From the late 1500s through the 1860s, this colony of Portugal was the single largest destination for African slaves - mostly Yoruba and Bantu - sent in particularly large numbers to Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and the northeast. And so today millions of Brazilians - and aspects of overall Brazilian culture - have African roots, from music to religion to food to this country's version of Portuguese itself. And this is especially apparent throughout the northeast, in states like Bahia, where visitors can get an amazing taste of Afro-Brazilian culture in cities such as Fortaleza and the colony's first capital, Salvador, where more than 80 percent of the population is listed as multiracial including African ancestry. You can get a great sense of this at its Archaeology and Ethnology Museum and especially its annex, the Afro-Brazilian Museum. But much of it you can experience even in the streets and cafés, by taking in performances of music and capoeira (pictured here - and btw that's me in the tambourine lol), the martial-arts-dance hybrid developed by slaves and now seeing a renaissance both for reasons of cultural pride and the fact that it’s become a tourist draw. Afro-Brazilian heritage tours are also available, even including services of candomblé (essentially traditional African religion with a once protective overlay of Christianity, not unlike Haiti's voudon and Cuba's santería)..

Read more in my post 12 Top Destinations for African-Diaspora Travel.

David Paul Appell