Favelas originated in the late 18th century as settlements for freed black slaves in Brazil and grew significantly in the mid-20th century due to rural migration. They are typically located on the outskirts of major cities and have faced issues with high crime rates, drug trafficking, and gang violence as the populations expanded rapidly. While efforts have been made to reduce favelas, their populations have continued to grow faster than the cities they border, concentrating poverty.

1. Social and Historical Context
The favela
A favela (Brazilian Portuguese for slum) is the generally used term for a
shanty town in Brazil. In the late 18th century, the first settlements were called
bairros africanos (African neighborhoods), and they were the place where
former slaves with no land ownership and no options for work lived. Over the
years, many freed black slaves moved in. However, before the first settlement
called "favela" came into being, poor blacks were pushed away from
downtown into the far suburbs. Most modern favelas appeared in the 1970s,
due to rural exodus, when many people left rural areas of Brazil and moved to
cities. Without finding a place to live, many people ended up in a favela.
A favela is fundamentally different from a slum or tenement, primarily in terms
of its origin and location. While slum quarters in other Latin American
countries generally form when poorer residents from the countryside come to
larger cities in search of work, and while this also occurs to some extent with
favelas, the latter are unique in that they were chiefly created as large
populations became displaced. Many favelas now have electricity, a situation
that 20 years ago was unheard of. Favelas differ from ghettos such as those
in the United States in that they are racially mixed, and it is chiefly economic
forces, rather than ethnic or cultural issues, that drive people there.
In recent decades, favelas have been troubled by drug-related crime and
gang warfare. There are often common social codes in some favelas which
forbid residents from engaging in criminal activity inside their own favela.
History
The explosive era of favela growth dates from the 1940s, when Getúlio
Vargas's industrialization drive pulled hundreds of thousands of migrants into
the Federal District, until 1970, when shantytowns expanded beyond urban
Rio and into the metropolitan periphery. Most of the current favelas began in

2. the 1970s, as a construction boom in the richer neighborhoods of Rio de
Janeiro initiated a rural exodus of workers from poorer states in Brazil. Heavy
flooding in the low-lying slum areas of Rio also forcibly removed a large
population into favelas, which are mostly located on Rio's various hillsides.
Since favelas have been created under different terms but with similar end
results, the term henrietta has become generally interchangeable with any
impoverished areas. Favelas are built around the edge of the main city so in a
way they are actually expanding the city. The Brazilian Census of 2000
provided information about the cities with most favelas in Brazil.
Drugs and the favela
The cocaine trade has impacted Brazil and in turn its favelas, which tend to be
ruled by drug lords. Regular shoot-outs between traffickers and police and
other criminals, as well as assorted illegal activities, lead to murder rates in
excess of 40 per 100,000 inhabitants in the city of Rio and much higher rates
in some Rio favelas. Traffickers ensure that individual residents can
guarantee their own safety through their actions and political connections to
them. They do this by maintaining order in the favela and giving and receiving
reciprocity and respect, thus creating an environment in which critical
segments of the local population feel safe despite continuing high levels of
violence.

3. Drug use is highly concentrated in these areas run by local gangs in each
highly populated favela. Drug sales and use run rampant at night when many
Favelas host their own baile, or dance party, where many different social
classes can be found. These drug sales make up "a business that in some of
the occupied areas rakes in as much as US$ 150 million per month, according
to official estimates released by the Rio media."
Growth of the favelas
Despite the attempts to cleanse Brazil's major cities like Rio de Janeiro and
São Paulo of favelas, the poor population is continuing to grow at a rapid pace
as well as the modern favelas that house them. In 1969, there were
approximately 300 favelas in Rio de Janeiro; today there are twice as many.
In fact, the population of the favelas is growing faster than the population of
Brazil as a whole. In 1950, only 7 percent of Rio de Janeiro's population lived
in favelas, in the 21st century it has grown to 19 percent or about one in five
people living in a favela. According to national census data, from 1980–1990,
the overall growth rate of Rio de Janeiro dropped by 8 percent, but the favela
population increased by 41 percent. After 1990, the city's growth rate leveled
at 7 percent, but the favela population increased by 24 percent. By the year
2000, this created an all-time high of people living in concentrated poverty.
The best-known favelas are those in and around Rio de Janeiro, possibly
because Rio's peculiar urban geography has placed many of them up the hills
that face the city's prosperous seaside neighbourhoods and tourist spots, and
thus made them readily visible. They provide a dramatic illustration of the gap
between poverty and wealth, juxtaposed with the luxurious apartment
buildings and mansions of Rio's social elite. Several hills in Rio are densely
populated by favelas. In 2004, it was estimated that 19 percent of Rio's
population lived within favelas. Rocinha, Pavão-Pavãozinho, Parada de
Lucas, Maré and Turano are some of the most famous of Rio's favelas.

4. List below how these issues are represented in ‘City Of God’.