The Brazilian people, in which the African element is in certain regions still considerable enough to make the country an area of special interest for students of African culture, if not of the African race, find themselves today in a paradoxical situation as they confront the intense crisis of valuesor rather the fundamental economic and spiritual conflict-through which the entire world is passing. This paradox, created and conditioned both by the traditions of the past and by the future which acts upon it in the form of general or common aspirations as opposed to the particular programs of groups, seems at certain points to be identified with the ideas and sentiments of a great movement of a social renaissance (today underway in the world) and at other points seems to be identified with the ideas of a very different movement. But under no circumstances, it should be well emphasized, can it be said that there exist in Brazil elements which could be counted upon to form part of an African ethnic-cultural movement. For Brazil has no "African minority," but Brazilians of various origins; in some the European or Indian strain predominates, and in others the African element predominates. Certain speeches of Hitler find an echo in Brazil. I refer not to the elite class but to that part of the general population which is cognizant of in-