Ricardo Pessanha
escritor, jornalista, fotógrafo, tradutor e profissional de marketing

"Quilombos, colonies formed by runaway slaves in the interior of Brazil, also helped perpetuate African culture. The largest and the most famous of these was Palmares, established in the rugged interior of northeastern Alagoas state in the seventeenth century. The inhabitants of Palmares made an effort to organize a society based in African traditions. It lasted for several decades and had a population in the thousands (some say as high as twenty thousand). To the Portuguese, Palmares was a threat to the established order, not to mention the institution of slavery. Numerous armed expeditions were mounted against it by the Portuguese crown, beginning in 1654. All were unsuccessful until the last major campaign, waged in 1694, which overwhelmed and destroyed Palmares. Zumbi, the quilombo's famed war commander, was captured and killed the following year. The legendary warrior is still celebrated in Brazilian music today, and his birthday (November 20) has been a holiday since 1995."

"Racial issues have often been addressed in popular music. Since the 1980s, Afro-Brazilian pride has been more frequently asserted _ and racial injustices protested _ in lyrics by artists like Gilberto Gil, Bezerra da Silva, and Batacotô, and in Carnaval songs written for Rio's escolas de samba and Bahia's blocos afro. This is a significant change from previous decades, when racial commentary in music usually consited of jokes at the expense of black and mulattos."

(trecho de The Brazilian Sound de Ricardo Pessanha e Chris McGowan -Temple University Press - 1998)