Race and Struggle of Samba Samba exists throughout Brazil, peculiarly in the states of Bahia, Mahranhão, Minas Gerais, and São Paulo. Samba has two popular forms of expression: music and dance. A majority of people identify samba as the musical expression of urban Rio de Janeiro. Although samba is commonly identified with Brazil, the start of samba begins in Africa. According to Marc Hertzman, the origins of samba in Brazil can be trace back to the 1800s-a time when Brazil was still in the process of finding its own national identity. After Brazil freed the last of its remaining slaves, Brazil faced racial and economic divides, but with all this issues samba emerged as a building block of national identity. Samba is something unique that could be embraced by all Brazilians. Samba had an impact on Brazil as nation, but also it had an enormous impact on the individual and the African-Brazilian population. Throughout the world’s history, music has had the capability to tell the story of many slaves. Slaves in both the United States and Brazil had slave hymns. For example, the famous song Wade In the Water, which now commonly associated with the Underground Railroad. Once slavery ended, the sounds of those who were discriminated against changed. In the United States, slave hymns became the sound of jazz and the blues and in Brazil, samba was created. Samba is a word that is believed to come from the West African Bantu word, meaning “to pray” or “to invoke the spirits of ancestors,” and from the Angolan samba, meaning “pelvic movements (Sawer).” Early Brazilian-African history illustrates the importance of African religions, like Candomblé. Candomblé originated among African slaves who were brought to Brazil during the slave trade era. Music and dance play an important role in Candomblé, as many rituals require ceremonies that include ritualistic