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

Kwame Dixon breaks new ground in this study by examining how Black politics, both cultural and formal, have been articulated in Brazil and the ways in which the state responds to Afro-Brazilian demands for equality. Using Salvador, Bahia as a case study, Dixon unpacks how Afro-Brazilians there reconfigure and challenge notions of citizenship, race, gender, territory, belonging, and national identity.