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.

Dona Marta or "Favela Santa Marta" is a slum located in Botafogo in the South Zone Rio de Janeiro of Brazil. It has about 8000 residents, with 500 wooden houses, 2000 brick houses, 4 kindergartens, 3 bakeries, 2 sports fields, 1 block of a samba school, 3 military units and 1 smallmarket. The slum is one of the steepest city slums. Recently, the slum has been undergoing a process of urbanization. Several houses were built, sanitation and sewage, water piping and installation of electrical cables. Most work done in recent years in the slum was the construction of a cable car facilitates the transport of residents to higher areas of the hill. Another major change in the slum was the occupation of military force. Since 2008 the slum has no more drug trafficking in the "bocas de fumo", ie, points of sale of drugs. The slum was the setting for international events as part of the clip of They Dont Care About Us[1][2] of Michael Jackson and performed by Bike Downhill MTB of Redbull.

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