Afro-Brazilian

Afro-Brazilians

Notable Afro-Brazilians: Ernesto C. Ribeiro • Ronaldinho • Machado de Assis Pelé • Daiane dos Santos • Lima Barreto Cruz e Souza • Nilo Peçanha • Joaquim Barbosa Benedita da Silva • Seu Jorge • F. Félix de Sousa
Total population
"Black": c. 12.908 million 6.9% of Brazil's population "Pardo": c. 79.782 million 42.6% of Brazil's population[1] c. 92.69 million 49.5% of Brazil's population
Regions with significant populations
Brazil
Languages
Portuguese
Religion
"pretos" 67% Roman Catholic, 21.7% Protestant, 7.6% non-religious, 2.7% Other; "pardos 74% Roman Catholic, 18.2% Protestant, 5.6% non-religious, 2.0% Other [2]
Related ethnic groups
African, Angolan, Yoruba, Igbo, Ewe, Afro-Chilean, Afro-Argentine, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Ecuadorian, Afro-Latin American, Afro-Mexican, Afro-Peruvian, Afro-Trinidadian, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Jamaicans, Afro-Costa Rican, Afro-Uruguayan, African-American

Afro-Brazilian is a term to racially categorize Brazilian citizens who self-reported to be of black or brown (Pardo) skin colors to the IBGE census. Brazilians, including Black Brazilians, rarely use the American-style phrase "African Brazilian" to categorise themselves, and never in informal discourse: the IBGE's July 1998 PME shows that, of Black Brazilians, only about 10% consider themselves of "African origin"; most of them identifying as having a "Brazilian origin" ^[3]. In the July 1998 PME, the categories "Afro-Brasileiro" (Afro-Brazilian) and "Africano Brasileiro" (African Brazilian) weren't used even once; the category "Africano" (African) was used by 0.004% of the respondants^[4]. In the 1976 PNAD, none of these were used even once^[5]. The politically correct term in Portuguese is "negro"^[6]. As of 2005, 96 million Brazilians were included in the black and brown categories^[7], corresponding to 50.64% of the country's population.

According to Edward Telles^[8], in Brazil there are three different systems related to "racial classification" along the White-Black continuous^[9]. The first is the Census System, which distinguishes three categories: "branco" (White), "pardo", and "preto" (Black)^[10]. The second is the popular system that uses many different categories, including the ambiguous term "moreno"^[11] (literally, "tanned", "brunette", or "with an olive complexion")^[12] . The third is the Black movement system that distinguishes only two categories, summing up "pardos" and "pretos" as "negros"^[13]. More recently, the term "afrodescendente" has been brought into use^[14], but it is restricted to very formal discourse, such as governmental or academic discussions, being viewed by some as a cultural imposition from the "politically correct speech" common in the United States.

Brazilian geneticist Sérgio Pena has criticised foreign scholar Edward Telles for lumping "blacks" and "pardos" in the same category. According to him, "the autosomal genetic analysis that we have performed in non related individuals from Rio de Janeiros shows that it does not make any sense to put "blacks" and "pardos" in the same category".^[15] In support of Sérgio Pena, for example, another autosomal genetic study on a school in the poor periphery of Rio de Janeiro found that the "pardos" there were found to be on average over 80% European, even though they (the tested students) thought of themselves as 1/3 European, 1/3 African and 1/3 Amerindian before the tests. ^[16]

Brazil has the largest black population outside of Africa^[17] with, in 2008, 6.84% classifying themselves as preto (Black) and 43.80% as pardo (Brown)^[7], for a total of 50.64%. However, the latter category is broad and encompasses Brazilians of mixed ancestry, including mulattos and caboclos (caboclos are neither Black nor of African origin).

The largest concentration of Black and "pardo" Brazilians is in the state of Bahia where over 73% of the people are Blacks or "pardos".^[18].

A large but unknown number of Brazilians have some African ancestry. Due to intensive mixing and assortative mating with White Brazilians, Brazilians with African ancestors may or may not be "Black" or "pardos", i.e., they may or may not show any trace of black features^[19].

Brazilian race/colour categories

The first system referred by Telles is that of the IBGE. In the Census, respondents choose their race or color in five categories: branca (white), parda (brown), preta (black), amarela (yellow) or indígena (indigenous). The term "parda" needs further explanation; it has been systematically used since Census of 1940. In that Census, people were asked for their "colour or race"; if the answer was not "White", "Black", or "Yellow", interviewers were instructed to fill the "colour or race" box with a slash. These slashs were later summed up in the category "pardo". In practice this means answers such as "pardo", "moreno", "mulato", "caboclo", etc. In the following Censuses, "pardo" became a category on its own, and included Amerindians^[20], which became a separate category only in 1991. So it is a term that describes people who have a skin darker than Whites and lighter than Blacks, but not necessarily implies a White-Black mixture.

Telles' second system is that of popular classification. Two IBGE surveys (the 1976 PNAD and the July 1998 PME) have sought to understand the way Brazilians think of themselves in "racial" terms, with the explicit aim of adjusting the census classification (neither, however, resulted in actual changes in the Census). Besides that, Data Folha has also conducted researchs on this subject. The results of these surveys are somewhat varied, but seem to coincide in some fundamental aspects. First, there is an enormous variety of "racial" terms in use in Brazil; the 1976 PNAD found 136 different answers to the question about race^[5]; the July 1998 PME found 143^[21]. However, most of these terms are used by very small minorities. Telles remarks that 95% of the population chose only 6 different terms (branco, moreno, pardo, moreno-claro, preto and negro); Petrucelli shows that the 7 most common responses (the above plus amarela) sum up 97%, and the 10 more common (the previous plus mulata, clara, and morena-escura) make 99%^[22]. Petrucelli, analysing the July 98 PME, finds that 77 denominations were mentioned by only one person in the sample. Other 12 are misunderstandings, referring to national or regional origin (francesa, italiana, baiana, cearense). Many of the "racial" terms are (or could be) remarks about the relation between skin colour and exposition to sun (amorenada, bem morena, branca-morena, branca-queimada, corada, bronzeada, meio morena, morena-bronzeada, morena-trigueira, morenada, morenão, moreninha, pouco morena, queimada, queimada de sol, tostada, rosa queimada, tostada). Others are clearly variations of the same idea (preto, negro, escuro, crioulo, retinto, for Black, alva, clara, cor-de-leite, galega, rosa, rosada, pálida, for White, parda, mulata, mestiça, mista, for "parda"), or precisions of the same concept (branca morena, branca clara), and can actually grouped together with one of the main racial terms without falsifying the interpretation^[22]. Some seem to express an outright refusal of classification: azul-marinho (navy blue), azul (blue), verde (green), cor-de-burro-quando-foge. In the July 1998 PME, the categories "Afro-Brasileiro" (Afro-Brazilian) and "Africano Brasileiro" (African Brazilian) weren't used even once; the category "Africano" (African) was used by 0.004% of the respondants^[4]. In the 1976 PNAD, none of these were used even once^[5].

The remarkable difference of the popular system is the use of the term "moreno". This is actually difficult to translate into English, and carries a few different meanings. Derived from Latin maurus, meaning inhabitant of Mauritania^[23], traditionally it is used as a term to distinguish White people with dark hair, as opposed to "ruivo" (redhead) and "loiro" (blonde)^[24]. It is also commonly used as a term for people with an olive complexion, a characteristic that is often found in connection with dark hair^[25]. In connection to this, it is used as a term for suntanned people, and is commonly opposed to "pálido" (pale) and "amarelo" (yellow), which in this case refer to people who aren't frequently exposed to sun. Finally, it is also often used as a euphemism for "pardo" and "preto".^[26]

Finally, the Black movement system groups "pardos" and "pretos" in a single category, "negro" (and not "Afro-brasileiro" or any other hyphenated form) ^[27] This looks more similar to the American racial perception^[28] , but there are some subtle differences. First, as other Brazilians, the Black movement understands that not everybody with some African descent is Black^[29] , and that many or most White Brazilians indeed have African (or Amerindian, or both) ancestrals – so an "one drop rule" isn't what the Black movement envisages^[30], as it would make affirmative actions impossible; second, the main issue for the Black movement isn't "cultural", but rather economic: it is not a supposed cultural identification with Africa, but rather a situation of disavantage, common to those who are non-White (with the exception of those of East Asian ancestry) that groups them into a "negro" category.

However, this binary division of Brazilians between "brancos" and "negros" is nevertheless seen as influenced by American one-drop rule, and attracts much criticism. For instance, sociologist Demétrio Magnoli considers the sum of Blacks and Browns as Blacks an "assault" on the racial vision of Brazilians. He believes that scholars and activists of the black movement misinterpret the ample variety of intermeditate categories, characteristic of the popular system, as proof of Brazilian racism, where Blacks do not want to assume their identity, and hide themselves in euphemisms^[31]. According to the same author, a survey about race, conducted in the town of Rio de Contas, Bahia (total population about 14,000, 58% of whom White), replaced the word "Pardo" by "Moreno". Not only "pardos" choose the Moreno category, but also almost half of the people who previously reported to be White and half of the people who previously reported to be Blacks also choose the Moreno category^[32].

According to a 2000 survey held in Rio de Janeiro, the entire self-reported Black population claimed to have African ancestry. 86% of the self-reported "pardo" and 38% of the self-reported White population reported to have African ancestors. It is notable that 14% of the Pardos (brown) from Rio de Janeiro said they have no African ancestors. This percentage may be even higher in Northern Brazil, where there was a greater ethnic contribution from Amerindian populations^[8].

Racial classifications in Brazil are based on skin color and on other physical characteristics such as facial features, hair texture, etc.^[33]. This is a poor indication of ancestry, because only a few genes are responsible for someone's skin color: a person who is considered White may have more African ancestry than a person who is considered Black, and vice-versa.^[34]

In Brazil, the racial divisions were never very clear, due to the high degree of miscegenation among Brazilians, making the concept of race weaker. Many Brazilians find it hard to define their own race. From this idea, since the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the Black Brazilian population is treated as the sum of the self-declared Blacks and Browns. Also, based on social indicators, in which Blacks and Browns appear disadvantaged when compared to Whites.

Conception of Black and prejudice

In Brazil, a person's "race" is based primarily on physical appearance, unlike in the United States, where ancestry is more important. In Brazil it is possible for two siblings of different colors to be classified as people of different races. Children who were born to a black mother and a European father would be classified as black if their features read as African, and classified as white if their features appeared more European.^[35] With no strict criteria for racial classifications, lighter-skinned mulattoes were easily integrated into the white population, introducing a large proportion of African blood in the white Brazilian population, as well as a large proportion of European blood in the black population. This system is very different from that found in the United States, which had defined concepts of race due to the one drop rule so that people with any known African ancestry were automatically classified as black, regardless of their skin color. Thus, many black Americans have some degree of European ancestry, while few white Americans have African ancestry.^[35]

The Brazilian approach is criticized by geneticist Sérgio Pena: "Only a few genes are responsible for someone's skin colour, which is a very poor indication of ancestry. A white person could have more African genes than a black one or vice-versa, especially in a country like Brazil".^[34]

Some criticise the official figures about the size of the Black population in Brazil because they "would hide the true size of the Black population in Brazil, which if defined in a similar way to what happens in the United States would reach at least 50% of the population; and they would also not measure the true size of the Amerindian population". Sociologist Simon Schwartzman refutes this criticism by pointing out that to "substitute 'negro' for 'preto', suppressing the 'pardo' alternative would mean to impose unto Brazil a vision of the racial issue as a dichotomy, similar to that of the United States, which wouldn't be true."^[36]

At the same time, Brazilian approaches to race have had significant implications on individuals' economic conditions. Many black Brazilians live in poor conditions, a situation that caused the popular imagination to associate being black with being poor. Moreover, for many decades, the Brazilian ruling classes blamed Blacks for the underdevelopment of Brazil. In this context, the Black population was deemed poor because of the "inferiority of the Black race", rather than because of slavery and its consequences. The poverty of many Black Brazilians is due to the lack of government assistance after the slaves were freed, so that former slaves remained underemployed and vulnerable to the arbitrariness of land owners. Since Brazilian lands were monopolized by a small rural aristocracy, many Blacks migrated to urban centers that were not prepared to receive so many people because there were few jobs available. A 2007 study found that the white workers received an average monthly income almost twice that of blacks and pardos (browns). The blacks and browns earned on average 1.8 minimum wages, while the whites had a yield of 3.4 minimum wages.^[37]

The stigma of being Black because of the unfavorable social situation of this population prevents the creation of a Black identity in Brazil: Historian Joel Rufino dos Santos has written,

It is not a surprise that Blacks self-report to be Pardos (brown), because the prejudice in Brazil is based on the representation, on what people think about themselves or on what others think about them. And while Blacks are disadvantaged in access to education or earning lower wages, for example, it is understandable that many people do not want to assume a Black identity.

And Gilberto Freyre has described how few wealthy Brazilians admit to having African ancestry^[40], with people of darker complexion from the dominant classes usually associating their skin color with an Indian rather than African ancestry.

In recent years, however, the consequences of the "whiten ideology" on racial classifications in Brazil seem to be gradually reversing. According to a IBGE resource, from 2007 to 2008 the self-reported Pardo (brown) population increased by 3.2 million people, while 450,000 Whites and 1 million Blacks "disappeared". This phenomenon should not be attributed solely to the variation in the birth and death rates. The conception of race is a social construction and these changes may be related to the feeling of belonging to a particular ethnicity, prejudice or even a reaction to the affirmative action policies recently taken by the Brazilian Government. In fact, many of the people who used to classify themselves as Whites in previous Censuses are now reporting to be Browns. Even though the proportion of Brazilians who self-report to be Brown is growing in each Census, the self-reported Black population is not and, in fact, their proportion decreased between 2007 and 2008, from 7.2% to 6.5%. According to scholars, this is because the Black Brazilian population, because of the prejudice, is reporting to be "Brown" in the Censuses.^[39][41] Yet Ribeiro has argued that the example of wealthy African Americans has inspired many black and mulatto Brazilians to be proud of themselves and to accept their blackness.

The revaluation of Black identity

In the last years, Brazil has been undergoing a process of redemption of its Black identity. This process was also reflected in national censuses. Each year the percentage of Brazilians who self-report to be non-Whites (Blacks or Brown) is growing, while there is a decrease of the population that self-reports to be White. According to IBGE this is because of the "revaluation of the identity of historically discriminated ethnic groups".^[42] In the social context of Brazil, where Blacks are seen as being in an undesirable situation of pauperism, disease, crime and violence, to be assumed as Black was an unusual attitude. This trend is being changed for many reasons. First of all, it was because of the direct influence of African Americans, who are seen by Brazilians as the "race victory". It was also because of the social mobility of many Black Brazilians, through education and expansion of employment opportunities. If before only the very dark Blacks would be considered "Blacks" by Brazilian standards of race, this ethnic revaluation is now also affecting many Mulattos. Brazilians in general may be willing to affirm their European ancestry, and any person with a significant amount of European ancestry was systematically classified as White.^[8] Thus, it was extremely difficult for the Mulattos jump to the Black side of their dual nature, because they rarely wanted to be confused with the mass of poor Blacks that makes up the racial imaginary of Brazilians. The Brazilian racism is peculiar, because the widespread miscegenation has not formed a racial democracy, due to the strong anti-Black oppression, prejudice and discrimination that it has.^[43] According to Darcy Ribeiro, the Brazilian racist assimilationism is perverse because it gives the impression that there is a greater sociability, when it actually divides the "Black" population in vast ranges of skin colors, which breaks the solidarity and reduces toughness. It largely contrasts with the Apartheid found in the United States, which united all the population of African descent, regardless of skin color, providing a deep internal solidarity of the discriminated group, which enables it to fight for its rights (even though Ribeiro considered the Apartheid model to be worse than the Brazilian assimilationism model when other aspects are considered).^[43]

The notion of a Black identity is growing in Brazil, be it because of North American influence (through the Black Movement of Brazil, with strong American influence), be it because of the enrichment of some Black Brazilians (which contributes to a decrease in the association of blackness with the ills of the society) or be it because of the affirmative actions taken by the Brazilian Government. The Government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva created the "Ministry for racial equality" seeking the inclusion of racial issues in their policies. Among the measures taken, there are quotas in universities to Black and Brown students. These measures have been advocated by a part of Brazilian society, which believes that Blacks and Browns are socially disadvantaged and that this portion of the population needs government incentives, and the creation of a Black identity is a way to promote the necessary union of this population against poverty and discrimination. Another portion is against them. According to sociologist Demétrio Magnoli, to encourage the division of the Brazilian population in races and to privilege a certain segment of the society is very dangerous because they would encourage the creation of racial identities, which would promote violence and segregation.^[44]

Affirmative action issue

In recent years, the Brazilian government has encouraged affirmative action programs for segments of the population considered to be "African-descendant" (Blacks and Pardos (Browns) and also for the Amerindians. This is happening, in part, through the created systems of preferred admissions (quotas) for "racial minorities". Other measures include priority in land reform for areas populated by remnants of quilombos. To support these attitudes, it is argued that these groups have historically been discriminated because of their race, and they often appear in the poorest segments of Brazilian society, while the White population often appears in the upper classes. The affirmative actions have been criticized because of inaccuracy in the racial classification in Brazil. A scandalous case happened in 2007, involving the twin brothers Alex and Alan Teixeira. Both have applied for a place in the University of Brasília through quotas reserved for "Black students". In the university, there was a team of specialists and teachers who, through photos of the candidates, chose who "was Black" and who was not. The Teixeira brothers were identical twins, however only Alan was considered to be Black, while his identical brother Alex was not. Since that case, the affirmative action has been widely criticized, supported by the idea of the high degree of miscegenation of the Brazilian people, which makes the definition of who is Black and who is not very subjective. According to many scholars, the Brazilian society is not divided between races, but between the poor and the rich, even though it is widely agreed that the people of darker skin complexions suffer an "additional discrimination".^[44]

History

Slavery

Black Brazilians are, for the most part, descendants of Africans purchased in Africa and sold in Brazil as slaves. As the Portuguese realised the necessity to occupy the Brazil, and given the fact that no mineral riches such as gold or silver were easily found in the new territory, they attempted agricultural exploitation. As the population of Portugal was insufficient for the task, and the Amerindians were either deemed unfitting for agricultural jobs or exterminated by war and disease, by 1550 the Portuguese started to resort to the import of African slaves. This trend was reinforced by the fact that Portugal already had settlements in the African coast – namely São Paulo de Loanda (modern Luanda, founded 1575) and Benguela (founded 1587), in Angola, and Sofala, in Mozambique – and Portuguese merchants quickly started to deal in slave trade between Africa and Brazil.

From the middle of the 16th to the middle of the 19th centuries, millions of slaves were exported from Africa and sold in the Americas. Of these, Brazil probably received the biggest share than any other region taken in separate. According to the IBGE, about 4 million African slaves were brought into Brazil^[45].

Slave trade was a huge business that involved hundreds of ships and thousands of people in Brazil and Africa. There were officers on the coast of Africa that sold the slaves to hundreds of small regional dealers in Brazil. In 1812, half of the thirty richest merchants of Rio de Janeiro were slave traders. The profits were huge: in 1810 a slave purchased in Luanda for 70,000 réis was sold in the District of Diamantina, Minas Gerais, for up to 240,000 réis. With taxes, the state collected a year the equivalent of 18 million reais with the slave trade. In Africa, people were kidnapped as prisoners of war or offered as payment of tribute to a tribal chief. The merchants, who were black Africans too, took the slaves to the coast where they would be purchased by agents of the Portuguese slave traders. Until the early 18th century such purchases were made with smuggled gold. In 1703, Portugal banned the use of gold for this purpose. Since then, they started to use products of the colony, such as textiles, tobacco, sugar and cachaça to buy the slaves.^[47]

The travel

In Africa, about 40% of blacks died in the route between the areas of capture and the African coast. Another 15% died in the ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and Brazil. From the Atlantic coast the journey could take from 33 to 43 days. From Mozambique it could take as many as 76 days. Once in Brazil from 10 to 12% of the slaves also died in the places where they were taken to be bought by their future masters. In consequence, only 45% of the Africans captured in Africa to become slaves in Brazil survived.^[47] Darcy Ribeiro estimated that, in this process, some 12 million Africans were captured to be brought to Brazil, even though the majority of them died before becoming slaves in the country.^[49]

Violence and resistance

Slave being tortured (1839)

Slavery can only be maintained through constant supervision, physical and moral violence, and fear of violence, to prevent flight and rebellion of slaves. Although there is a myth that the slavery in Brazil was more lenient, the reports of colonial chroniclers show the opposite. The African slaves in Brazil have suffered various types of physical violence. Lashes on the back was the most common repressive measure. About 40 lashes per day were common and they prevented the mutilation of slaves.^[43] After the violence, the wounds were washed with salt, pepper or vinegar to prevent infection. This washing was also painful. "Preventive punishments" were also common, as they served to keep slaves under systematic, permanent fear. Foremen monitored the slaves during all day, forcing them to comply with their tasks and physically repressing them as deemed necessary. In 1741 the Portuguese Crown decreed that all blacks who fled to quilombos should be branded in their backs with the letter F (from fugido, fugitive in Portuguese). Reincidents should have one ear cut off and should be sentenced to death. The colonial chroniclers recorded the extreme violence and sadism of White women against female slaves, usually due to jealousy or to prevent a relationship between their husbands and the slaves.^[40]

Slaves resisted against slavery during all the centuries it lasted. The most frequent form of resistance was flight, which often led to death. Fled slaves tried to reunite, forming quilombos, communities composed of fugitive slaves. The biggest quilombo, Palmares had a population of about 30,000 people and resisted for about 100 years, until it was finally destroyed by bandeirantes. Another form of resistance were working slowly or hurting animals or destroying tools in order to hinder the production. The most notorious slave rebellion occurred in 1835, when Muslim slaves tried to kill whites and mulattos considered traitors in Salvador, Bahia and free all slaves in Bahia^[50]. As with all other rebellions, the insurgents have been repressed, killed or sold as slaves to the Caribbean.

Origins

The Africans brought to Brazil belonged to two major groups: the West African and the Bantu people.

West African people (previously known as Sudanese, and without connection with Sudan) were sent in large scale to Bahia. They mostly belong to the Yoruba people; Ewe, Fanti-Ashanti, Ga, Adangbe, Igbo, Fon, Mandinka. Other West African groups native to Ghana, Benin, Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria were also subjected to slavery in Brazil.

Bantu were brought from Angola, Congo region and Mozambique and sent in large scale to Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and Northeastern Brazil.

The Bantus were brought from Angola, Congo region and the Shona kingdoms from Zimbabwe and Mozambique and sent in large scale to Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and the Northeastern Brazil.

Typical dress of women from Bahia

Gilberto Freyre noted the major differences between these groups. Some Sudanese peoples, such as Hausa, Fula and others were Islamic, spoke Arabic and many of them could read and write in this language. Freyre noted that many slaves were better educated than their masters, because many Muslim slaves were literate in Arabic, while many Portuguese Brazilian masters could not even read or write in Portuguese. These slaves of greater Arab and Berber influence were largely sent to Bahia. These Muslim slaves, known as Malê in Brazil, produced one of the greatest slave revolts in the Americas, when in 1835 they tried to take the control of Salvador, Bahia. The event was known as the Malê Revolt.^[51]

Despite the large influx of Islamic slaves, most of the slaves in Brazil were brought from the Bantu regions of the Atlantic coast of Africa where today Congo and Angola are located, and also from Mozambique. In general, these people lived in tribes. The people from Congo had developed agriculture, raised livestock, domesticated animals such as goat, pig, chicken and dog and produced sculpture in wood. Some groups from Angola were nomadic and did not know agriculture.^[51]

Africans from Benguela and Congo

Africans from Cabinda, Kilwa, Rebolo and Elmina

Africans from Mozambique

Africans from Benguela, Angola, Congo and Monjolo

Abolition of Slavery

According to Petrônio Domingues, by 1887 the slave struggles pointed to a real possibility of widespread insurrection. In October 23, in São Paulo, for instance, there were violent confrontations between the police and rioting Blacks, who chanted "long life freedom" and "death to the slaveowners"^[52]. The president of the province, Rodrigues Alves, reported the situation as following:

The massive flight of slaves from several fazendas threatens, in some places in the province, public order, alarming the proprietaries and the productive classes^[53].

Uprisings irrupted in Itu, Campinas, Indaiatuba, Amparo, Piracicaba and Capivari; ten thousand fugitive slaves grouped in Santos. Flights were happening in daylight, guns were spotted among the fugitives, who, instead of hiding from police, seemed ready to engage in confrontation.

It was as a response to such situation that, in May 13, 1888, slavery was abolished, as a means to restore order and the control of the ruling class^[54], in a situation in which the slave system was almost completely disorganised.

As an abolitionist newspaper, O Rebate, put it, ten years later,

Hadn't the slaves fled massively from the plantations, rebelling against the masters (...) Hadn't them, in more than 20,000, gone to the famous quilombo of Jabaquara (out of Santos, itself a center of abolitionist agitation), and maybe they would today be still slaves (...) Slavery ended because slaves no longer wanted to be slaves, because slaves rebelled against their masters and against the law that enslaved them (...) The law of May 13th was nothing more than the legal recognition – so that public authority wasn't discredited – of an act that had alreacy been accomplished by the mass revolt of slaves^[55].

Evolution of the Black and mixed race population in Brazil

Evolution of the Brazilian population according skin color: 1872–1991
Population growth Caucasians in white color Mixed and indigenous in black Negro in yellow Asians are very few[56]
Percentual in overall population Caucasians in white Mixed and indigenous in yellow Negro in black Asians are very few[56]

Before abolition, the growth of the Black population was mainly due to the acquisition of new slaves from Africa. In Brazil, the black population had a negative growth. This was due to the low life expectancy of the slaves, which was around 7 years.^[43] It was also because of the imbalance between the number of men and women. The vast majority of slaves were men, black women being a minority^[40]. Slaves rarely had a family and the unions between the slaves was hampered due to incessant hours of work. Another very important factor was that black women were held by white and mixed-race men. The Portuguese colonization, largely composed of men with very few women resulted in a social context in which white men disputed indigenous or African women.^[43] According to Gilberto Freyre in colonial Brazilian society, the few African women who arrived quickly became concubines, and in some cases, officially wives of the Portuguese settlers. In large plantations of sugar cane and in the mining areas, the white master often choose the most beautiful black slaves to work inside the house. These slaves were forced to have sex with their master, producing a very large Mulato population. The English diplomat and ethnologist Richard Francis Burton wrote that "Mulatism became a necessary evil" in the captaincies in the interior of Brazil. He noticed a "strange aversion to marriage" in the 19th century Minas Gerais, arguing that the colonists preferred to have quick relationships with black slaves rather than a marriage.^[40]

According to Darcy Ribeiro the process of miscegenation between whites and blacks in Brazil, in contrast to an idealized racial democracy and a peaceful integration, was a process of sexual domination, in which the white man imposed an unequal relationship using violence because of his prime condition in society.^[43] As an official wife or as a concubine or subjected to a condition of sexual slave, the black woman was the responsible for the growth of the "parda" population.^[57] The non-White population has grown mainly through sexual intercourse between the black female slave and the Portuguese master, which, together with assortative mating, explains the high degree of European ancestry in the black Brazilian population and the high degree of African ancestry in the white population.^[58]

Historian Manolo Florentino refutes the idea that a large part of the Brazilian people is a result of the forced relationship between the rich Portuguese colonizer and the Indian or African slaves. According to him, most of the Portuguese settlers in Brazil were poor adventurers from Northern Portugal who immigrated to Brazil alone. Most of them were men (the proportion was eight or nine men for each woman) and then it was natural that they had relationships with the Indian or Black women. According to him the mixture of races in Brazil, more than a sexual domination of the rich Portuguese master over the poor slaves, was a mixture between the poor Portuguese settlers with the Indian and Black women.^[59]

The Brazilian population of clearer black physiognomy is more strongly present along the coast, due to the high concentration of slaves working on sugar cane plantations. Another region that had a strong presence of Africans was the mining areas in the center of Brazil. Gilberto Freyre wrote that the states with stronger African presence were Bahia and Minas Gerais. Freyre wrote, however, that there's no region in Brazil where the black people have not penetrated^[40]. Many blacks fled to the hinterland of Brazil, including the Northern region, and met Amerindian and Mameluco populations. Many of these acculturated blacks were accepted in these communities and taught them the Portuguese language and the European culture. In these areas the blacks were "agents for transmitting European culture" to those isolated communities in Brazil. Many blacks mixed with the Indian and caboclo women.^[40]

Geographic distribution of Black Brazilians

As of 2007, the Brazilian Metropolitan Area with the largest percentage of people reported as of African descent was Salvador, Bahia, with 1,869,550 Pardo (brown) people (53.8%) and 990,375 Black people (28.5%). The state of Bahia has also the largest percentage of "pardos" and Blacks, with 62.9% "pardos" and 15.7% Blacks.^[60]

Genetic studies

A recent genetic study of Black Brazilians made for BBC Brasil analysed the DNA of self-reported Blacks from São Paulo.^[63]

The research analyzed the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), that is present in all human beings and passed down with only minor mutations through the maternal line. The other is the Y chromosome, that is present only in males and passed down with only minor mutations through the paternal line. Both can show from what part of the world a matrilineal or patrilineal ancestor of a person came from, but one can have in mind that they are only a fraction of the human genome, and reading ancestry from Y chromosome and mtDNA only tells 1/23rd the story, since humans have 23 chromosome pairs in the cellular DNA.^[64]

Analyzing the Y chromosome, which comes from male ancestors through paternal line, it was concluded that half (50%) of Brazilian Black population have at least one male ancestor who came from Europe, 48% from Africa and 1.6% who was a Native American. Analyzing their mitochondrial DNA, that comes from female ancestors though maternal line, 85% of them have at least a female ancestor who came from Africa, 12.5% who was Native American and 2.5% from Europe^[61].

The high level of European ancestry in Black Brazilians through paternal line exists because, for much of Brazil's History, there were more Caucasian males than Caucasian females. So inter-racial relationships between Caucasian males and Sub-Saharan African or Native American females were widespread^[65].

Over 75% of Caucasians from North, Northeast and Southeast Brazil would have over 10% Sub-Saharan African genes, according to this particular study. Even Southern Brazil that received a large group of European immigration, 49% of the Caucasian population would have over 10% Sub-Saharan African genes, according to that study. A research showed that the average European American has approximately 10% to 12% non-White genetic material.^[64] Thus, 86% of Brazilians would have at least 10% of genes that came from Africa.

One thousand individuals from Porto Alegre city, Southern Brazil, and 760 from Natal city, Northeastern Brazil, were studied in relation to 12 and 8 genetic systems, respectively (blood polymorphisms, study dating back to 1981). The gathered data were used to estimate quantitatively the ethnic composition of individuals from these communities. More than half of the genes present in individuals classified as Black in Porto Alegre city would be of European origin, while the Whites from this city would have 8% of African alleles genes. The estimated degree of admixture in persons identified as White or Mixed in Natal city is not much different. The ancestry of the total sample can be characterized as 58% White, 25% Black, and 17% Native American. This study found that persons identified as White or Pardo in Natal have similar ancestries, a dominant European ancestry, while persons identified as White in Porto Alegre have an overwhelming majority of European ancestry.^[66]

According to another study conducted on a school in the poor periphery of Rio de Janeiro, autosomal DNA study, the "pardos" there were found to be on average over 80% European, and the "whites" (who thought of themselves as "very mixed") were found out to carry very little Amerindian and/or African admixtures. "The results of the tests of genomic ancestry are quite different from the self made estimates of European ancestry", say the researchers. In general, the test results showed that European ancestry is far more important than the students thought it would be. The "pardos" for example thought of themselves as 1/3 European, 1/3 African and 1/3 Amerindian before the tests, and yet their ancestry was determined to be at over 80% European. The "blacks" (pretos) of the periphery of Rio de Janeiro, according to this study, thought of themselves as predominantly African before the study and yet they turned out predominantly European (at 52%), the African contribution at 41% and the Native American 7%.^[16]

According to another autosomal DNA study (see table), those who identified as Whites in Rio de Janeiro turned out to have 86.4% – and self identified pardos 68.1% – European ancestry on average (autosomal). Blacks were found out to have on average 41.8% European ancestry ^[15]

Another study (autosomal study) found out that that European ancestry predominates in the Brazilian population as a whole ("whites", "pardos" and "blacks" altogether). European ancestry is dominant throughout Brazil at 80%, except for the Southern part of Brazil, where the European heritage reaches 90%. "A new portrayal of each ethnicity contribution to the DNA of Brazilians, obtained with samples from the five regions of the country, has indicated that, on average, European ancestors are responsible for nearly 80% of the genetic heritage of the population. The variation between the regions is small, with the possible exception of the South, where the European contribution reaches nearly 90%. The results, published by the scientific magazine 'American Journal of Human Biology' by a team of the Catholic University of Brasília, show that, in Brazil, physical indicators such as skin colour, colour of the eyes and colour of the hair have little to do with the genetic ancestry of each person, which has been shown in previous studies"(regardless of census classification)^[67]

Crioulo (Brazilian born) slaves

Slave women from various African regions wearing European-style hairdressing

African slaves from Monjolo, Elmina, Mozambique, Benguela e Calava

In 2007 BBC Brasil launched the project Raízes Afro-Brasileiras (Afro-Brazilian Roots), in which they analyzed the genetic ancestry of nine famous Brazilian Blacks and "pardos". Three tests were based on analysis of different parts of their DNA: an examination of paternal ancestry, maternal ancestry and the genomic ancestry, allowing to estimate the percentage of African, European and Amerindian genes in the composition of an individual.^[68]

Of the 9 people analyzed, 3 of them had more European ancestry than African one, while the other 6 people had more African ancestry, with varying degrees of European and Amerindian admixture. The African admixture varied from 19.5% in actress Ildi Silva to 99.3% in singer Milton Nascimento. The European admixture varied from 0.4% in Nascimento to 70% in Silva. The Amerindian admixture from 0.3% in Nascimento to 25.4% in soccer player Obina.

Seu Jorge is: 85.1% African, 12.9% European and 2% Amerindian	Daiane dos Santos is: 40.8% European, 39.7% African and 19.6% Amerindian	Neguinho da Beija-Flor is: 67.1% European, 31.5% African and 1.4% Amerindian	Djavan is: 65% African, 30.1% European and 4.9% Amerindian
Sandra de Sá is: 96.7% African, 2.1% European and 1.1% Amerindian	Obina is: 61.4% African, 25.4% Amerindian and 13.2% European

Media

Taís Araújo was the first Black actress to be a protagonist of a Brazilian telenovela (soap opera).

Blacks and "pardos" have a low representation in the Brazilian media. Blacks are under-represented in telenovelas, which have the largest audience of Brazilian television. The Brazilian soap operas, as well as throughout Latin America, are accused of hiding the black and Indian population and to make almost entirely white casts, usually as upper middle-class people.^[69][70][71] Brazil produces soap operas since the 1960s, but it was only in 1996 that a black actress, Taís Araújo, was the protagonist of a telenovela, the role of the famous slave Chica da Silva. In 2002, Araujo was protagonist of another soap, being the only Black actress to have a more prominent role in a TV production of Brazil. The black actors in Brazil are required to follow stereotypes usually as subordinate and submissive roles, as maids, drivers, servants, bodyguards, and poor favelados. Joel Zito Araújo wrote the book A Negação do Brasil (The Denial of Brazil) which talks about how Brazilian TV tries to hide its black population. Araújo analyzed Brazilian soap operas from 1964 to 1997 and only 4 black families were represented as being of middle-class. Black women usually appear under strong sexual connotation and sensuality. Black men usually appear as rascals or criminals. Another common stereotype is of the "old mammies". In 1970, in the soap A Cabana do Pai Tomás (based on American novel Uncle Tom's Cabin) a white actor, Sérgio Cardoso, played Thomas, who was a black man in the book. The actor had to paint his body in black to "look black". The choice of a white actor to play a black character caused major protests in Brazil. In 1976 a white actress, Lucélia Santos, played a slave in the soap A Escrava Isaura^[72]. In 1975 the telenovela Gabriela was produced and it was based on a book by Jorge Amado, who described Gabriela, the main character, as a black woman. But to play Gabriela on television Rede Globo choose a non-black actress, Sônia Braga. The producer claimed he "did not find any talented black actress" for the role of Gabriela. In 2001 Rede Globo produced Porto dos Milagres, also based on a book by Jorge Amado. In the book Amado described a Bahia full of blacks. In the Rede Globo's soap opera, on the other hand, almost all the cast was white.^[73]

In the fashion world Blacks and "pardos" are also poorly represented. In Brazil there is a clear predominance of models from the South of Brazil, mostly of European descent. Many black models complained of the difficulty of finding work in the fashion world in Brazil.^[74] This reflects a Caucasian standard of beauty demanded by the media. To change this trend, the Black Movement of Brazil entered in court against the fashion show, where almost all the models were whites. In a fashion show during São Paulo Fashion Week in January 2008, of the 344 models only eight (2.3% of total) were blacks. The Brazilian Prosecutor had to force the fashion show to contract black models and demanded that during São Paulo Fashion Week 2009, at least 10% of the models should be "Blacks, African-descendants or Indians", under penalty of fine of 250,000 reais if the condition was not fulfilled.^[75]

Religion

Black girls during a Candomblé ceremony.

Most negros are Christians, mainly Catholics.^[2] Afro-Brazilian religions such as Candomblé and Umbanda have many followers, but they are open to people of any race, and, indeed, while the proportion of Blacks (in the strict sense, i.e., "pretos") are higher among practitioners of these religions than among the population in general, Whites are a majority in Umbanda, and a significant minority (bigger than Blacks in the strict sense) in Candomblé^[76]. They are concentrated mainly in large urban centers such as Salvador de Bahia, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Brasília, São Luís. In addition to Candomblé which is closer to the original West African religions, there is also Umbanda which blends Catholic and Kardecist Spiritism beliefs with African beliefs. Candomblé, Batuque, Xango and Tambor de Mina were originally brought by black slaves shipped from Africa to Brazil.

These black slaves would summon their gods, called Orixas, Voduns or Inkices with chants and dances they had brought from Africa. These religions have been persecuted in the past, mainly due to Catholic influence. However, Brazilian government has legalized them. In current practice, Umbanda followers leave offerings of food, candles and flowers in public places for the spirits. The Candomblé terreiros are more hidden from general view, except in famous festivals such as Iemanjá Festival and the Waters of Oxalá in the Northeast. From Bahia northwards there is also different practices such as Catimbo, Jurema with heavy, though not necessarily authentic, indigenous elements.

Since the late 20th Century, a large number of negros became followers of Protestant denominations, mainly Neopentecostal churches. Among Brazil's predominant ethnicities, Blacks make up the largest proportion of Pentecostal Protestants, while Whites make up the largest group of non-Pentecostal Protestants.^[2]

Cuisine

Feijoada

The influence of African cuisine in Brazil is expressed in a wide variety of dishes. In the state of Bahia, an exquisite cuisine evolved when cooks improvised on African and traditional Portuguese dishes using locally available ingredients. Typical dishes include Vatapá and Moqueca, both with seafood and dendê palm oil (Portuguese: Azeite de Dendê). This heavy oil extracted from the fruits of an African palm tree is one of the basic ingredients in Bahian or Afro-Brazilian cuisine, adding flavor and bright orange color to foods. There is no equivalent substitute, but it is available in markets specializing in Brazilian or African imports.

Feijoada is the national dish of Brazil (for over 300 years). It is basically a mixture of black beans, pork and farofa (lightly roasted coarse cassava manioc flour). It started as a Portuguese dish that the African slaves built upon, made out of cheap ingredients: pork ears, feet and tail, beans and manioc flour. It has been adopted by all the other cultural regions, and there are hundreds of ways to make it.

Sports

Capoeira

Capoeira

Capoeira is a martial art developed initially by African slaves that came predominantly from Angola or Mozambique to Brazil, starting in the colonial period. It is marked by deft, tricky movements often played on the ground or completely inverted. It also has a strong acrobatic component in some versions and is always played with music. Recently, the sport has been popularized by the addition of Capoeira performed in various computer games and movies, and Capoeira music has been featured in modern pop music (see Capoeira in popular culture).

Soccer

Soccer, also known as football, is the most important national sport in Brazil, until recently the only to be practiced in truly professional way, and even nowadays the one that has most professional practicers, infrastructure, and public. Although it has been, in its early development, an elite amateur sport, whose clubs discriminated against Blacks, it soon became a popular sport, with a huge following. The need to win competitions eventually forced football clubs to adopt professionalism, and, consequently, to hire the best players, regardless of race^[77].

Soccer was quickly dominated by Blacks and "pardos", and it became – and still remains – a mainstream way of social ascension for poor boys, especially Blacks and "pardos" who had fewer opportunities in education or conventional labour.

The International Federation of Football History & Statistics Player of the Century^[78] list of the 20 best Brazilian players of the 20th Century includes 6 Black (Pelé (#1), Arthur Friedenreich (#5), Leônidas da Silva (#8), Luís Pereira (#15), Domingos da Guia (#17), and Jairzinho (#19)) and 9 "pardo" (Garrincha (#2), Zizinho (#4), Didi (#7), Nilton Santos (#9), Ronaldo (#9), Romário (#11), Ademir da Guia (#14), Carlos Alberto Torres (#16) and Ademir (#18)) players, compared to only 5 Whites (Zico, Tostão, Falcão, Rivelino and Bebeto).

Music

The music of Brazil is a mixture of Portuguese, Amerindian, and African music, making a wide variety of styles. Brazil is well known for the rhythmic liveliness of its music as in its Samba dance music. This is largely because Brazilian slave owners allowed their slaves to continue their heritage of playing drums (unlike U.S. slave owners who feared use of the drum for communications).

Literature

Many important names of Brazilian literature are or have been Blacks or "pardos". Machado de Assis, generally considered the most important Brazilian fictional writer, was himself "pardo". Other remarkable writers include: João da Cruz e Souza, symbolist poet of refined inspiration; Lima Barreto, novelist, master of satyre and sarcasm, and pioneer of social criticism; João Ubaldo Ribeiro, novelist and short story writer; João do Rio, fine chronicler, José do Patrocínio, journalist; Paulo Leminski, poet.

See also

• Ethnic groups in Brazil
• Batuque
• Candomblé
• Kalunga
• Liberated Africans in Nigeria
• Macumba
• Quimbanda
• Racial democracy
• Umbanda
• List of Brazilians of Black African descent
• Tambor de Mina

Important or Famous Black Brazilians

In spite of strong prejudice, many Black Brazilians and "pardos" have been prominent in Brazilian society; this is particularly true of fields where academic achievement and material investment are not decisive: the arts, particularly music and sports. From the colonial times, "pardos" as Father José Maurício Nunes Garcia (baroque conductor and composer) or Aleijadinho (outstanding sculptor and architect) attained high prestige as artists.

Other remarkable artists include Machado de Assis, arguably Brazil's most important writer, whose novels are the kernel of the Brazilian canon, João da Cruz e Souza, symbolist poet of refined inspiration, Lima Barreto, novelist, master of satyre and sarcasm, pioneer of social criticism. It is in popular music, however, that the talent of Black Brazilians and "pardos" found the most fertile ground for its development. Masters of samba, Pixinguinha, Cartola, Lupicínio Rodrigues, Geraldo Pereira, Wilson Moreira, and of MPB, Milton Nascimento, Jorge Ben-Jor, Gilberto Gil, have built Brazilian musical identity.

Other field where Black Brazilians and "pardos" excelled is soccer: Pelé, arguably the most complete soccer player ever, Garrincha, right-forward, exceptional dribbler, Leônidas da Silva, nicknamed "Black Diamond", Arthur Friedenreich, Ademir da Guia, Dida, are well known historic names of Brazilian soccer; Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Romário, Robinho and many others continue this tradition. Important athletes in other sports include Daiane dos Santos (gymnastics), known for the invention of original movements, Jadel Gregório, Nelson Prudêncio, Ademar Ferreira da Silva.

Particularly important among sports is capoeira, which is itself a creation of Black Brazilians; important "Mestres" (masters) include Mestre Amen Santo, Mestre Barba Branca, Mestre Bimba, Mestre Cobra Mansa, Mestre João Grande, Mestre João Pequeno, Mestre Jogo de Dentro, Mestre Moraes, Mestre Pastinha, Mestre Pé de Chumbo.

Since the end of the military dictatorship, the political participation of Black Brazilians and "pardos" is in the increase. The first female senator, Benedita da Silva, is Black; other important politicians include Senator Paulo Paim, former mayor of São Paulo Celso Pitta, Senator Inácio Arruda, former Senator Marina Silva, former governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Alceu Collares, former governor of Espírito Santo, Albuíno Azeredo. One of the justices of the Supremo Tribunal Federal, Joaquim Barbosa, is Black.

In spite of many obstacles, Black Brazilians and "pardos" have also excelled as actors, such as Lázaro Ramos, Ruth de Souza, Milton Gonçalves, Taís Araújo, Zezé Motta.

Daiane dos Santos	Neguinho da Beija-Flor, musician	Djavan, musician	Sandra de Sá, singer
Obina, soccer player	Benedita da Silva	Paulo Paim	Joaquim Barbosa
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis	Nilo Peçanha	João da Cruz e Sousa	Milton Santos
Pelé	Ronaldinho	Romário	Robinho
Gilberto Gil	Seu Jorge	DJ Marky	Lázaro Ramos
Vanessa da Mata	Margareth Menezes	Anderson Silva	Taís Araújo

References

Further reading

• Ankerl, Guy. Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western. 2000, Geneva. INUPRESS, ISBN 2-88155-004-5. pp. 187–210.

External links

• Candomblé music Webcast explores the influence of African culture on Brazilian music
• Portal Afro (Portuguese)
• Afro Brazilian Connection
• Brazilian Hair Supplier

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