21 September 2012 Brazil is perhaps the only rising power
involved currently in Africa with real cultural affinities with
countries south of Sahara. Unlike other powers, it has also been
a colony like Angola, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, and Cape Verde
--the so called “Luso-phone countries”. Brazil has been closely
linked for centuries to Africa through shipping routes and the
slave trade. It is thought to have imported 10 times as many
slaves as the United States did before slavery was abolished in
1888. For a stretch in the 19th century, Brazil was the seat of
the Portuguese empire, making the capital, Rio de Janeiro, a
nerve center for trade with Africa. Brasilia’s current focus on
Africa, however, is much more recent. It is dated from the
administration of President Lula (2003-2010), and reflects
Brazil’s remarkable economic development and the search for new
trade and investment venues–-according to The New York Times,
Brazil has displaced Britain as the world’s sixth largest
economy. From 2000, sustained e