partnership was essential to confronting political resistance to the law in Brazil. The law was accompanied by guidelines on how to equip schools with the necessary infrastructure. A new era was beginning: it was necessary to introduce new knowledge to promote a substantial change in the educational system. It was essential to break with the standard national narrative, which marginalized the African contribution to the formation of the Brazilian people and Brazilian society. The State recognized that teaching the history of Africa and the African diasporas was essential to combating racism and was an exercise in democracy. The law modified national legislation with regard to education (Gomes, 2011, p. 2). In sum, the institutionalization of the teaching of African history and Afro-Brazilian culture was part and parcel of a process to challenge the myth of racial democracy and overcome racism in Brazilian society. This struggle had as its main protagonists the black social movements, as well as numerous anti-racist organizations.  
Despite the enormous African presence in Brazil and other nations, Eurocentric assumptions continued to downplay the contribution of African peoples to the formation of these societies. The production of these additional volumes on the history of Africa and its diasporas is a way of rescuing Africans and their descendants from invisibility or distorted histories in national narratives. These distorted histories tend to present the African continent as a homogeneous human and cultural territory.  
The interest in producing this monumental work on African diasporas comes primarily from a demand from Afrodescendants all over the world. This book brings together old and new intellectual and political projects from outside and within the African continent. The central questions that guide us are: How do we build alternative historical knowledge about Africans and Afrodescendants in the diaspora? What are the specific roles of Africa in the history of African diasporas and the place of African diasporas in the history of Africa?