LITTLE AFRICAS

Born in Little Africa and its surroundings, it was on the train tracks that Carioca samba spread throughout the city and reached the suburbs, where the population pushed out of the city center by the elitist “civilization” project sought housing. In the new occupied territories, dance, religion, food and social practices flourished and became consolidated. The first samba school, Deixa Falar [Let It Talk], was founded near Praça Onze in the area known as Cidade Nova {New City], and many others soon followed, taking and carrying on the community values and affirmation of Black cultural existence in the city. More than just carnival groups, the samba schools at that time represented networks of protection, the delineation of identity and the attainment of citizenship. Even though this situation has changed in the last 100 years, with the massive adhesion of constituents drawn in by the popularization of carnival parades transformed into spectacle, samba schools remain important centers of Black sociability and cultural resistance.