“…Late-colonial royal ritual often included the participation of Afro-Brazilians, who sometimes staged "embassies" and "courts [reinados] of Kongo", performances that celebrated the Kongo's conversion to Christianity as the foundation of a black Catholic community. These were closely related to black brotherhoods' annual election of kings and queens, which became widespread in the eighteenth century and persisted until well into the nineteenth (Souza, 2002, p.18-19, 297;Kiddy, 2002;Mac Cord, 2003;Lara, 2007, p.180-192;Soares, 2011, p.138-142, p.174-176, p.183-221;Fromont, 2013). Authorities often condemned the "blacks' courts" as one of the "many pernicious abuses" that, according to the viceroy in 1728, pervaded Brazil; a priest commented in 1771 that, once a slave had served as king, he was no good for anything (Lara, 2007, p.214;Kiddy, 2005, p.78, p.98).…”