Afro-Politics and Civil Society in Salvador Da Bahia, Brazil - by Kwame Dixon (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Brazil's Black population, one of the oldest and largest in the Americas, mobilized a vibrant antiracism movement from grassroots origins when the country transitioned from dictatorship to democracy in the 1980s. Campaigning for political equality after centuries of deeply engrained racial hierarchies, African-descended groups have been working to unlock democratic spaces that were previously closed to them.

Using the city of Salvador as a case study, Kwame Dixon tracks the emergence of Black civil society groups and their political projects: claiming new citizenship rights, testing new anti-discrimination and affirmative action measures, reclaiming rural and urban land, and increasing political representation. This book is one of the first to explore how Afro-Brazilians have influenced politics and democratic institutions in the contemporary period.

Publication of the paperback edition made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Review Quotes

"Details the slow rise of
Afro-Brazilian political organization in Salvador, the majority-black capital
of Brazil's Bahia state, and sets it within such change in Brazil and the
African diaspora. . . . Contributes to comparative studies of the rise of black
consciousness. . . . Recommended."--Choice

"Synthesizes the great
complexity of the history of what has been called 'the Brazilian black
movement' with a special focus on the most visible location of blackness in
that country: Salvador and the state of Bahia."--Latin American Research Review

"Of great interest to
scholars and students of the African diaspora and Brazilian politics."--The
Americas

"Without
a doubt, this book is an important contribution to the emerging literature on
the black public sphere, and black politics vis-à-vis racialized civil society
in the African diaspora. . . . [This book] stands out as an engaging and
serious attempt to recognize and understand the roadblocks blacks face in their
(our) attempt to hold a civic existence."--National Political Science Review

About the Author

Kwame Dixon is assistant professor of African American studies at Syracuse University. He is coeditor of Comparative Perspectives on Afro-Latin America.