African Roots, Brazilian Rites: Cultural and National Identity in Brazil

Questions of Africanness and blackness rim the Afro-Brazilian sphere of interaction.  What is Africa? How is it constructed by Afro-Brazilians? What do these constructions accomplish? How are they reflected in the national character? And how do these constructs lend themselves to ideations of blackness? In fact, what exactly is blackness, given that Brazil is a hybrid nation in both its ethnic composition and cultural modalities? This book examines the field cultural and racial representation by Afro-Brazilians in Candomblé culture, public rituals, carnival, plays, poetry and hip-hop videography, to reposition Afro-Brazilians in the framework of Brazil's social and political processes.