishes. Nowadays, they are Afro-Brazilian cultural works of art, objects of museum display and public monuments
