# Section II: Chapter 27  
Sônia Maria de Melo QUEIRIOZ has a B.A. and M.A. in Literature from the Federal University of Minas Gerais and a PhD in Communication and Semiotics from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. She is currently an Associate Professor at UFMG in the area of Publishing and, since the 1980s, has been researching the presence of African languages from the Bantu group in conversations, songs and tales of Afro-descendant Brazilians.