to say that it tracks the agents operating within the current spatial configuration. It can also suggest what might happen; it is possible to capture the force lines of territorial dynamics and pinpoint the structural possibilities for the space in the near future. The geography of African origin examined here brings to the fore one of the long-forgotten 'invisible Brazils', which refers to peoples and territories that have existed and continue to survive, but in a marginal, nonofficial sense, rather than in full. This geography of exclusion and conflict is called into question in this chapter, which proposes alternative readings and representations of the geographic space to give proper consideration to the conflicting complexity of the existing-resisting Africa in Brazil. Maps, in turn, are graphical representations of the real world and remain effective tools for reading and interpreting the territory in question. They can be used to reveal territorial aspects of the social constructions and natural features of the area and, in this very way, show geographical facts in their fullest sense. It is important to remember that a map is not a territory in itself; rather, the products of cartography present the best possibilities for the representation and reading of the history of a territory (Anjos, 2007). Photographs are another important resource used in the process of building geographical knowledge, especially for those representations and interpretations of time, space and society that do not crystallize and are not static (Anjos, 2009). This paper seeks to contribute to the expansion of knowledge of territorial references for the centuries-old displacements between Africa, America and Brazil, and of the main configurations and spatial factors of the African matrix in Brazil, in particular those of quilombos.