2013 Lagos Heritage Week takes place within an event framework that the Festival has designated The Year of Brazil. After Italy and the Horn of Africa in the series - THE BLACK IN THE MEDITERRANNEAN BLUE - comes the turn of Portugal, once a great European maritime nation, and the first European nation to establish diplomatic relations with an African counterpart - the Benin Kingdom. Alas, this historic encounter between equals would later degenerate into participation in the infamous slave trade, but would also result in the greatest "rainbow" nation in the world - The Republic of Brazil