Social and Historical Context

The favela A favela (Brazilian Portuguese for slum) is the generally used term for a shanty town in Brazil. In the late 18th century, the first settlements were called bairros africanos (African neighborhoods), and they were the place where former slaves with no land ownership and no options for work lived. Over the years, many freed black slaves moved in. However, before the first settlement called "favela" came into being, poor blacks were pushed away from downtown into the far suburbs. Most modern favelas appeared in the 1970s, due to rural exodus, when many people left rural areas of Brazil and moved to cities. Without finding a place to live, many people ended up in a favela.

A favela is fundamentally different from a slum or tenement, primarily in terms of its origin and location. While slum quarters in other Latin American countries generally form when poorer residents from the countryside come to larger cities in search of work, and while this also occurs to some extent with favelas, the latter are unique in that they were chiefly created as large populations became displaced. Many favelas now have electricity, a situation that 20 years ago was unheard of. Favelas differ from ghettos such as those in the United States in that they are racially mixed, and it is chiefly economic forces, rather than ethnic or cultural issues, that drive people there. In recent decades, favelas have been troubled by drug-related crime and gang warfare. There are often common social codes in some favelas which forbid residents from engaging in criminal activity inside their own favela.

History The explosive era of favela growth dates from the 1940s, when Getúlio Vargas's industrialization drive pulled hundreds of thousands of migrants into the Federal District, until 1970, when shantytowns expanded beyond urban Rio and into the metropolitan periphery. Most of the current favelas began in

the 1970s, as a construction boom in the richer neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro initiated a rural exodus of workers from poorer states in Brazil. Heavy flooding in the low-lying slum areas of Rio also forcibly removed a large population into favelas, which are mostly located on Rio's various hillsides. Since favelas have been created under different terms but with similar end results, the term henrietta has become generally interchangeable with any impoverished areas. Favelas are built around the edge of the main city so in a way they are actually expanding the city. The Brazilian Census of 2000 provided information about the cities with most favelas in Brazil.

Drugs and the favela The cocaine trade has impacted Brazil and in turn its favelas, which tend to be ruled by drug lords. Regular shoot-outs between traffickers and police and other criminals, as well as assorted illegal activities, lead to murder rates in excess of 40 per 100,000 inhabitants in the city of Rio and much higher rates in some Rio favelas. Traffickers ensure that individual residents can guarantee their own safety through their actions and political connections to them. They do this by maintaining order in the favela and giving and receiving reciprocity and respect, thus creating an environment in which critical segments of the local population feel safe despite continuing high levels of violence.

Drug use is highly concentrated in these areas run by local gangs in each highly populated favela. Drug sales and use run rampant at night when many Favelas host their own baile, or dance party, where many different social classes can be found. These drug sales make up "a business that in some of the occupied areas rakes in as much as US$ 150 million per month, according to official estimates released by the Rio media."

Growth of the favelas Despite the attempts to cleanse Brazil's major cities like Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo of favelas, the poor population is continuing to grow at a rapid pace as well as the modern favelas that house them. In 1969, there were approximately 300 favelas in Rio de Janeiro; today there are twice as many. In fact, the population of the favelas is growing faster than the population of Brazil as a whole. In 1950, only 7 percent of Rio de Janeiro's population lived in favelas, in the 21st century it has grown to 19 percent or about one in five people living in a favela. According to national census data, from 1980–1990, the overall growth rate of Rio de Janeiro dropped by 8 percent, but the favela population increased by 41 percent. After 1990, the city's growth rate leveled at 7 percent, but the favela population increased by 24 percent. By the year 2000, this created an all-time high of people living in concentrated poverty. The best-known favelas are those in and around Rio de Janeiro, possibly because Rio's peculiar urban geography has placed many of them up the hills that face the city's prosperous seaside neighbourhoods and tourist spots, and thus made them readily visible. They provide a dramatic illustration of the gap between poverty and wealth, juxtaposed with the luxurious apartment buildings and mansions of Rio's social elite. Several hills in Rio are densely populated by favelas. In 2004, it was estimated that 19 percent of Rio's population lived within favelas. Rocinha, Pavão-Pavãozinho, Parada de Lucas, Maré and Turano are some of the most famous of Rio's favelas.

List below how these issues are represented in ‘City Of God’.