Joel Rufino dos Santos

Joel Rufino dos Santos (19 June 1941 – 4 September 2015) was a Brazilian writer and historian. He was born in 1941 in Rio de Janeiro. He was a professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, he is considered one of the country's greatest historians as well as a novelist and writer, having been one of the leading names in the study of African culture and Afro-Brazilian literature in Brazil. He died from complications from cardiac surgery on 4 September 2015.