For me, spirituality is the coming together of the human spirit with the divine spirit. In other words, the divine spirit involves us totally in the mission for another possible world. In the Bible, the book of Numbers 11:21–25 states: “And Jehovah came down in the cloud, and spoke unto him”; indeed, I feel that the Spirit of God is preparing darker skin peoples globally for this fantastic mission. This Spirit encourages and strengthens all of us to help the development of human dignity for oppressed peoples and communities around the world—our world, our Mother Land Africa, our Americas, our Caribbean, our Asia, our Oceania, our Europe.

This essay seeks to strengthen and deepen my own self-love, selfesteem and self-confidence by participating in this special book that reflects the struggle of blacks around the world. For the first time, contributors have the opportunity to collaborate in one publication with brothers and sisters from many parts of the world. Indeed, though from diverse contexts, these essays express a common objective: to heal the individual self and transform social structures.

I would like to share with you all the pain, the suffering, and our (i.e., black Brazilians') reaction as darker skin people, in addition to explaining our advances in our struggle for more dignity. What does human dignity mean in a racist country like Brazil? Dignity here means food, occupations with decent salaries, housing, schools, and freedom to have faith as Afro-Brazilian believers without persecution.