Brazil

Not a Spanish speaking country but Portuguese, Brazil is most populace nation in South America and Latin America, the 5^th largest nation by area and 6^th largest population in the world, Brazil is also one the most racially diverse. With the largest number of slaves from the transatlantic slave trade, Brazil imported the approximate number of slaves from all the Caribbean nations and the United States combined. Totaling approximately four million slaves between the 16th and 19th centuries, today, Brazil has the most people of African descent living outside of Africa. As a former Portuguese colony, it’s unique unlike other colonies such as Britain or Spain, that the former colonial nation did not fracture into numerous nations. Now centuries later that cohesion amongst Brazilians adds to the unique cultural identity, except for the numerous tribes scattered throughout Brazil that still speak their native language. Today Afro Brazilians encounter similar problems like other nations, where discrimination and living in poverty occurs.

From the 18th century onward, when the mining of gold and diamonds began, more slaves were sent to Minas Gerais. The majority worked as labourers and domestic servants, but some escaped and fled into the interior, where they established independent farming communities or mixed with Indian groups. After the abolition of slavery in 1888, a large proportion of Africans left the areas where they had been held captive and settled in other agricultural regions or in towns; however, the Northeast retained the heaviest concentration of Africans and mulattoes. From the 1860s to the 1920s, Brazilian manufacturers hired millions of European immigrants but largely avoided employing the descendants of slaves, who remained at the margin of Brazil’s economy. By the turn of the 21st century, an increasing number of individuals used education to attain upward mobility.

Poppino, R. E. (2020, December 21). Brittanica.com. From Brittanica: https://www.britannica.com/place/Brazil/Ongoing-domestic-migration#ref25082)

Unlike the United States, Brazil did not have a civil war to abolish slavery or a reconstruction period. Around the beginning of the 19^th century the two nations did have something in common.

As commentators have often pointed out, the United States and Brazil both began the 19^th century with a slave population of 1 million slaves in the 19^th century and had a resident slave population of only 1.7 million in the late 1850s, whereas the United States imported a few hundred thousand slaves and ended up with a resident population of 4 million slaves on the eve of the Civil War. When on adds in the manumitted slaves and their offspring, the difference declines greatly. There were just 4.4 million free and slave Afro-Americans in the United States at the time of the Civil War, whereas in Brazil at the time of the first census in 1872 these numbered 5.8 million persons. This would suggest that both societies saw their original African populations grow positively well beyond their initial slave trade numbers, though even so the North American Afro-American population still grew at a more rapid rate.
Klein & Vinson, p. 138

Despite all the contributions that Afro Brazilians made, from the beginning the government encouraged the immigrations of Europeans to the country to reduce the black populace and reduce influence throughout the nation. Like the Spanish colonies Brazil encouraged “whitening” of the society that was opposite of the United States that encouraged and legalized segregation, Jim Crow, and enforced the one-drop rule.

In the late 1970s a new generation of Afro-Brazilians—small in number but outspoken I their militancy—arose to contest in an unprecedented way the “myth” of Brazil’s racial democracy. In several major cities, primarily in the industrialized Southeast, they organized protests against police brutality and mistreatment at the hands of public agencies, as well as discrimination in the job market and in public places. The movement enjoyed a flurry of publicity in the late 1970s and early 1980s and provoked greater interest among foreign academics than their Brazilian counterparts (Mitchell 1985). The militants never enjoyed broad support in the Afro-Brazilian community, although they argued that their potential support went deep. The movement was bedeviled by factionalism and a barrage of animosity from the political and cultural establishment. The latter termed them “un-Brazilian,” “racist,” and mindless imitators of the U.S. civil rights activists.
Skidmore p. 13

The militant Afro Brazilian group did not even come close to the success to the U.S. civil rights movement. Fifty years after the group attempted to create change in Brazil it’s disturbing how Afro-Brazilians do not get much recognition for creating so much culture to a vibrant nation. Unfortunately many are unaware of both the demographic of Afro-Brazilians and/or unaware of the contributions or culture of Afro-Brazilians, these are the things they want you to know.

Brazilian Culture can be seen like other former slave colonies where blacks contributed many facets of a countries culture from music to pop culture, Brazils culture is vibrant and cannot be ignored.

Samba Music was created by Afro Brazilians with roots from Western Africa.
- Carnival in Brazil was introduced by the Portuguese from Europe to celebrate lent. While converting slaves to Catholicism, they integrated the masks and later samba music to the yearly celebration.
- Capoeira is a martial arts form created by former slaves, today Capoeira is part of Brazil’s national identity.