1. See for example, Judith Bettelheim, “Negotiations of Power in Carnaval Culture in Santiago de Cuba,” African Arts 24, no. 4 (1991): 66–75, 91–92.
2. For the first state effort to give visibility to female Carnival voices and groups in Bahia, see Governo do Estado da Bahia, Carnaval no Feminino (Salvador: SEPROM, 2010). The prominent voices include those of Viviam Caroline (Didá), Margareth Menezes, Dete Lima (Ilê Aiyê), Graça Onaṣilê (Ilê Aiyê), and Negra Jhô, among others. For a more focused discussion of the “divas” of Bahian Carnival, namely Daniela Mercury, Margareth Menezes, and Ivete Sangalo, see Marilda Santanna, As Donas do Canto: O Sucesso das Estrelas-Intérpretes no Carnaval de Salvador (Salvador: EDUFBA, 2009). The few individual studies on female Carnival groups in Bahia include Carole Boyce Davies, “Re-Presenting Black Female Identity in Brazil: ‘Filhas d’Oxum’ in Bahia Carnival,” Ijele: Journal of the African World 2, no. 1 (2001) (formerly online at http://www.ijele.com /ijele/vol2.1/boyceDavies.html ),
3. and Barbara Browning, “The Daughters of Gandhi: Africanness, Indianness, and Brazilianness in the Bahian Carnival,” Women and Performance 7–8 (1995): 151–169.
4. Filhos de Gandhi, the first afoxé in Bahia (differs from a bloco afro in the sense that the afoxé focuses on African religious rites and ceremonies such as Candomblé), and headquartered in Pelourinho, was founded in 1949 by dock workers who were inspired by the pacifist approach of Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) to political liberation. This organization celebrated its sixtieth anniversary in 2009 and was officially recognized by the government and other Carnival groups. In addition to long-standing community involvement and development efforts, especially regarding the youth, Filhos de Gandhi has been featured in such films as Dias Gomes’s O Pagador de Promessas (1950)
5. and Jorge Amado’s Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos (1976).