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.
Brazil's tourist-jammed cities are some of the most violent on the planet. A considerable number of the country's 43,000 annual murders occur on the streets of Sao Paulo, Recife, and Rio de Janeiro. And Brazilian cities are not alone in what might be called a bad neighborhood. The fact is that most major Latin American and Caribbean cities are today plagued by an epidemic of violence. With more than 20 murders per 100,000 people, the regional homicide rate is roughly three times the global average. Many of the larger urban centers -- from Caracas and Ciudad Juarez to Kingston and Port-of-Spain -- register the highest rates of lethal violence in the world.
