The fourth section of "Ama" is entitled America. Here America signifies Brazil. In the America: Texts and Sources section the following are links to pages concerning:
Brazil in the late 18th century
Bahia in the late 18th and early 19th century
Sugar and slavery in the Bahian reconcavo
British role in Brazil
Resistance by slaves in Brazil and elsewhere
Candomble and African religion
African culture in Brazil
Legacy of the slave trade
Brazil Today before President Lula
The epilogue to "Ama", written before Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula) was elected and served his term as president of Brazil stated:
In 1891 the Brazilian Minister of Finance decreed theabolition of history: he ordered the destruction of every document which dealtin any way with slavery or the slave trade; a nation-wide burning of the books.
But the clamour of voices from the past drowns out thefiats of forgotten bureaucrats and demands to be heard.
At the end of the twentieth century, the population ofBrazil stands at some 165 million. The more than one hundred million Brazilianswho are of African descent remain overwhelmingly poor. Political power stillrests firmly in the hands of the descendants of the senhores de engenho.
Ama is a story of the Slave Trade, a story ofAfricans who were carried across the Atlantic against their will.
The end of this story has yet to be written.
Epilogue, "Ama, A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade