Mama Africa

“Mama Africa provides a sophisticated and serious framework for understanding the issues of race, culture and politics in Brazil. The author offers an insightful and critical discussion of the myths of Mama Africa and racial democracy and the notion of Bahianness.” - Ollie Johnson, Bulletin of Latin American Research

“Pinho is intellectually honest and shows moral courage in seeking an anti-antiessentialist solution to racism.”
- Robert N. Anderson, The Latin Americanist

“Mama Africa is a rich, complex, and engaged book, a treasure-trove of information and ideas. Patricia de Santana Pinho writes as a Bahian and a quasi-insider in relation to the groups she discusses, and she combines the passionate enthusiasm of cultural studies with the rigor of the social sciences at their best.” - Robert Stam, author of Tropical Multiculturalism: A Comparative History of Race in Brazilian Cinema and Culture

“This thoughtful, stimulating study articulates a novel political geography for African diaspora studies. It will be an indispensable reference point for future work in that growing field.” - Paul Gilroy, author of The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness

“[A] fresh and welcome perspective. . . . The greatest contribution offered by this book is the subtle but forceful engagement with Diaspora theorists, Brazilianist scholarship on race and mestic¸agem (a Portuguese cognate for mestizaje), and the increasingly specific and fraught language of public policy debates in Brazil.” - John Norvell, American Anthropologist

“In this provocative work, the author clearly stands for a new black political culture that dares to go beyond the notions of blackness and whiteness. . . . The excellent work of Pinho vividly demonstrates that meanings of blackness and whiteness should be examined both in local and global contexts. . . .” - Stefania Capone, A Contracorriente

“Pinho favors detailed and measured presentation of an idea, term or argument, followed by an equally in-depth and careful critique. Her book is a breath of fresh air. . . .” - Säer Maty Bâ, Cultural Studies Review

“This book makes an important, sophisticated, and bold contribution and is especially apt for scholars of the social construction of race/ethnicity/nation.” - Stanley R. Bailey, Contemporary Sociology

“This translation of Patricia Pinho's Mama Africa is a timely and welcome addition to the scholarship on racial identity in Brazil and will be useful as an English-language teaching resource in courses about Brazil, race, and the Atlantic World. . . . [T]his is a sharp study and an able translation that should hold an important place in the tools available for helping students outside Brazil understand that country's fascinating politics of racial identity.” - Jerry Dávila, EIAL