The patron saint's day was the highlight of the brotherhoods' calendar in terms of public visibility and the number of people coming together. These festive occasions presented the black brotherhoods with an opportunity to mark their place of distinction in colonial society. The parties organized by the black brotherhoods were not confined to liturgical acts (Eugênio, 2002, pp 32, 34, 36). They were also an opportunity for less restrained and less solemn expression, which took place outside the church, involving music, dancing, and feasting washed down with a lot of geribita (sugarcane spirit) (Scarano, 2001, pp. 467-86). During the devotions' saints days, the devotees would play their instruments, sing in their languages and dance 'in their own way', as requested, in 1786, by the black devotees of Gloriosa Senhora do Rosário in the City of Bahia. ${ }^{6}$ Not only were the parties organized by the black brotherhoods unparalleled occasions for African cultural expression, but they also provided special opportunities for the recognition of differences within the African and Creole communities (Fromont, 2013; Reis, 1996, p. 9; Souza, 2002, pp. 215-16; Valério, 2019).  
On various occasions and in different contexts, markers of ethnicity and/or origin were explicit in the brotherhoods. However, this was clearly not a simple transposition of African identity references to the Americas. These ethnicity indicators could indeed be very complex and creative (Soares, 2000, p. 232; Reginaldo, 2011, p. 151; Parés, 2015, pp. 3-5). There are examples of Africans creating private brotherhoods, such as the Jejes in Cachoeira (Bahia) and the Mabi in Rio de Janeiro in the eighteenth century (Oliveira, 1997, pp. 9-36; Soares, 2000). At times, different 'nations' made African alliances, as proposed  
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