LITTLE AFRICAS

Professionalization introduced documents into the lives of sambistas that hitherto had been foreign to them, such as employment contracts and corporate registration. At the other extreme, it also led to the informal trade of compositions, with the “sale” of partnerships or the assignment of rights settled in a note. Wilson Baptista defended his right to sell his authorship and, according to anecdotes, he had one caveat: he would only negotiate the sale of compositions that he didn’t think were good.