This line studies the formation of societies, cultures and identities in Africa and the African diaspora in Americas, their transformations and the connections established in the Atlantic world. The research conducted by the line comprise the study of African and Afro-descendants (African cults of affliction, Christianity, candomblé, umbanda); African and diasporic identities (social, political and gender); the different forms of exploitation of African labor (enslaved, forced, paid); the construction of representations of African and Africans in the diaspora (through travel writings, memories, literature); the different forms of struggle in Africa and Americas (escape, quilombo, insurrection, independence movements); analysis of customary and positive law (customs, colonial laws, constitutions); and the construction of racism and racialization in African and diasporic societies. The line also includes the study of the formation of political and intellectual networks of contestation of colonial states, their relations with national liberation movements and post-independence social struggles.