View source for Afro-Brazilians

{{Short description|Ethno-racial group in Brazil}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Afro-Brazilians
| native_name      = {{native name|pt|Afro-brasileiros}}<br />{{native name|pt|Brasileiros negros}}
| native_name_lang = pt-BR
| image            = Brazil Black Alone in 2022.svg
| image_caption    = Proportion of ''pretos'' in each Brazilian municipality, with the exclusion of self-identified ''pardos'', as of the [[2022 Brazilian census]]
| total            = {{increase}} '''20,656,458''' ([[2022 Brazilian Census|2022 census]])<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Panorama do Censo 2022 |url=https://censo2022.ibge.gov.br/panorama/ |access-date=2024-08-07 |website=Panorama do Censo 2022 |language=pt-BR}}</ref><br />{{increase}} 10.17% of the Brazilian population
| region1          = {{flagicon|São Paulo}} [[São Paulo (state)|São Paulo]]
| pop1             = 3,546,562
| ref1             = <ref name=":1" />
| region2          = {{flagicon|Bahia}} [[Bahia]]
| pop2             = 3,164,691
| ref2             = <ref name=":1" />
| region3          = {{flagicon|Rio de Janeiro}} [[Rio de Janeiro (state)|Rio de Janeiro]]
| pop3             = 2,594,253
| ref3             = <ref name=":1" />
| region4          = {{flagicon|Minas Gerais}} [[Minas Gerais]]
| pop4             = 2,432,877
| ref4             = <ref name=":1" />
| region5          = {{flagicon|Pernambuco}} [[Pernambuco]]
| pop5             = 909,557
| ref5             = <ref name=":1" />
| region6          = {{flagicon|Maranhão}} [[Maranhão]]
| pop6             = 854,424
| ref6             = <ref name=":1" />
| popplace         = &nbsp;&nbsp; Entire country; highest percentages found in the [[Northeast Region, Brazil|Northeast]] and [[Southeast Region, Brazil|Southeast regions]]
| langs            = [[Brazilian Portuguese]]
| rels             = 49.0% [[Roman Catholicism|Roman Catholic]]; 30.0% [[Protestantism in Brazil|Protestant]], 2.3% [[Afro-Brazilian religions]], 1.5% [[Spiritism| Spiritist]], 12.3% unaffiliated, 4.7% [[Religion in Brazil|other]]
| related_groups   = Other [[Afro-Latin Americans|Afro-descendants in Latin America]]
}}

'''Afro-Brazilians''' ({{langx|pt|Afro-brasileiros}}; {{IPA|pt|ˈafɾo bɾaziˈle(j)ɾus|pron}}), also known as '''Black Brazilians''' ({{Langx|pt|Brasileiros negros}}), are [[Brazilians]] of total or predominantly [[Sub-Saharan Africa]]n ancestry. Most multiracial Brazilians also have a range of degree of African ancestry. Brazilians whose African features are more evident are generally seen by others as Black and may identify themselves as such using the term ''preto'', for instance. Those with less noticeable African features may not be seen as such, but nevertheless choose to identify themselves using the term ''pardo'', ''negro'', or ''afrodescendente''.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |url=http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/caracteristicas_raciais/pcerp_classificacoes_e_identidades.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140514090334/http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/caracteristicas_raciais/pcerp_classificacoes_e_identidades.pdf |archive-date=14 May 2014 |title=Características Étnico-raciais da População:Classificações e identidades |publisher=IBGE |year=2010 |page=58 |language=pt |quote=(Trans.) Since 1945, a Brazilian Black movement has resulted in more people using the term (and concept) of Afro-Brazilian. But, this term was coined by and remains associated with the United States and its culture, derived from a culturalist viewpoint.}}</ref><ref name=":77">{{cite journal|first1=Mara |last1=Loveman |first2=Jeronimo O. |last2=Muniz |first3=Stanley R. |last3=Bailey |year=2011 |title=Brazil in black and white? Race categories, the census, and the study of inequality |journal=Ethnic and Racial Studies |doi=10.1080/01419870.2011.607503 |volume=35 |issue=8 |pages=1466–1483 |s2cid=32438550 |url=http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~mloveman/papers/LovemanMunizBailey_ERS_2011.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202222851/http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~mloveman/papers/LovemanMunizBailey_ERS_2011.pdf|archive-date=2014-02-02}}</ref> However, Brazilians rarely use the term "Afro-Brazilian" as a term of ethnic identity<ref name=":0" /> and never in informal discourse.

''[[Black people#Brazil|Preto]]'' ("black") and ''[[Pardo Brazilians|pardo]]'' ("brown/mixed") are among five ethnic categories used by the [[Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics]] (IBGE), along with ''[[White Brazilians|branco]]'' ("white"), ''[[Asian Brazilians|amarelo]]'' ("yellow", ethnic East Asian), and ''[[Indigenous peoples in Brazil|indígena]]'' (indigenous). In the 2022 census, 20.7 million Brazilians (10,2% of the population) identified as ''preto'', while 92.1 million (45,3% of the population) identified as ''pardo'', together making up 55.5% of Brazil's population.<ref name="census2022">{{cite web | url=https://g1.globo.com/economia/censo/noticia/2023/12/22/censo-2022-cor-ou-raca.ghtml | title=Censo 2022: Pela 1ª vez, Brasil se declara mais pardo que branco; populações preta e indígena também crescem | date=22 December 2023 | access-date=22 December 2023 | archive-date=22 December 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231222234415/https://g1.globo.com/google/amp/economia/censo/noticia/2023/12/22/censo-2022-cor-ou-raca.ghtml | url-status=live }}</ref> The term ''preto'' is usually used to refer to those with the darkest skin colour, so as a result of this many Brazilians of African descent identify themselves as ''pardos''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-08-11 |title=Brazil - Migration, Urbanization, Population {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Brazil/Ongoing-domestic-migration |access-date=2024-08-12 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> The [[Black movement in Brazil|Brazilian Black Movement]] considers ''pretos'' and ''pardos'' together as part of a single category: ''negros'' (Blacks). In 2010, this perspective gained official recognition when Brazilian Congress passed a law creating the Statute of Racial Equality. However, this definition is contested<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-12-22 |title=Pardos: os dilemas dos brasileiros que formam maior grupo étnico-racial segundo Censo 2022 |url=https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/articles/czkj31p8n20o |access-date=2024-06-01 |publisher=BBC News Brasil |language=pt-br}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=PERGUNTAS FREQUENTES |url=https://unilab.edu.br/perguntas-frequentes-sepir/ |access-date=2024-06-24 |website=unilab.edu.br}}</ref> since a portion of ''pardos'' are acculturated indigenous people or people with indigenous and European rather than African ancestry, especially in [[Northern Brazil]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Souza |first=Etelvina |date=2023-08-26 |title=Dilemas de brasileiros pardos-mestiços que vivem em 'limbo racial' |url=https://emtempo.com.br/165633/pais/dilemas-de-brasileiros-pardos-mesticos-que-vivem-em-limbo-racial/ |access-date=2024-01-16 |website=Portal Em Tempo |language=pt-BR}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.geledes.org.br/em-debate/negro-e-uma-construcao-social-afirma-especialista-do-ibge.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101017030048/http://www.geledes.org.br/em-debate/negro-e-uma-construcao-social-afirma-especialista-do-ibge.html| archive-date=17 October 2010 |title=Em Debate | work=Portal Geledés|publisher=Geledes.org.br |access-date=21 July 2012}}</ref><ref name="laboratoriogene">{{cite web|first=Sérgio Danilo|last=Pena|url=http://www.laboratoriogene.com.br/geneImprensa/2009/pensamento.pdf|title=Do pensamento racial ao pensamento racional|trans-title=From racial thought to rational thought|language=pt|publisher=laboratoriogene.com.br|date=11 September 2009|access-date=12 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706153347/http://www.laboratoriogene.com.br/geneImprensa/2009/pensamento.pdf|archive-date=6 July 2011}}</ref> A survey from 2002 revealed that if the ''pardo'' category were removed from the census, at least half of those identifying as ''pardo'' would instead choose to identify as black.<ref name=":77" /> Another survey from 2024 showed that only 40% of ''pardos'' consider themselves Black.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-11-24 |title=6 em cada 10 pardos não se consideram negros, diz Datafolha |url=https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/cotidiano/2024/11/6-em-cada-10-pardos-nao-se-consideram-negros-diz-datafolha.shtml? |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=Folha de S.Paulo |language=pt-BR}}</ref>

During the slavery period between the 16th and 19th centuries, Brazil received approximately four to five million Africans, who constituted about 40% of all Africans brought to the [[Americas]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www3.folhape.com.br/diversao/diversao/literatura/2018/12/02/NWS,89165,71,585,DIVERSAO,2330-ENTREVISTA-COM-LAURENTINO-GOMES-MERGULHO-ORIGEM-EXCLUSAO-SOCIAL.aspx|title=Entrevista com Laurentino Gomes: um mergulho na origem da exclusão social|language=pt|publisher=Folha de Pernambuco|access-date=18 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190228005706/http://www3.folhape.com.br/diversao/diversao/literatura/2018/12/02/NWS,89165,71,585,DIVERSAO,2330-ENTREVISTA-COM-LAURENTINO-GOMES-MERGULHO-ORIGEM-EXCLUSAO-SOCIAL.aspx|archive-date=28 February 2019}}</ref> Many Africans who escaped slavery fled to ''[[quilombos]]'', communities where they could live freely and resist oppression. In 1850, Brazil determined the definitive prohibition of the [[transatlantic slave trade]] and in 1888 the country abolished slavery, making it the last one in the Americas to do so. With the largest Afro-descendant population outside of Africa, Brazil's cultural, social, and economic landscape has been profoundly shaped by Afro-Brazilians. Their contributions are especially notable in sports, cuisine, literature, music, and dance, with elements like [[samba]] and [[capoeira]] reflecting their heritage. In contemporary times, Afro-Brazilians still face socioeconomic disparities and racial discrimination and continue the fight for racial equality and social justice.
{{Afro-Brazilian topics sidebar}}

==Brazilian census categories==
{{Main|Race and ethnicity in Brazil}}
Currently, the [[Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics]] (IBGE) uses five race or color categories in the census: ''[[White Brazilians|branca]]'' (white), ''[[Pardo Brazilians|parda]]'' (brown/mixed), ''preta'' (black), ''[[Asian Brazilians|amarela]]'' (yellow, ethnic East Asian) and ''[[Indigenous peoples in Brazil|indígena]]'' (indigenous). In the 1940 census, all individuals who did not identify as "white", "black" or "yellow" were subsequently aggregated into the category "''pardo''". In other words, people who identified as ''pardo'', ''moreno'', ''mulato'', ''caboclo'', indigenous, among others, were classified as "''pardos''". In subsequent censuses, ''pardo'' was formalized as its own category,<ref>IBGE. [https://biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/visualizacao/periodicos/67/cd_1950_v1_br.pdf Censo Demográfico], p. XVIII.</ref> while Indigenous peoples gained a separate category only in 1991.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-01-09 |title=Entenda quais foram os significados de 'pardo' nos últimos 80 anos e como isso dificultou a identificação racial do Brasil |url=https://g1.globo.com/economia/noticia/2024/01/09/entenda-quais-foram-os-significados-de-pardo-nos-ultimos-80-anos-e-como-isso-dificultou-a-identificacao-racial-do-brasil.ghtml |access-date=2024-08-20 |website=G1 |language=pt-br}}</ref>

''Pardo'' literally translates to [[Brown (racial classification)|brown]], but it can also refer to racial mixture. Activists and scholars associated with the [[Brazilian Black movement]] argue that the inclusion of this category in the census distorts Brazil's demographic depiction. They contend that the ideological privileging of whiteness in Brazilian society leads many Brazilians to 'deny their blackness' and 'lighten' themselves on the census by choosing the ''pardo'' category. Critics also claim that this distinction encourages Brazilians to separate the Afro-descendant population based on physical appearance, hindering the development of a unified Black identity in Brazil. Many black movement actors prefer the term ''[[negro]]'', defining it as the sum of individuals who self-classify as brown (''pardo'') and black (''preto'') in the census. Many scholars and social scientists have also combined the brown and black categories in their studies, using terms such as ''Afro-descendente'', Afro-Brazilian, or ''negro''.<ref name=":77" />

{{multiple image
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 | total_width = 320

 | image1 = Camila Pitanga 25° PMB.jpg
 | alt1 = 
 | caption1 = Actress [[Camila Pitanga]] self-identifies as black, but only 27% of Brazilians consider her as such and 36% view her as ''parda'', according to a [[Datafolha]] survey.<ref name="data">{{Cite web|url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/especial/fj2311200827.htm|title=Cor de celebridades revela critérios "raciais" do Brasil|publisher = Folha de S.Paulo}}</ref>

 | image2 = Senadores da 57ª Legislatura (52689451805).jpg
 | alt2 = 
 | caption2 = Former football player [[Romário]] is seen as ''pardo'' by 51% of Brazilians and as Black by 31%, according to a Datafolha survey.<ref name="data"/>

}}
In 2010, the Brazilian Congress passed the Estatuto da Igualdade Racial (Statute of Racial Equality). The law adopts the racial term ''negro'' to refer to individuals who self-identify as black and brown according to the IBGE race or color classification. Although evidence suggests that blacks and browns have similar socio-economic profiles and indicators of material well-being compared to whites, some researchers note that it is problematic to collapse ''pretos'' and ''pardos'' into a collective black category because part of Brazilians who self-identify as ''pardo'' are of mixed European and indigenous ancestry, not African. A survey conducted in the early 2000s with a sample of 2,364 people from 102 municipalities showed that if the "brown" category were removed and Brazilians had to choose between "black" or "white", the population would appear 68% white and 32% black. In this binary format, 44% of those identifying as brown would choose the white category.<ref name=":77" /> According to a 2000 survey held in [[Rio de Janeiro]], the entire self-reported ''preto'' population reported 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'' 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.<ref name="Telles">{{Cite book |author=Edward Eric Telles |title=Race in Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-691-11866-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/raceinanotherame0000tell/page/81 81–85] |chapter=Racial Classification |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/raceinanotherame0000tell/page/81}}</ref>

The fusion of ''pretos'' and ''pardos'' into ''negros'' tends to be validated by the mainstream media, official bodies such as the [[Institute of Applied Economic Research]] (IPEA), ministries, government departments, and international organizations. However, not all people who identify as ''pardos'' are of African descent, especially in Northern Brazil, and identify with Blackness.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/visualizacao/livros/liv101562.pdf |title=Panorama Nacional e Internacional da Produção de Indicadores Sociais - A investigação étnico-racial pelo IBGE  |publisher=Instuto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística |access-date=January 14, 2021 |page=189}}</ref> Sociologist [[Demétrio Magnoli]] considers classifying all ''pretos'' and ''pardos'' as Blacks as an assault on the racial vision of Brazilians.<ref>MAGNOLI, Demétrio. ''Uma Gota de Sangue'', Editora Contexto, 2008, p. 143.</ref> Sociologist [[Simon Schwartzman]] points 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 would not be true."<ref>{{cite web|author=Schwartzman|url=http://www.schwartzman.org.br/simon/pdf/origem.pdf |title=Fora de foco: diversidade e identidade étnicas no Brasil |page=16|access-date=21 July 2012}}</ref> Members of the black movement in Brazil seek to define their racial identity in political and socioeconomic terms; pardos are grouped with blacks based on shared realities of racial discrimination rather than merely as a result of having "a drop of black blood." Research by Hasenbalg and Silva (1983) indicates that sociological racism is the primary factor uniting blacks and pardos.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Santos |first=Sales Augusto dos |date=July 2006 |title=Who Is Black in Brazil? A Timely or a False Question in Brazilian Race Relations in the Era of Affirmative Action? |journal=Latin American Perspectives |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=30–48 |doi=10.1177/0094582x06290122 |issn=0094-582X}}</ref>

Two IBGE surveys, the 1976 National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) and the July 1998 Monthly Employment Survey (PME), have been analyzed to assess how Brazilians think of themselves in racial terms. The results of these surveys show that a great number of racial terms are in use in Brazil,<ref name="grillo">Cristina Grillo, "[http://almanaque.folha.uol.com.br/racismo05.pdf Brasil quer ser chamado de moreno e só 39% se autodefinem como brancos]", ''[[Folha de S. Paulo]]'', 25 June 1995. (PDF) Accessed 19 September 2010.</ref><ref name=":6">José Luiz Petruccelli. ''[https://biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/index.php/biblioteca-catalogo?view=detalhes&id=27099 A Cor Denominada]'', p. 18–19</ref> but most of these terms are used by small numbers of people. [[Edward Telles]] notes that 95% of the population used only six different terms (''branco, moreno,{{efn|Said of, or someone who has black hair and slightly dark skin; of the colour of ripe wheat. / In Brazil, an ironic or euphemistic designation given to blacks and mulattos.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dicionariodoaurelio.com/Moreno|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710123211/http://www.dicionariodoaurelio.com/Moreno|archive-date=10 July 2011|title=Moreno|url-status=usurped|publisher=Dicionario do Aurelio }}</ref>}} pardo, moreno-claro, preto'' and ''negro''). Petruccelli shows that the seven most common responses (the above plus ''amarela'') sum up 97% of responses, and the 10 most common (the previous plus ''mulata'', ''clara'', and ''morena-escura'' – dark brunette) make 99%.<ref name=":6" /> Racial classifications in Brazil are based primarily on skin color and on other physical characteristics such as facial features, hair texture, etc.<ref name=":3">{{cite journal | pmc=140919 | pmid=12509516 | doi=10.1073/pnas.0126614100 | volume=100 | issue=1 | title=Color and genomic ancestry in Brazilians | date=January 2003 | journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. | pages=177–82 | last1 = Parra | first1 = FC | last2 = Amado | first2 = RC | last3 = Lambertucci | first3 = JR | last4 = Rocha | first4 = J | last5 = Antunes | first5 = CM | last6 = Pena | first6 = SD| bibcode=2003PNAS..100..177P | doi-access=free }}  2nd paragraph: ''Color (in Portuguese, cor) denotes the Brazilian equivalent of the English term race (raça) and is based on a complex phenotypic evaluation that takes into account, besides skin pigmentation, hair type, nose shape, and lip shape''</ref> This is a poor scientific 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.<ref name="BBC delves into Brazilians' roots">Silvia Salek, [https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6284806.stm "BBC delves into Brazilians' roots"], BBC Brasil, 10 July 2007, accessed 13 July 2009.</ref> But, as race is a social construct, these classifications relate to how people are perceived and perceive themselves in society. In Brazil, class and economic status also affect how individuals are perceived.

In Brazil it is possible for two siblings of different colors to be classified as people of different races. Children who are born to a black mother and a European father would be classified as black if their features read more as African, and classified as white if their features appeared more European. The Brazilian emphasis on physical appearance rather than ancestry is evident from a large survey in which less than 10% of Brazilian black individuals cited Africa as one of their origins when allowed to provide multiple responses.<ref name=":3" /> In the July 1998 PME, the categories ''Afro-Brasileiro'' ("Afro-Brazilian") and ''Africano Brasileiro'' ("African Brazilian") were not used at all; the category ''Africano'' ("African") was used by 0.004% of the respondents.<ref name="José Luis Petruccelli p. 43">José Luiz Petruccelli. A Cor Denominada. Anexo 1. p. 43 (unavailable online)</ref> In the 1976 PNAD, none of these terms was used even once.<ref name="grillo" /><ref name="Telles2004">{{cite book |last=Telles |first=Edward Eric |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YwJoyyXm7ZkC&pg=PA80 |title=Race in Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-691-11866-6 |pages=80–85}}</ref>

Lighter-skinned mulattoes (who obviously were descendants of some Europeans) were easily integrated into the white population. Through years of integration and racial assimilation, a white Brazilian population has developed with more historic African ancestry, as well as a black population with European ancestry. In the United States, the efforts to enforce [[white supremacy]] resulted in southern states adopting a [[one-drop rule]] at the turn of the 20th century, so that people with any known African ancestry were automatically classified as Black, regardless of skin color. In the 21st century, many Black Americans have some degree of European ancestry, while few [[white Americans]] have African ancestry.<ref name="Genes">{{cite web| url=http://www.funpecrp.com.br/gmr/year2007/vol2-6/gmr0330_full_text.htm| title=Sex-biased gene flow in African Americans but not in American Caucasians| publisher=Genetics and Molecular Research| access-date=13 July 2009| archive-date=25 July 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200725004529/http://www.funpecrp.com.br/gmr/year2007/vol2-6/gmr0330_full_text.htm}}</ref>

==History==
{{Main|Afro-Brazilian history}}

===Slavery===
{{Main|Slavery in Brazil|Atlantic slave trade to Brazil}}

The first Spaniards and Portuguese explorers in [[the Americas]] initially enslaved [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Amerindian populations]].<ref name="Klein, Herbert S 1986. p. 22">Klein, Herbert S. ''African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean.'' New York: Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 22.</ref><ref>Thornton, John. ''Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1800.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 130–131.</ref> In the case of the Portuguese, the weakness of the political systems of the Tupi-Guarani Amerindian groups they conquered on the Brazilian coastline, and the inexperience of these Amerindians with systematic peasant labor, made them easy to exploit through non-coercive labor arrangements.<ref name="Klein, Herbert S 1986. p. 22" /> However, several factors prevented the system of Amerindian slavery from being sustained in Brazil. For example, Native American populations were not numerous or accessible enough to meet all demands of the settlers for labor. In many cases, exposure to European diseases caused high levels of mortality among the Amerindian population, to such an extent that workers became scarce.<ref name="Thornton, John 1800. p. 134">Thornton (1998), ''Africa and Africans'', p. 134.</ref> Historians estimate that about 30,000 Amerindians under the rule of the Portuguese died in a [[smallpox]] epidemic in the 1560s.<ref name=":2">Klein (1986), ''African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean,'' p. 41-42</ref> The Iberian conquerors could not attract sufficient settlers from their own countries to the colonies and, after 1570, they began increasingly to bring enslaved people who had been kidnapped in Africa as a primary labor force.<ref name="Thornton, John 1800. p. 134" /><ref name=":2" />

[[File:Augosto-stahl-1865.jpg|thumb|right|Slave from Brazil photographed by [[Augusto Stahl]] ({{circa|1865}})]]
Over nearly three centuries from the late 1500s to the 1860s, Brazil was consistently the largest destination for African slaves in the Americas. In that period, approximately 4.9 million enslaved Africans were imported to Brazil.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://slavevoyages.org/assessment/estimates|title=The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database|work=slavevoyages.org|access-date=11 February 2016}}</ref> Brazilian slavery included a diverse range of labor roles. For example, gold mining in Brazil began to grow around 1690 in interior regions of Brazil, such as modern-day region of [[Minas Gerais]].<ref>Klein (1986), ''African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean'', p. 68.</ref> Slaves in Brazil also worked on sugar plantations, such as those found in the [[Captaincy of Pernambuco]]. Other products of slave labor in Brazil during that era in Brazilian history included [[tobacco]], [[textile]]s, and [[cachaça]], which were often vital items traded in exchange for slaves on the African continent.

The nature of the work that slaves did had a direct effect on aspects of slaves' lives such as life expectancy and family formation. An example from an early inventory of African slaves (1569–71) from the plantation of Sergipe do Conde in Bahia shows that he owned nineteen males and one female. These uneven gender-ratios combined with the high mortality rate related to the physical duress that working in a mine or on a sugar plantation (for example) could have on a slave's body. The effect was often that many New World slave economies, including Brazil, relied on a constant importation of new slaves to replace those who had died.<ref>Thornton, ''Africa and Africans'', (1998), p. 164-167.</ref>

With Brazil's proximity to Africa, it was easy for the Portuguese to continue transporting Africans to Brazil when enslaved people ran away or died. Not all Africans and their descendants were enslaved, some were free and others were able to buy their freedom by earning money for their services.<ref name=":H" /> Despite the changes in the slave population demographic related to the constant importation of slaves through the 1860s, a creole generation in the African population emerged in Brazil. By 1800, Brazil had the largest single population of African and creole slaves in any one colony in the American continent.<ref>Klein (1986), ''African slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean'', p. 81.</ref>
[[File:Debretberimbau.jpg|thumb|Berimbau player, by [[Jean-Baptiste Debret]], 1826]]
[[File:Negro fandango scene.jpg|thumb|Afro-Brazilians dancing a [[jongo]], c. 1822]]
{| class="wikitable"
|+ African disembarkments in Brazil, from 1500 to 1855
|-
! scope="row" | Period
|1500–1700||1701–1760||1761–1829||1830–1855
|- style="text-align:right;"
! scope="row" style="text-align:left;"|Numbers
|510,000||958,000||1,720,000||618,000
|}

In Africa, about 40% of Blacks died on 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.<ref name="Gomes, Laurentino. 1808">Laurentino Gomes. 1808. São Paulo, Editora Planeta, 2007. {{ISBN|978-85-7665-320-2}}. Not available online. {{Vague|date=September 2010}}<!-- Page number, please. --></ref> [[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.<ref>Darcy Ribeiro. ''O Povo Brasileiro'', Vol. 07, 1997.{{Vague|date=September 2010}}<!-- Page number, please. --></ref> The African slaves in Brazil were known to 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.<ref name=Ribeiro/> The colonial chroniclers recorded the extreme violence and [[Sadistic personality disorder|sadism]] of White women against female slaves, usually due to jealousy or to prevent a relationship between their husbands and the slaves.<ref name="Freyre, Gilberto 2006"/>

===Origins of Blacks===
[[File:Africa slave Regions.svg|thumb|upright=0.9|right|Major slave trading regions of Africa, 15th–19th centuries]]
''The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database'' project estimated that, during the slave trade, 4,821,126 Africans disembarked in Brazil. After thorough analyses in Africa and the Americas, researchers were able to trace the origins of the Africans brought to Brazil. About 70% of the slaves disembarked in Brazil came from Central-Western Africa. Today, this region includes the countries of Angola, the Republic of the Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<ref name="voyage"/>

{| class="wikitable" style="float: center;"
|-
! colspan="4" | Origin of Africans brought to Brazil<ref name="voyage">{{cite web |url=http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/assessment/estimates.faces |title=Regiões de origem dos Africanos desembarcados no Brasil|date=2015 |access-date=June 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131027021745/http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/assessment/estimates.faces |archive-date=October 27, 2013}}</ref>
|-
! Region of origin!! Number of people!! Percentage !!Countries in the current region
|-
| West Central Africa
| 3,377,870 || 70,1% || [[Angola]], [[Republic of the Congo]] and the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]]
|-
| [[Bight of Benin]]
| 867,945 || 17,9% || [[Benin]], [[Togo]] and western [[Nigeria]]
|-
| Southeast Africa and Indian Ocean Islands
| 276,441 || 5,7% ||[[Mozambique]] and [[Madagascar]]
|-
| [[Senegambia]]
| 108,114 || 2,2% ||[[Senegal]] and [[Gambia]]
|-
| [[Bight of Biafra]]
| 114,651 || 2,4% || Eastern part of [[Nigeria]], [[Cameroon]], [[Equatorial Guinea]] and [[Gabon]]
|-
| [[Gold Coast (region)|Gold Coast]]
| 61,624 || 1,3%|| [[Ghana]] and western [[Ivory Coast]]
|-
| Sierra Leone
| 8,320 || 0,2%|| [[Sierra Leone]]
|-
| Windward Coast
| 6,161|| 0,1% ||[[Liberia]] and Ivory Coast
|-
| Totals
| 4,821,126
|
|
|}

The Africans brought to Brazil belonged to two major groups: the West African and the [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]] people. The West Africans mostly belong to the [[Yoruba people]], who became known as the "nagô". The word derives from ''ànàgó'', a term used by the [[Dahomey]] to refer to Yoruba-speaking people. The Dahomey enslaved and sold a large number of Yoruba people, largely of [[Oyo Empire|Oyo]] heritage. Consequently, Yoruba slaves in Brazil were given the label ''nago'' as an ethnic marker. Slaves descended from the Yoruba are strongly associated with the [[Candomblé]] religious tradition.<ref>{{cite book | last = Falola | first = Toyin | title = Encyclopedia of the Yoruba | publisher = Indiana University Press | location = Bloomington | year = 2016 | isbn = 978-0-253-02144-1 | pages = 95–96}}</ref> Other slaves from the Bight of Benin belonged to the [[Fon people]] and other neighboring ethnic groups such as the Ewe, Aja, and Mina.<ref name="historytoday.com">John Geipel, [http://www.historytoday.com/john-geipel/brazils-african-legacy "Brazil's African Legacy"], ''History Today'', Vol. 47, Issue 8, August 1997.</ref> [[Bantu peoples|Bantu people]] were mostly brought from present-day [[Angola]] and the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Congo]], most belonging to the [[Kongo people|Bakongo]] or [[Ambundu]] ethnic groups. Bantu slaves were also taken from coastal Mozambique, which were largely Makua people. They were sent in large scale to [[Rio de Janeiro]], [[Minas Gerais]]. The [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] and other peoples from the Bight of Benin (such as the Fon, Ewe, Aja, and Mina) were sent, as for as Northeastern Brazil, particularly Bahia.<ref name="historytoday.com"/>

[[Gilberto Freyre]] noted the major differences between enslaved African ethnic groups. Some West-African groups, such as [[Hausa people|Hausa]], [[Fula people|Fula]], Wolof, and Mandinka, were [[Islamic]], spoke Arabic, and many of them could also read and write in this language. Muslim slaves were brought from northern Mozambique. Freyre noted that many enslaved Africans were better educated than their masters, because many Muslim slaves were literate in Arabic, while many [[Portuguese Brazilian]] masters could not read or write in Portuguese.<ref name="historytoday.com"/> Due to their relations with lslamized ethnic groups via the Trans-Saharan Trade and the increased Islamization of Yorubaland in the 19th century, many Yoruba had been converted to Islam. Therefore, Yoruba slaves brought to Brazil consisted of both Muslim and non-Muslim traditional practitioners (who were the majority). These slaves with a greater [[Arab]] and [[Berber people|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, known as the [[Malê Revolt]], when in 1835 they tried to take control of [[Salvador, Bahia|Salvador]], until then the largest city of the American continent.<ref name="Freyre, Gilberto 2006">Freyre, Gilberto. ''Casa-Grande e Senzala'', 51st edn, 2006. {{ISBN|85-260-0869-2}}.{{Vague|date=September 2010}}<!-- Page number, please. --></ref>

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.<ref name="historytoday.com"/> These people lived in tribes, kingdoms or city-states, with distinct cultural and societal attributes which they brought to Brazil, allowing them to survive in Afro-Brazilian culture. The Bakongo, for example, had developed agriculture, raised livestock, domesticated animals such as goat, pig, chicken and dog and produced wooden sculptures. Some groups{{Which|date=February 2010}} from Angola were nomadic and did not know agriculture, while others like the Mbundu (or Ambundu) were very skilled warriors and brought these fighting ability (such as Capoeira) to Brazil which aided them in slave revolts.<ref name="Freyre, Gilberto 2006"/>

===Abolition of slavery===
[[File:Francisco Paulo de Almeida (Barão de Guaraciaba).jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[Francisco Paulo de Almeida, Baron of Guaraciaba|Francisco Paulo de Almeida]] (1826–1901), first and only Baron of Guaraciaba, title granted by [[Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil|Princess Isabel]]. Black, he possessed one of the greatest fortunes of the imperial period, getting to own approximately one thousand slaves.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-44792271|title=A história esquecida do 1º barão negro do Brasil Império, senhor de mil escravos.|date=15 July 2018|access-date=5 September 2018|publisher=BBC|last=Lopes|first=Marcus}}</ref>]]
According to Petrônio Domingues, by 1887 the slave struggles pointed to a real possibility of widespread insurrection. On 23 October, in São Paulo, for instance, there were violent confrontations between the police and rioting Blacks, who chanted "long live freedom" and "death to the slaveowners".<ref name="Domingues2003">{{cite book|last=Domingues|first=Petrônio|title=Uma história não contada: negro, racismo e branqueamento em São Paulo no pós-abolição|trans-title=The untold story: black, racism and whitening in São Paulo post-abolition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qao5gp0KjHoC|year=2003|publisher=Senac|language=pt|isbn=978-85-7359-367-9}}</ref>{{rp|73}} 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.<ref name="Domingues2003"/>{{rp|74}}

Uprisings erupted in [[Itu, São Paulo|Itu]], [[Campinas]], [[Indaiatuba]], [[Amparo, São Paulo|Amparo]], [[Piracicaba]] and [[Capivari]]; ten thousand fugitive slaves grouped in [[Santos, São Paulo|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, on 13 May 1888, slavery was abolished, as a means to restore order and the control of the ruling class,<ref name="Domingues2003"/>{{rp|76}} in a situation in which the slave system was almost completely disorganised.

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

:Had the slaves not fled en masse from the plantations, rebelling against their masters ... Had they not, more than 20,000 of them, gone to the famous ''quilombo'' of Jabaquara (out of Santos, itself a center of abolitionist agitation), then maybe they would still be slaves today ... 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 13 May was nothing more than the legal recognition&nbsp;– so as not to discredit public authority&nbsp;– of an act that had already been accomplished by the mass revolt of slaves.<ref name="Domingues2003"/>{{rp|77}}

=== Modern history ===
{{Main|Racism in Brazil|Social apartheid in Brazil}}

[[File:Gazeta de noticias 31-12-1912 02.jpg|thumb|left|Leader of the [[Chibata Revolt]], [[João Cândido]], on the front page of the ''Gazeta de Notícias'' newspaper]]
One year after the abolition of slavery, the Republic was proclaimed in Brazil, in 1889. However, the new political regime did not bring significant material or symbolic gains for the Black population. Instead, Afro-descendants remained marginalized in various ways: politically, due to the limitations of the new system regarding suffrage and other forms of civic participation; socially and symbolically, through the spread of scientific racism doctrines and the whitening theory; and economically, because of the preference given to European immigrants in access to the labor market.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1413-77042007000200007&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=pt|title=Movimento negro brasileiro: alguns apontamentos históricos|first=Petrônio|last =Domingues|journal=Tempo|date=2007 |volume=12|issue=23|pages=100–122|via=SciELO|doi=10.1590/S1413-77042007000200007 |issn=1413-7704 }}</ref> Political elites in Brazil actively promoted European immigration to "[[Branqueamento|whiten]]" the population, banning African and Asian immigration in 1891. To incentivize European immigration, the federal government subsidized travel to Brazil until 1927. European and white Brazilian workers were favored in factory jobs over Brazilians of African descent, who were often relegated to domestic and plantation labor. Afro-Brazilians established their own social and cultural institutions to support each other. In [[Salvador, Bahia|Salvador]], they founded religious brotherhoods like Rosário às Portas do Carmo (1888–1938). The Sociedade Protectora dos Desvalidos, created in 1832, was an early mutual aid society for Afro-Brazilians. There were also religiously affiliated groups led by Afro-Brazilian women, such as the Irmãndade de Boa Morte in Bahia. Facing exclusion from white social clubs, Afro-Brazilians formed their own organizations, including the Luvas Pretas in 1904 and the Palmares Civic Center in 1927, which served as a library and meeting place.<ref name=":H" />

Afro-Brazilians challenged racial exclusion through cultural and political movements. Notably, in 1928, they protested a decree barring them from enlisting in the São Paulo Civil Guard. The [[Brazilian Black Front]] (Frente Negra Brasileira), Brazil's first black political party, was founded in 1931 to fight racism but was disbanded six years later during [[Estado Novo (Brazil)|Getúlio Vargas's New State period]] (1937–1945), which restricted political activities. Although this period was repressive, Vargas's 1931 Law of Naturalization of Labor, favoring Brazilian-born workers over European immigrants, garnered some Afro-Brazilian support for him. Before the 1940s, Afro-Brazilians also created their own newspapers and dance groups, with a small black elite leading intellectual thought in [[São Paulo]]'s Black Press.<ref name=":H">{{Cite book |last=Mitchell-Walthour |first=Gladys L. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/politics-of-blackness/711C3271AD20A3AAF5D8B3F5A389435E |title=The Politics of Blackness: Racial Identity and Political Behavior in Contemporary Brazil |date=2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-18610-1 |series=Cambridge Studies in Stratification Economics: Economics and Social Identity |location=Cambridge |doi=10.1017/9781316888742}}</ref>

==Demographics==
{| style="float:right; margin:1em 1em 1em 0;"
|-
!colspan="2"|Evolution of the Brazilian population<br />according skin color: 1872–1991<br />
|- style="text-align:center;"
|[[File:Evolução da população brasileira conforme a cor (1872-1991).jpg|thumb|{{center|Population growth<br />White people in white color<br />''Pardos'' in black<br />Black in yellow<br />Asians are very few<ref name="reis">REIS, João José. "Presença Negra: conflitos e encontros". In ''Brasil: 500 anos de povoamento''. Rio de Janeiro: IBGE, 2000. p. 94 apud {{cite web|url=http://www.ibge.gov.br/brasil500/tabelas/populacao_cor.htm |title=Página 404 &#124; IBGE :: Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística |access-date=2009-09-10 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090329071405/http://www.ibge.gov.br/brasil500/tabelas/populacao_cor.htm |archive-date=29 March 2009}} (retrieved 22 August 2008). Notice how the source groups Amerindians and "pardos", not "pardos" and Blacks.{{cite web|url=http://www.ibge.gov.br/brasil500/tabelas/populacao_cor.htm |title=Página 404 &#124; IBGE :: Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística |access-date=2009-09-10 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531140352/http://www.ibge.gov.br/brasil500/tabelas/populacao_cor.htm |archive-date=31 May 2009}}</ref>}}]]
|- style="text-align:center;"
|[[File:Evolução da população brasileira conforme a cor - percentuais (1872-1991).jpg|thumb|{{center|Percentual in overall population<br />White people in white<br />''Pardos'' in yellow<br />Black in black<br />Asians are very few<ref name="reis"/>}}]]
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="float: right;"
|-
! colspan="8" |African Brazilians 1872–2022
|- 
! Year
! Population
! <small>% of<br />Brazil</small>
|-
||'''1872'''||1,954,452||{{steady}} 19.68%
|-
||'''1890'''||2,097,426||{{decrease}} 14.63%
|-
||'''1940'''||6,035,869||{{increase}} 14.64%
|-
||'''1950'''||5,692,657||{{decrease}} 10.96%
|-
||'''1960'''||6,116,848||{{decrease}} 8.71%
|-
||'''1980'''||7,046,906||{{decrease}} 5.92%
|-
||'''1991'''||7,335,136||{{decrease}} 5.00%
|-
||'''2000'''||10,554,336||{{increase}} 6.21%
|-
||'''2010'''||14,517,961||{{increase}} 7.61%
|-
||'''2022'''||20,656,458||{{increase}} 10.17%
|-
| colspan="8" style="text-align:left;" |<small>Source: Brazilian census<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tabela 9605: População residente, por cor ou raça, nos Censos Demográficos |url=https://sidra.ibge.gov.br/tabela/9605#resultado |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=sidra.ibge.gov.br}}</ref></small>
|}

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 seven years.<ref name=Ribeiro>Ribeiro, Darcy. O ''Povo Brasileiro'', Companhia de Bolso, fourth reprint, 2008. {{Vague|date=September 2010}}<!-- Page number, please. --></ref> 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.<ref name="Freyre, Gilberto 2006"/> 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.<ref name=Ribeiro/>

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.<ref name=Ribeiro/> As an official wife or as a concubine or subjected to a condition of [[sexual slavery|sexual slave]], the black woman was the responsible for the growth of the "parda" population. 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/2007/04/01/a-africa-nos-genes-do-povo-brasileiro/ |title=A África nos genes do povo brasileiro |work=Revista Pesquisa |access-date=21 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150110024918/http://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/2007/04/01/a-africa-nos-genes-do-povo-brasileiro/ |archive-date=10 January 2015 }}</ref>

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 Amerindian 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 Amerindian 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 Amerindian and Black women.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.com/portuguese/reporterbbc/story/2007/05/070326_dna_estudo_pena_cg.shtml |author=Carolina Glycerio and Silvia Salek|title=Metade de negros em pesquisa tem ancestral europeu |publisher=BBC (Brazil) |date=28 May 2007 |access-date=21 July 2012}}</ref>

The Brazilian population of more evident 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. Freyre wrote that the states with strongest African presence were Bahia and Minas Gerais, but that there is no region in Brazil where the black people have not penetrated. Many blacks fled to the hinterland of Brazil, including the Northern region, and met [[Indigenous peoples in Brazil|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 Amerindian and [[caboclo]] women.<ref name="Freyre, Gilberto 2006"/>

In the second half of the 20th century, Brazil saw a marked increase in the number of people self-identifying as "brown" in national censuses. Research shows that this shift was not driven by demographic forces such as differences in fertility, mortality, or migration rates. Instead, it resulted largely from individuals changing their racial self-identification over time — from "black" or "white" to "brown." Between 1950 and 1991, the proportion of Brazilians self-identifying as "brown" rose from 26% to 43%, while those identifying as "black" declined from 11% to 5%, and "white" from 62% to 52%.  This demographic "browning" of the population aligns with the ideology of racial democracy. Advocates of this narrative argue that, despite Brazil's colonial history of African enslavement, cultural mixing and miscegenation fostered a sense of shared ancestry and national identity. The consolidation of this ideology in Brazilian popular culture over the course of the 20th century might explain the increase in the number of individuals self-identifying as brown. Another explanation for this shift lies in the persistent social stigma attached to blackness in Brazil. Carl Degler (1986) argues that individuals who achieve upward social mobility tend to reclassify themselves from "black" to "brown"—a process he called the "flight from blackness." Given the intensive industrialization and economic growth of the Brazilian economy during the 1960s and 1970s, this phenomenon might partially explain why, in relative terms, the "black" category  lost a much larger share of individuals than the "white" category. Between 1950 and 1980, the "white" category declined by 7%, while the "black" category fell by 38%.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Miranda |first=Vítor |date=2015-06-18 |title=A resurgence of black identity in Brazil? Evidence from an analysis of recent censuses |url=https://www.demographic-research.org/articles/volume/32/59 |journal=Demographic Research |language=en |volume=32 |doi=10.4054/DemRe |doi-broken-date=26 December 2025 |issn=1435-9871 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241114170954/https://www.demographic-research.org/articles/volume/32/59 |archive-date=14 November 2024 |access-date=17 May 2025 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Geographic distribution===
==== By region and state ====
[[File:Pretos no Brasil 2009.png|thumb|Percentage of ''black'' Brazilians per state, 2009.]]
The [[Northeast Region, Brazil|Northeast region]] has the highest proportion of self-identified Black Brazilians, comprising 13.0% of its population. It is followed by the [[Southeast Region, Brazil|Southeast]] at 10.6%, the [[Central-West Region, Brazil|Central-West]] at 9.1%, the [[North Region, Brazil|North]] at 8.8%, and the [[South Region, Brazil|South]] at 5.0%.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=2023-12-22 |title=2022 Census: self-reported brown population is the majority in Brazil for the first time {{!}} News Agency |url=https://agenciadenoticias.ibge.gov.br/en/agencia-news/2184-news-agency/news/38726-2022-census-self-reported-brown-population-is-the-majority-in-brazil-for-the-first-time |access-date=2024-08-13 |website=Agência de Notícias - IBGE |language=en-GB}}</ref> In absolute numbers, the Southeast has the largest self-identified Black population, with 9,003,372 individuals, while the Northeast has 7,127,018. Together, the Southeast and Northeast account for 78.08% of Black Brazilians. The North ranks third with 1,530,418 Black Brazilians, followed by the South with 1,505,526, and the Central-West with 1,490,124.<ref name=":5" />

{| class=" sortable wikitable"
|- style="background:#ececec;"
!% Black Brazilians<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Tabela 9605: População residente, por cor ou raça, nos Censos Demográficos |url=https://sidra.ibge.gov.br/tabela/9605#resultado |access-date=2024-08-12 |website=sidra.ibge.gov.br}}</ref>
!Rank
!Federative units of Brazil
! Afro Brazilian <br />population
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |22,38%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|1}}
|{{flag|Bahia}} 
| style="text-align:right;" |3,164,691
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |16,16%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|2}}
|{{flag|Rio de Janeiro}}
| style="text-align:right;" |2,594,253
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |13,19%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|3}}
|{{flag|Tocantins}}
| style="text-align:right;" |199,394
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |12,85%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|4}}
|{{flag|Sergipe}}
| style="text-align:right;" |283,960
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |12,61%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|5}}
|{{flag|Maranhão}}
| style="text-align:right;" |854,424
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |12,25%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|6}}
|{{flag|Piauí}}
| style="text-align:right;" |400,662
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |11,84%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|7}}
|{{flag|Minas Gerais}}
| style="text-align:right;" |2,432,877
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |11,81%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|8}}
|{{flag|Amapá}}
| style="text-align:right;" |86,662
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |11,21%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|9}}
|{{flag|Espírito Santo}}
| style="text-align:right;" |429,680
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |10,71%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|10}}
|{{flag|Distrito Federal}}
| style="text-align:right;" |301,765
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |10,04%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|11}}
|{{flag|Pernambuco}}
| style="text-align:right;" |909,557
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |9,86%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|12}}
|{{flag|Mato Grosso}}
| style="text-align:right;" |360,698
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |9,77%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|13}}
|{{flag|Pará}}
| style="text-align:right;" |793,621
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |9,55%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|14}}
|{{flag|Alagoas}}
| style="text-align:right;" |298,709
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |9,19%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|15}}
|{{flag|Goiás}} 
| style="text-align:right;" |648,560
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |9,17%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|16}}
|{{flag|Rio Grande do Norte}}
| style="text-align:right;" |302,749
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |8,65%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|17}}
|{{flag|Rondônia}}
| style="text-align:right;" |136,793
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |8,56%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|18}}
|{{flag|Acre}}
| style="text-align:right;" |71,086
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |7,99%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|19}}
|{{flag|São Paulo}} 
| style="text-align:right;" |3,546,562
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |7,96%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|20}}
|{{flag|Paraíba}}
| style="text-align:right;" |316,572
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |7,73%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|21}}
|{{flag|Roraima}}
| style="text-align:right;" |49,195
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |6,77%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|22}}
|{{flag|Ceará}}
| style="text-align:right;" |595,694
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |6,52%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|23}}
|{{flag|Rio Grande do Sul}}
| style="text-align:right;" |709,837
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |6,50%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|24}}
|{{flag|Mato Grosso do Sul}}
| style="text-align:right;" |179,101
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |4,91%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|25}}
|{{flag|Amazonas}}
| style="text-align:right;" |193,667
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |4,24%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|26}}
|{{flag|Paraná}}
| style="text-align:right;" |485,781
|-
| style="text-align:right;" |4,07%
| style="text-align:center;" |{{nts|27}}
|{{flag|Santa Catarina}}
| style="text-align:right;" |309,908
|-
|}

==== By municipality ====
{{as of|2022}}, the city of [[São Paulo]] has the largest self-identified Black population in Brazil, with 1,160,073 individuals identifying as ''pretos''. It is followed by [[Rio de Janeiro]] with 968,428, [[Salvador, Bahia|Salvador]] with 825,509, [[Belo Horizonte]] with 312,920, [[Brasília]] with 301,765, [[Recife]] with 182,546, [[Feira de Santana]] with 180,190, [[Fortaleza]] with 171,018, [[Porto Alegre]] with 168,196, and [[São Luís, Maranhão|São Luís]] with 167,885.

The 2022 census revealed that the brown population was the majority in 3,245 [[Municipalities of Brazil|municipalities]] (58.3% of the total), while the self-identified black population was the majority in nine. More than half of the municipalities with a brown majority and all with a black majority are in the Northeast region of Brazil.<ref name=":4" /> With over 80% of its population being Afro-descendant, Salvador is considered the blackest city in the world outside the African continent.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-12-12 |title=IBGE will release results for color or race of 2022 Census in Salvador {{!}} News Agency |url=https://agenciadenoticias.ibge.gov.br/en/agencia-news/2184-news-agency/news/38644-ibge-will-release-results-for-color-or-race-of-2022-census-in-salvador# |access-date=2024-08-21 |website=Agência de Notícias - IBGE |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==== ''Quilombos'' ====
{{Main|Quilombo}}

The quilombola population in Brazil is 1,327,802 people, or 0.65% of the total population. The Northeast Region has 5,386 quilombola localities, 64% of the total. Bahia accounts for 29.90% of the quilombola population, followed by Maranhão, with 20.26%. Together, the two states are home to 50.16% of the country's quilombola population.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-07-27 |title=Brasil tem 1,3 milhão de quilombolas em 1.696 municípios {{!}} Agência de Notícias |url=https://agenciadenoticias.ibge.gov.br/agencia-noticias/2012-agencia-de-noticias/noticias/37464-brasil-tem-1-3-milhao-de-quilombolas-em-1-696-municipios |access-date=2024-08-21 |website=Agência de Notícias - IBGE |language=pt-BR}}</ref>

==Genetic studies==
{{Main|Brazilians#Genetic studies}}

{| class="wikitable floatright"
|+ Genetic origin of Afro-Brazilian population (Perc.% rounded values)
|-
! scope="col" | Line || scope="col" | Origin || scope="col" style="text-align:center; width:120px;"|''Negros''<br />(Black)<ref name="afrobras"/>
|-
| rowspan="3"| Maternal<br />([[mitochondrial DNA|mtDNA]]) || African || style="text-align:right;" | 85%
|-
| European || style="text-align:right;" | 2.5%
|-
| Native Brazilian || style="text-align:right;" | 12.5%
|-
| rowspan="3"|  Paternal<br />([[Y chromosome]]) || African || style="text-align:right;" | 48%
|-
| European || style="text-align:right;" | 50%
|-
| Native Brazilian || style="text-align:right;"| 1.6%
|}
The research analysed 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.<ref name="DNAPrint">{{cite web|url=http://www.ancestrybydna.com/welcome/productsandservices/ancestrybydna/ethnicities/|title=Ethnicities|work=DNAPrint Genomics Genealogy website|date=2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090612110240/http://www.ancestrybydna.com/welcome/productsandservices/ancestrybydna/ethnicities/|archive-date=12 June 2009}}</ref>

Analysing the Y chromosome, which comes from male ancestors through paternal line, it was concluded that half (50%) of Brazilian "negros" Y chromosomes come from [[Europe]], 48% come from [[Africa]] and 1.6% come from [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]]s. Analysing their mitochondrial DNA, that comes from female ancestors though maternal line, 85% of them come from Africa, 12.5% come from Native Americans and 2.5% come from Europe.<ref name="afrobras">{{cite web|url=http://afrobras.org.br/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2112&Itemid=2|title=DNA do negro: Negros de origem européia|language=pt|work=Afrobras|date=2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071118160044/http://afrobras.org.br/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2112&Itemid=2|archive-date=18 November 2007}}</ref> The high level of European ancestry in African 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 African or Native American females were widespread.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Ruy|first=José Carlos|url=http://www.espacoacademico.com.br/046/46cruy.htm|title=A mestiçagem é sinônimo de democracia racial?|trans-title=Is racial mixing synonymous with racial democracy?|language=pt|journal=Revista Espaço Acadêmico|date=March 2005|issue=46|access-date=21 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302105058/http://www.espacoacademico.com.br/046/46cruy.htm|archive-date=2 March 2012}}</ref>

[[File:Redenção.jpg|thumb|190px|Portrait "[[A Redenção de Cam]]" (1895), by Galician painter [[Modesto Brocos]] showing a Brazilian family each generation becoming "whiter".]]
Over 75% of Caucasians from [[Northern Brazil|North]] and [[Northeastern Brazil]] would have over 10% African genes, according to this particular study. Even in [[Southeastern Brazil|Southeastern]] and [[Southern Brazil]], regions which received large waves of European immigration beginning in the 1820s and growing strongly [[Immigration to Brazil#Second Period: 1872–1903|in the late 19th century]], 49% of the Caucasian population would have over 10% African genes, according to that study. Thus, 86% of Brazilians would have at least 10% of genes that came from Africa. The researchers however were cautious about their conclusions: "Obviously these estimates were made by extrapolation of experimental results with relatively small samples and, therefore, their confidence limits are very ample". An autosomal study from 2011, also led by Sérgio Pena, but with nearly 1000 samples this time, from all over the country, shows that in most Brazilian regions most Brazilians "whites" are less than 10% African in ancestry, and it also shows that the "pardos" are predominantly European in ancestry, the European ancestry being therefore the main component in the Brazilian population, in spite of a very high degree of African ancestry and significant Native American contribution.<ref name="Pena et al 2011">{{cite journal |last1=Pena |first1=Sérgio D. J. |last2=Di Pietro |first2=Giuliano |last3=Fuchshuber-Moraes |first3=Mateus |last4=Genro |first4=Julia Pasqualini |last5=Hutz |first5=Mara H. |last6=Kehdy |first6=Fernanda de Souza Gomes |last7=Kohlrausch |first7=Fabiana |last8=Magno |first8=Luiz Alexandre Viana |last9=Montenegro |first9=Raquel Carvalho |last10=Moraes |first10=Manoel Odorico |last11=Moraes |first11=Maria Elisabete Amaral de |last12=Moraes |first12=Milene Raiol de |last13=Ojopi |first13=Élida B. |last14=Perini |first14=Jamila A. |last15=Racciopi |first15=Clarice |last16=Ribeiro-dos-Santos |first16=Ândrea Kely Campos |last17=Rios-Santos |first17=Fabrício |last18=Romano-Silva |first18=Marco A. |last19=Sortica |first19=Vinicius A. |last20=Suarez-Kurtz |first20=Guilherme |title=The Genomic Ancestry of Individuals from Different Geographical Regions of Brazil Is More Uniform Than Expected |journal=PLOS ONE |date=16 February 2011 |volume=6 |issue=2 |article-number=e17063 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0017063 |pmid=21359226|pmc=3040205 |bibcode=2011PLoSO...617063P |doi-access=free }}</ref> Other autosomal studies show a European predominance in the Brazilian population.

A 1981 study of blood polymorphisms examined 1,000 people from [[Porto Alegre]] in Southern Brazil and 760 from [[Natal, Rio Grande do Norte|Natal]] in Northeastern Brazil. It found that people identified as White in Porto Alegre had 8% African ancestry, while those in Natal had a mix of 58% White, 25% Black, and 17% Amerindian ancestry. The study also showed that individuals identified as White or Pardo in Natal have a dominant European ancestry, while those identified as White in Porto Alegre have an overwhelming majority of European ancestry.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Blood polymorphisms and racial admixture in two Brazilian populations |last1=Helena |first1=M. |first2=L. P. |last2=Franco |first3=Tania A. |last3=Weimer |first4=F. M. |last4=Salzano |year=1981 |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=127–132 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.1330580204 |pmid=7114199 }}</ref> According to an autosomal DNA genetic study from 2011, both "whites" and "pardos" from [[Fortaleza]] have a predominant degree of European ancestry (>70%), with minor but important African and Native American contributions. "Whites" and "pardos" from [[Belém]] and [[Ilhéus]] also were found to be predominantly European in ancestry, with minor Native American and African contributions.<ref name="Pena et al 2011" />

{| class="wikitable floatright"
|+ Genomic ancestry of individuals in [[Porto Alegre]] Sérgio Pena ''et al.'' 2011 .<ref name="Pena et al 2011" />
|-
!colour||Amerindian||African||European
|-
|white||9.3%||5.3%||85.5%
|-
|pardo||11.4%||44.4%||44.2%
|-
|black||11%||45.9%||43.1%
|-
|total||9.6%||12.7%||77.7%
|}
{| class="wikitable floatright"
|+ Genomic ancestry of individuals in [[Fortaleza]] Sérgio Pena ''et al.'' 2011 .<ref name="Pena et al 2011" />
|-
!colour||Amerindian||African||European
|-
|white||10.9%||13.3%||75.8%
|-
|pardo||12.8%||14.4%||72.8%
|-
|black||N.S.||N.S.||N.S
|}
According to another study conducted at a school in the poor periphery of Rio de Janeiro, autosomal DNA study (from 2009), the "pardos" there were found to be on average over 80% European, and the "whites" were found out to carry very little Amerindian and/or African admixtures. In general, the test results showed that European ancestry is far more important than the students thought it would be. 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%.<ref name="meionews.com.br">{{cite web |date=27 November 2009 |title=Negros e pardos do Rio têm mais genes europeus do que imaginam, segundo estudo |trans-title=Blacks and pardos of Rio have more European genes than they know, according to a study |url=http://www.meionews.com.br/index.php/noticias/21-estado-do-rio/4607-negros-e-pardos-do-rio-tem-mais-genes-europeus-do-que-imaginam-segundo-estudo.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706153557/http://www.meionews.com.br/index.php/noticias/21-estado-do-rio/4607-negros-e-pardos-do-rio-tem-mais-genes-europeus-do-que-imaginam-segundo-estudo.html |archive-date=6 July 2011 |access-date=21 July 2012 |publisher=Meionews.com.br |language=pt}}</ref> According to another autosomal DNA study, those who identified as Whites in Rio de Janeiro turned out to have 86.4%&nbsp;– and self identified pardos 68.1%&nbsp;– European ancestry on average (autosomal). ''Pretos'' were found out to have on average 41.8% European ancestry.<ref name="laboratoriogene"/>

An autosomal study from 2011 has also concluded that European ancestry is the predominant ancestry in Brazil, accounting for nearly 70% of the ancestry of the population. European ancestry ranged from 60.6% in the Northeast to 77.7% in the South.<ref name="Pena et al 2011"/> The 2011 autosomal study samples came from blood donors,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.amigodoador.com.br/estatisticas.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100206213335/http://www.amigodoador.com.br/estatisticas.html|archive-date=6 February 2010 |title=Profile of the Brazilian blood donor |publisher=Amigodoador.com.br |access-date=21 July 2012}}</ref> public health personnel and health students.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Alves-Silva |first1=Juliana |last2=da Silva Santos |first2=Magda |last3=Guimarães |first3=Pedro E.M. |last4=Ferreira |first4=Alessandro C.S. |last5=Bandelt |first5=Hans-Jürgen |last6=Pena |first6=Sérgio D.J. |last7=Prado |first7=Vania Ferreira |title=The Ancestry of Brazilian mtDNA Lineages |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |date=August 2000 |volume=67 |issue=2 |pages=444–461 |doi=10.1086/303004 |pmid=10873790 |pmc=1287189 |bibcode=2000AmJHG..67..444A }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://cienciahoje.uol.com.br/noticias/2011/02/nossa-heranca-europeia/?searchterm=Pena|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927160218/http://cienciahoje.uol.com.br/noticias/2011/02/nossa-heranca-europeia/?searchterm=Pena|archive-date=27 September 2011 |title=Nossa herança europeia&nbsp;— |language= pt |publisher=Cienciahoje.uol.com.br |access-date=21 July 2012}}</ref> Brazilian homogeneity is, therefore, greater within regions than between them:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Region<ref name="Pena et al 2011"/>
!European
!African
!Native American
|-
| [[Northern Brazil]]
| 68,80%
| 10,50%
| 18,50%
|-
| [[Northeast of Brazil]]
| 60,10%
| 29,30%
| 8,90%
|-
| [[Southeast Brazil]]
| 74,20%
| 17,30%
| 7,30%
|-
| [[Southern Brazil]]
| 79,50%
| 10,30%
| 9,40%
|}

A 2015 autosomal genetic study, which also analyzed data of 25 studies of 38 different Brazilian populations concluded that: European ancestry accounts for 62% of the heritage of the population, followed by the African (21%) and the Native American (17%). The European contribution is highest in Southern Brazil (77%), the African highest in Northeast Brazil (27%) and the Native American is the highest in Northern Brazil (32%).<ref name="Rodrigues de Moura et al 2015">{{cite journal |last1=Rodrigues de Moura |first1=Ronald |last2=Coelho |first2=Antonio Victor Campos |last3=de Queiroz Balbino |first3=Valdir |last4=Crovella |first4=Sergio |last5=Brandão |first5=Lucas André Cavalcanti |title=Meta-analysis of Brazilian genetic admixture and comparison with other Latin America countries: Brazilian genetic admixture: A Meta-Analysis |journal=American Journal of Human Biology |date=10 September 2015 |volume=27 |issue=5 |pages=674–680 |doi=10.1002/ajhb.22714 |pmid=25820814 |hdl=11368/2837176 |s2cid=25051722 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Region<ref name="Rodrigues de Moura et al 2015"/>
!European
!African
!Native American
|- 
| [[North Region, Brazil|North Region]]
| 51%
| 16%
| 32%
|- 
| [[Northeast Region, Brazil|Northeast Region]]
| 58%
| 27%
| 15%
|- 
| [[Central-West Region, Brazil|Central-West Region]]
| 64%
| 24%
| 12%
|- 
| [[Southeast Region, Brazil|Southeast Region]]
|67%
|23%
|10%
|- 
| [[South Region, Brazil|South Region]]
| 77%
| 12%
| 11%
|}

According to another study from 2008, by the University of Brasília, European ancestry dominates in the whole of Brazil in all regions, accounting for 65,90% of the heritage of the population, followed by the African contribution (24,80%) and the Native American (9,3%).<ref>{{cite web|author=Niede Maria de Oliveira Godinho|url=http://bdtd.bce.unb.br/tedesimplificado/tde_busca/arquivo.php?codArquivo=3873|title=O impacto das migrações na constituição genética de populações Latino-Americanas|trans-title=The impact of migration on the genetic makeup of Latin American populations|language=pt|publisher=University of Brazil, Institute of Biological Sciences|date=2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706162307/http://bdtd.bce.unb.br/tedesimplificado/tde_arquivos/36/TDE-2008-08-21T100337Z-3085/Publico/2008_NeideMOGodinho.pdf|archive-date=6 July 2011}}</ref> According to an autosomal DNA study (from 2003) focused on the composition of the Brazilian population as a whole, "European contribution [...] is highest in the South (81% to 82%), and lowest in the North (68% to 71%). The African component is lowest in the South (11%), while the highest values are found in the Southeast (18%–20%). Extreme values for the Amerindian fraction were found in the South and Southeast (7%–8%) and North (17%–18%)". The researchers were cautious with the results as their samples came from paternity test takers which may have skewed the results partly.<ref name="Callegari-JacquesGrattapaglia2003">{{cite journal |last1=Callegari-Jacques |first1=Sidia M. |last2=Grattapaglia |first2=Dario |last3=Salzano |first3=Francisco M. |last4=Salamoni |first4=Sabrina P. |last5=Crossetti |first5=Shaiane G. |last6=Ferreira |first6=Márcio E. |last7=Hutz |first7=Mara H. |title=Historical genetics: Spatiotemporal analysis of the formation of the Brazilian population |journal=American Journal of Human Biology |date=November 2003 |volume=15 |issue=6 |pages=824–834 |doi=10.1002/ajhb.10217 |pmid=14595874 |s2cid=34610130 }}</ref> Several other older studies have suggested that European ancestry is the main component in all Brazilian regions. Salzano (1997) reported 51% European, 36% African, and 13% Amerindian ancestry for the Northeastern population. Santos and Guerreiro (1995) found 47% European, 12% African, and 41% Amerindian ancestry in the north. In the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, Dornelles et al. (1999) calculated 82% European, 7% African, and 11% Amerindian ancestries. Krieger et al. (1965) studied a Northeastern Brazilian population living in São Paulo and found that whites had 18% African and 12% Amerindian genetic contribution, while blacks had 28% European and 5% Amerindian genetic contribution. These Amerindian estimates, like others, have limitations. Compared to earlier studies, the 2002 study findings showed higher levels of bidirectional admixture between Africans and non-Africans.<ref>{{cite journal|pmc=140919|title=Color and genomic ancestry in Brazilians|year=2003|volume=100|issue=1|pmid=12509516|last1=Parra|first1=FC|last2=Amado|first2=RC|last3=Lambertucci|first3=JR|last4=Rocha|first4=J|last5=Antunes|first5=CM|last6=Pena|first6=SD|pages=177–82|doi=10.1073/pnas.0126614100|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|bibcode=2003PNAS..100..177P|doi-access=free}}</ref>

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.<ref name="BBC delves into Brazilians' roots" /> Of the nine people analyzed, three had more European ancestry than African, while the other six people had more African ancestry, with varying degrees of European and Amerindian admixture. The African admixture varied from 19.5% in actress {{interlanguage link|Ildi Silva|pt}} 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 football player Obina.

==Media==
[[File:Taís Araújo, 2013.jpg|thumb|right|[[Taís Araújo]] was the first black protagonist of a Brazilian telenovela]]

Afro-Brazilians, along with other non-European groups, are significantly underrepresented in Brazilian media. They have a low presence in [[telenovela]]s, which are the most-watched programs on Brazilian television. The Brazilian soap operas, as well as throughout Latin America, are accused of under-representing the Black, Mixed and Amerindian population and over-representing whites.<ref>{{cite web|author=Ernesto Quiñonez|url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3069253/site/newsweek/%5B/url%5D|title=Latinos are racist, too. Just turn on the TV: Soap operas on Latin TV are lily white|publisher=[[MSNBC]]|date=19 June 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050426031200/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3069253/site/newsweek/%5B/url%5D|archive-date=26 April 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/58525?tid=relatedcl |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081027210105/http://www.newsweek.com/id/58525?tid=relatedcl |archive-date=27 October 2008 |title=Y Tu Black Mama Tambien |access-date=2 May 2008 |last=Quinonez |first=Ernesto |work=Newsweek|date=19 June 2003}}</ref>

Brazil has produced telenovelas since the 1960s, but it was only in 1996 that a black actress, [[Taís Araújo]], was the protagonist of a telenovela, playing the role of the famous slave [[Chica da Silva]]. In 2002, Araújo was the protagonist of another telenovela, being the only Black actress to have a more prominent role in a TV production of Brazil. Black actors in Brazil are usually required to follow stereotypes and are usually in subordinate and submissive roles, as maids, drivers, servants, bodyguards, and poor [[favela]]dos. Joel Zito Araújo wrote the book ''A Negação do Brasil'' (''The Denial of Brazil'') which talks about how Brazilian TV hides the Black population. Araújo analyzed Brazilian telenovelas 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 "[[Mammy archetype|old mammies]]". In 1970, in the telenovela ''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.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} In 1975 the telenovela ''Gabriela'' was produced, based on a book by [[Jorge Amado]], who described Gabriela, the main character, as a ''[[mulatto#Brazil|mulata]]''. But to play Gabriela on television [[Rede Globo]] chose [[Sônia Braga]], who is an olive-skinned woman. 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. The same situation has been seen in the 2018 telenovela ''[[Segundo Sol]]'', leading to new protests, mainly in social medias. But once again TV Globo denied racism, saying "We base our cast selection by talent, not by race".<ref name="Araújo2000">{{cite book|last=Zito Araújo|first=Joel|author-link=Joel Zito Araújo|title=A negação do Brasil: o negro na telenovela brasileira|trans-title=The denial of Brazil: blacks in Brazilian soap operas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=olglgaas0SoC&pg=PA96|year=2000|publisher=Editora SENAC São Paulo|language=pt|isbn=978-85-7359-138-5|page=96}}</ref> In 2018, a survey conducted by UOL reported that Black actors represented approximately 7.98% of those employed in the drama departments of Brazil's three major television networks. The data considered the soap operas that were either airing or in production at Globo, Record, and SBT.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Globo, Record e SBT têm, em média, apenas 8% de atores negros em novelas |url=https://tvefamosos.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2018/05/16/globo-record-e-sbt-tem-em-media-apenas-8-de-atores-negros-em-novelas.htm |access-date=2024-08-27 |website=tvefamosos.uol.com.br |language=pt-br}}</ref>

In the fashion world Afro-Brazilians 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://estilo.uol.com.br/moda/ultnot/bbc/2008/01/18/ult3362u30.jhtm |title=Glamour da SP Fashion Week não reflete diversidade do Brasil |publisher=Estilo.uol.com.br |access-date=21 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222051359/http://estilo.uol.com.br/moda/ultnot/bbc/2008/01/18/ult3362u30.jhtm |archive-date=22 February 2012 }}</ref> 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. A public attorney required 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, Afro-descendants or Indians", under penalty of fine of 250,000 reais.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/ilustrada/ult90u582192.shtml |title=Cota para Negros mobiliza SPFW |publisher=.folha.uol.com.br |date=17 June 2009 |access-date=21 July 2012}}</ref>

== Culture ==
{{Main|Afro-Brazilian culture}}

Carnival in Brazil is the traditional combination of a Roman Catholic festival with the lively celebrations of people of African ancestry. It evolved principally in urban coastal areas, notably in the former plantation zones along the coast between Recife and Rio de Janeiro. Salvador's Carnival is less highly commercialized and has a stronger African component.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-08-26 |title=Brazil - Culture, Diversity, Music {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Brazil/Cultural-life |access-date=2024-08-27 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

===Religion===
{{Main|Religion in Brazil|African diaspora religions}}

[[File:Filhas-de-santo moradoras do terreiro.jpeg|thumb|Black girls during a Candomblé ceremony.]]

Most Black Brazilian people are [[Christians]], mainly [[Catholic]]s.<ref name="FGV">{{in lang|pt}} [http://www.cps.fgv.br/cps/simulador/REL/POF_2_LGA/index.htm Study ''Panorama of religions'']. [[Fundação Getúlio Vargas]], 2003.</ref> Afro-Brazilian religions such as [[Candomblé]] and [[Umbanda]] have many followers. Although these religions have a higher proportion of Black practitioners, Whites also make up a significant portion, particularly in Umbanda.<ref>[http://www.sidra.ibge.gov.br/bda/tabela/protabl.asp?c=2094&i=P&nome=on&qtu8=137&qtu14=1&notarodape=on&tab=2094&opn8=0&opn14=0&unit=0&pov=1&poc133=3&OpcTipoNivt=1&opn1=2&nivt=0&orc86=3&orp=5&qtu3=27&qtu13=27&opv=1&poc86=2&opc133=1&pop=1&opn2=0&orv=2&orc133=4&qtu2=5&sev=93&opc86=1&sec133=2829&sec133=2828&opp=1&opn3=0&qtu6=5507&opn13=0&sec86=0&sec86=2776&sec86=2777&sec86=2779&sec86=2778&sec86=2780&sec86=2781&sep=23487&orn=1&qtu7=22&pon=1&qtu9=558&opn6=0&digt6=&OpcCara=44&proc=1&qtu1=1&opn9=0&cabec=on&opn7=0&decm=99 "População residente por cor ou raça e religião"], Census 2000, IBGE.</ref> These religions are mainly practiced in large urban centers such as [[Salvador, Bahia|Salvador]], [[Recife]], [[Rio de Janeiro]], [[Porto Alegre]], [[Brasília]], [[São Luís, Maranhão|São Luís]]. Candomblé is closer to the original [[West Africa]]n religions, and Umbanda blends Catholic and [[Kardecist Spiritism]] beliefs with African beliefs. Candomblé, [[Batuque (religion)|Batuque]], [[Shango|Xango]] and [[Tambor de Mina]] were introduced to Brazil by enslaved Africans.<ref name="Prandi2000">{{cite journal |last1=Prandi |first1=Reginaldo |title=African Gods in Contemporary Brazil: A Sociological Introduction to Candomblé Today |journal=International Sociology |date=December 2000 |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=641–663 |doi=10.1177/0268580900015004005 |s2cid=141111634 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1066334 }}</ref>

These enslaved Africans would summon their gods, called [[Orisha|Orixas]], [[Candomblé Jejé|Voduns]] or [[Nkisi|Inkices]] with chants and dances they had brought from Africa. These religions have been persecuted in the past, mainly due to Catholic influence. However, the Brazilian government has legalized them.{{When|date=April 2010}} 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 (religion)|Jurema]] with heavy, though not necessarily authentic, indigenous elements.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} Some Afro Brazilians can be considered [[Brazilian Yorubas|Yoruba Brazilians]].

Since the late 20th century, a large number of Afro-Brazilians became followers of [[Protestant]] denominations, mainly [[Neo-Pentecostalism|Neopentecostal]] churches. Among Brazil's predominant ethnicities, Blacks make up the largest proportion of [[Pentecostalism|Pentecostal]] Protestants, while Whites make up the largest group of non-Pentecostal Protestants.<ref name="FGV" /> As mentioned, some black Brazilians are [[Islam|Muslims]] of [[Sunni Islam|Sunni sect]] whose ancestors were called ''Malê''.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}

According to the 2022 demographic census, the Black population in Brazil is predominantly Christian, with 49.0% identifying as [[Catholic Church|Catholics]] and 30.0% as [[Protestantism in Brazil|Evangelicals]]. Only 2.3% of Black Brazilians follow [[Afro-Brazilian religions]] such as [[Candomblé]] and [[Umbanda]], 1.5% profess [[Espiritismo|Spiritism]], 12.3% declare no religion, and 4.7% adhere to other faiths.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tabela 6417: Pessoas de 10 anos ou mais de idade, por cor ou raça, segundo o sexo e a religião |url=https://sidra.ibge.gov.br/tabela/6417#resultado |access-date=2025-09-09 |website=sidra.ibge.gov.br}}</ref> Although African-derived religions are historically associated with Black populations and have a higher proportion of Black practitioners compared to other religious traditions, 42.9% of their adherents are white, while the remainder are brown (33.2%) and Black (23.2%).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-06-06 |title=Adeptos de religiões de matriz africana triplicam no Brasil e chegam a 1% da população, diz Censo |url=https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/cotidiano/2025/06/adeptos-de-religioes-de-matriz-africana-triplicam-no-brasil-e-chegam-a-1-da-populacao-diz-censo.shtml |access-date=2025-09-09 |website=Folha de S.Paulo |language=pt-BR}}</ref>

===Cuisine===
{{Main|Brazilian cuisine}}
 
The influence of [[African cuisine]] in Brazil is expressed in a wide variety of dishes. In the northeastern state of [[Bahia]], an exquisite cuisine evolved when cooks improvised on [[African cuisine|African]] and traditional [[Portuguese cuisine|Portuguese dishes]] using locally available ingredients. Typical dishes include [[Vatapá]] and [[Moqueca]], both with [[seafood]] and dendê [[palm oil]] ({{langx|pt|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.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

[[Acarajé]] is a dish made from peeled [[black-eyed pea]]s formed into a ball and then deep-fried in ''dendê'' ([[palm oil]]). It is found in [[Nigerian cuisine|Nigerian]] and [[Brazilian cuisine]]. The dish is traditionally encountered in Bahia, especially in the city of [[Salvador, Bahia|Salvador]], often as [[street food]], and is also found in most parts of [[Nigeria]], [[Ghana]] and [[Benin]].{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

===Sports and dances===
Similar to other countries with large populations of African descent, there are many Black Brazilian [[Association football|footballers]].

[[Capoeira]] is a martial art developed initially by enslaved Africans who came predominantly from Angola or Mozambique to Brazil, starting in the [[Colonial Brazil|colonial period]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.princeton.edu/~capoeira/ln_abt.html|title=About Capoeira|website=princeton.edu|access-date=2018-01-10}}</ref> Appeared in [[Palmares (quilombo)|Quilombo dos Palmares]], located in the [[Captaincy of Pernambuco]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cultura.gov.br/o-dia-a-dia-da-cultura/-/asset_publisher/waaE236Oves2/content/estado-e-exaltado-em-festa-nacional-161433/10883|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181117151214/http://www.cultura.gov.br/o-dia-a-dia-da-cultura/-/asset_publisher/waaE236Oves2/content/estado-e-exaltado-em-festa-nacional-161433/10883|archive-date=17 November 2018|title=Estado é exaltado em festa nacional|publisher=Ministério da Cultura|language=pt|access-date=18 June 2019}}</ref> Documents, legends and literature of Brazil record this practice, especially in the port of [[Salvador, Bahia|Salvador]]. Despite being reprimanded, Africans continued to practice this martial art, on the pretext that it was just a dance. Until the present, Capoeira confuses dance and fight, and is an important part of the [[culture of Brazil]]. It is marked by deft, tricky movements often played on the ground or completely inverted.<ref name="Capoeira: the dance of war">{{cite web |title=Capoeira: the dance of war |url=https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/Capoeira-the-dance-of-war.376183 |access-date=2022-05-15 |website=Times of Malta |date=17 July 2011}}</ref> It also has a strong acrobatic component in some versions<ref name="Capoeira: the dance of war"/> and is always played with music. Recently, the sport has been popularized by Capoeira performed in various computer games and movies, and Capoeira music has been featured in modern pop music.

===Music===
{{Main|Afro-Brazilian music}}

The music of Brazil is a mixture of [[Music of Portugal|Portuguese]], Amerindian, and [[Music of Africa|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.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

==Notable people==
{{main list|List of Brazilians of Black African descent
}}

{{multiple image
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| image1            = Pele con brasil (cropped).jpg
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| alt1              = Pelé
| caption1          = [[Pelé]], often regarded as the greatest football player of all time
}}

Many Afro-Brazilians have been prominent in Brazilian society, especially in the arts, music and sports. Many important figures in Brazilian literature have been of African descent, such as [[Machado de Assis]], widely regarded as the greatest writer of Brazilian literature. Some of these individuals include [[Cruz e Souza|João da Cruz e Souza]],<ref name="Alves2015">{{cite book|last=Farias Alves|first=Uelington|title=Cruz e Sousa: Dante negro do Brasil|trans-title=Cruz e Souza: Brazil's black Dante|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sCLWCwAAQBAJ|year=2015|publisher=Pallas editora|language=pt|isbn=978-85-347-0580-6}}</ref> symbolist poet, [[João do Rio]], chronicler, [[Maria Firmina dos Reis]], abolitionist and author, [[José do Patrocínio]], journalist, among others.

In popular music, the talents of Afro-Brazilians have found fertile ground for their development. Masters of samba, [[Pixinguinha]],<ref>{{cite web|first=Hermínio|last=Bello de Carvalho|author-link=Hermínio Bello de Carvalho|url=http://www.dc.itamaraty.gov.br/imagens-e-textos/revista-textos-do-brasil/portugues/revista11-mat5.pdf|title=São Pixinguinha|language=pt|publisher=dc.itamaraty.gov.br|page=52|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140904173145/http://www.dc.itamaraty.gov.br/imagens-e-textos/revista-textos-do-brasil/portugues/revista11-mat5.pdf|archive-date=4 September 2014}}</ref> [[Cartola]],<ref>Maria Angela Pavan and Francisco das Chagas Fernandes Santiago Júnior. [http://www.intercom.org.br/papers/nacionais/2009/resumos/R4-2686-1.pdf Música para os poros: Cartola e a memória do Samba Negro, Verde e Rosa]. p. 11.</ref> [[Lupicínio Rodrigues]],<ref name="SilvaSantos2008">{{cite book|editor1=Gilberto Ferreira da Silva|editor2=José António dos Santos|editor3=Luiz Carlos da Cunha Carneiro|title=RS negro: cartografias sobre a produção do conhecimento|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kmnrjieFX08C&pg=PA111|year=2008|publisher=EDIPUCRS|language=pt|isbn=978-85-7430-742-8|page=111}}</ref> [[Geraldo Pereira (musician)|Geraldo Pereira]],<ref>Recanto das Palavras. [https://recantodaspalavras.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/falsa-baiana-geraldo-pereira-samba-sincopado-e-bossa-nova/ Falsa Baiana&nbsp;– Geraldo Pereira, samba sincopado e bossa nova]. Third paragraph.</ref> [[Wilson Moreira]],<ref>Augusto César de Lima, [http://academiadosamba.com.br/monografias/augustocesar.pdf "Escola dá samba? O que têm a dizer os compositores do bairro de Oswaldo Cruz e da Portela"], p. 43.</ref> and of [[Música popular brasileira|MPB]], [[Milton Nascimento]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://belezadaraca.webnode.com.br/news/milton-nascimento/ |title=Beleza da Raça |publisher=Belezadaraca.webnode.com.br |access-date=21 July 2012}}</ref> [[Jorge Ben Jor]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rp-bahia.com.br/biblioteca/inter-nor2007/resumos/R0538-1.pdf |title=A Gênese do Samba-Rock: Por um Mapeamento Genealógico do Gênero |author=Luciana Xavier de Oliveira |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706154221/http://www.rp-bahia.com.br/biblioteca/inter-nor2007/resumos/R0538-1.pdf |archive-date=6 July 2011 }}</ref> [[Gilberto Gil]],<ref name="Oliveira2009"/>{{rp|37}} have built the Brazilian musical identity.

Another field where Afro-Brazilians have excelled is football: [[Pelé]],<ref name="Oliveira2009">{{cite book|last=de Oliveira|first=Ely|title=O dia Nacional da Consciência Negra & Adão e Eva|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nm6RN1q3Eo0C|year=2009|publisher=Biblioteca24horas, Seven System Internacional Ltda.|language=pt|isbn=978-85-7893-425-5}}</ref>{{rp|38}} [[Garrincha]],<ref name="Rodrigues2003">{{cite book|author=Mário Rodrigues|title=O negro no futebol brasileiro|trans-title=Blacks in Brazilian football|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4n3n63FoJQsC&pg=PA16|edition=4th|year=2003|publisher=Mauad Editora Ltda|language=pt|isbn=978-85-7478-096-2|page=16}}</ref> right-forward [[Leônidas da Silva]],<ref name="Rodrigues2003"/> nicknamed "Black Diamond", are well known historic names of Brazilian football; [[Ronaldinho]],<ref name="Lopes2004"/> [[Romário]],<ref name="Lopes2004"/>{{rp|585}} [[Dida (footballer, born 1973)|Dida]], [[Fernandinho (footballer, born May 1985)|Fernandinho]], [[Vinícius Júnior]] and many others continue this tradition.

Important athletes in other sports include [[NBA]] players, [[Nenê]] and [[Leandro Barbosa]], nicknamed "The Brazilian Blur", referring to his speed.<ref name="sixthman">Associated Press, [http://www.espn.com.au/nba/news/story?id=2846672 "Barbosa runs away with Sixth Man Award"], ESPN, 23 April 2007.</ref> [[João Carlos de Oliveira]]<ref>Mariana Kneipp. [http://www.plugmania.com.br/ler-2138-esportes-ha+dez+anos++o+brasil+perdia+joao+do+pulo.html Há dez anos, o Brasil perdia João do Pulo] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706153917/http://www.plugmania.com.br/ler-2138-esportes-ha+dez+anos++o+brasil+perdia+joao+do+pulo.html |date=6 July 2011 }}. In ''Plugmania''.</ref> [[Jadel Gregório]], [[Nelson Prudêncio]],<ref name="Lopes2004">{{cite book|first=Nei|last=Lopes|author-link=Nei Lopes|title=Enciclopédia Brasileira da Diáspora Africana|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=88KI6pZyjDwC|year=2004|publisher=Selo Negro|isbn=978-85-87478-21-4|trans-title=Brazilian Encyclopaedia of the African Diaspora}}</ref>{{rp|545}} [[Adhemar da Silva]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.acordacultura.org.br/main.asp?View={FAEA4FC3-067D-4AE9-A1D2-B41351BB082C}&Team=&params=itemID={27FC1830-9B44-4111-8A2C-670B270B0F4E}%3B&UIPartUID={6D3916B0-51FB-11DA-8CD6-0800200C9A66} |title=Episódio Adhemar Ferreira da Silva (1927–2001) |trans-title=Episode Adhemar Ferreira da Silva (1927–2001) |language=pt |publisher=Futura Channel – Episode Details |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091112101718/http://www.acordacultura.org.br/main.asp?View=%7BFAEA4FC3-067D-4AE9-A1D2-B41351BB082C%7D&Team=&params=itemID%3D%7B27FC1830-9B44-4111-8A2C-670B270B0F4E%7D%3B&UIPartUID=%7B6D3916B0-51FB-11DA-8CD6-0800200C9A66%7D |archive-date=12 November 2009 }}</ref>

Particularly important among sports is [[capoeira]], itself a creation of Black Brazilians; important "Mestres" (masters) include [[Mestre Amen Santo]], [[Mestre Bimba]],<ref>Lopes. ''Enciclopédia brasileira da diáspora africana'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=88KI6pZyjDwC&pg=PA120 p. 120.]</ref> [[Mestre Cobra Mansa]], [[Mestre João Grande]], [[Mestre João Pequeno]], [[Mestre Moraes]], [[Mestre Pastinha]],<ref>Lopes, ''Enciclopédia brasileira da diáspora africana'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=88KI6pZyjDwC&pg=PA516 p. 516.]</ref> [[Mestre Pé de Chumbo]].

Since the end of the 1980s, the political participation of Afro-Brazilians has increased. Some important politicians include former mayor of São Paulo [[Celso Pitta]],<ref name="Oliveira2009"/>{{rp|37}} former governor of Rio Grande do Sul, [[Alceu Collares]],<ref name="Lopes2004"/>{{rp|197}} former governor of Espírito Santo, [[Albuíno Cunha de Azeredo|Albuíno Azeredo]].<ref name="Lopes2004"/>{{rp|84}} Of the 170 justices who have served on the [[Supreme Federal Court]] since its inception during the imperial period, only three have been Black, with [[Joaquim Barbosa]] being the most recent, serving from 2003 to 2014.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tribunais Superiores têm apenas 3,8% de ministros negros ou pardos |url=https://www.migalhas.com.br/quentes/397105/tribunais-superiores-tem-apenas-3-8-de-ministros-negros-ou-pardos |access-date=2024-08-26 |website=www.migalhas.com.br |date=17 November 2023 }}</ref>

Afro-Brazilians have also excelled as actors, such as [[Lázaro Ramos]],<ref name="Lopes2004"/>{{rp|558}} [[Ruth de Souza]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geledes.org.br/ruth-de-souza-a-nossa-estrela-maior/#gs.u9gRm6Y|title=Ruth de Souza – A nossa estrela maior|trans-title=Ruth de Souza – Our biggest star|language=pt|publisher=Geledés Black Women's Institute|date=30 July 2010|access-date=2 November 2016}}</ref> [[Lourdes de Oliveira]],<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=55qlWjbs14sC&q=Lourdes+de+Oliveira&pg=PA115|title=The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made|date=21 February 2004|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-312-32611-1|via=Google Books}}</ref> [[Zózimo Bulbul]],<ref name=globo>{{cite news |title=Morre o ator e cineasta Zózimo Bulbul, aos 75 anos |url=http://oglobo.globo.com/cultura/morre-ator-cineasta-zozimo-bulbul-aos-75-anos-7385481 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124205712/http://oglobo.globo.com/cultura/morre-ator-cineasta-zozimo-bulbul-aos-75-anos-7385481 |archive-date=24 January 2013 |work= [[O Globo]] |date=24 January 2013 |access-date=3 February 2013}}</ref> [[Milton Gonçalves]],<ref name="Lopes2004"/>{{rp|302}} [[Mussum]], [[Zezé Motta]],<ref name="Lopes2004"/> and as dancers, like [[Isa Soares]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fernández Bravo |first1=Nicolás |title=Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro–Latin American Biography |title-link=Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-199-93580-2 |editor1-last=Knight |editor1-first=Franklin W. |location=Oxford, England |chapter=Soares, Isa (1953– ), Afro-Brazilian dancer, dance instructor, and activist |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199935796.001.0001 |editor2-last=Gates |editor2-first=Henry Louis Jr.}}{{subscription required|via=[http://www.oxfordreference.com/ Oxford University Press]'s Reference Online}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Brazil|Africa}}
* [[Haitian Brazilians]]
* [[Nigerian Brazilians]]
* [[Angolans in Brazil]]
* [[Batuque (religion)|Batuque]] 
* [[Kalunga]]
* [[Saro people]]
* [[Macumba]]
* [[Quimbanda]]
* [[Racial democracy]]
* [[Racism in Brazil]]
* [[Tambor de Mina]]

== References ==
{{Notelist}}
{{reflist}}

{{Commons category}}
{{Afro-Brazilian topics}}
{{Ancestry and ethnicity in Brazil}}
{{African diaspora}}

[[Category:African diaspora in Brazil| ]]
[[Category:Brazilian people of African descent| ]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Brazil]]
[[Category:People of African descent|Brazil]]
[[Category:Race in Brazil]]