Afrotourism shows Brazilian slavery past

From the slopes of Ouro Preto to the streets of Salvador, passing through Cais do Valongo, in Rio de Janeiro, or along the Rota da Liberdade, in São Paulo, and arriving at Serra da Barriga, in Alagoas. These are some of the places that opened the doors to the Brazilian slave-owning past, and tell all of us, to this day, a little about the origins of the country’s black people. More than 130 years after the abolition of slavery, signed on May 13, 1888, afrotourism, a modality that values ​​the tangible and intangible heritage of the Brazilian black population, has been gaining ground. So much so that, in January of this year, the Ministry of Racial Equality and Embratur started a partnership to encourage it. The tourism expert and vice-president of the Rio de Janeiro City Council for the Defense of Black Rights, Bruno Franco, says that the term afrotourism is still new, but this is a strategy that has been structured for some time. “Wherever the African diaspora took us, we left our marks. And these marks are so much today in history, culture, music, and even in historical monuments. Afrotourism is telling our story, by ourselves, in our essence”. One of the biggest references in this type of tourism in Brazil is the Quilombo dos Palmares Memorial Park, which occupies the space that was the most resistant to slavery in the country, led by the hero Zumbi. Balbino Praxedes, Alagoas regional representative of the Palmares Cultural Foundation, points out that, in 2022, the park received more than 35,000 visitors – an increase of 51% compared to the previous year. “The park contributes to the visibility and recognition of the history of the black people of this nation, from the moment it leads us to reflect and understand the facts that occurred by one of the ethnic groups that make up our nation”. In Rio de Janeiro, Cais do Valongo, the main landing point and trade point for black people enslaved in the Americas, is so important that it was elected a World Heritage Site by Unesco. Mercedes Guimarães, director of Instituto Pretos Novos, created to preserve the tangible and intangible heritage of the region known as Little Africa, in downtown Rio, explains what visitors can learn from visiting the Pier. “It is an open-air book. We talk about Machado de Assis, we talk about Mercedes Batista, the samba, the aunts, the market that there was here in the region and even reaching the cemetery and then we take it to the Museum of Afro-Brazilian History”. Bruno Franco also points out that another relevant point for afrotourism in Rio de Janeiro is the Café Valley. However, this is a place that requires a critical visit. “Because there is the issue of the farmer, the coffee plantation, the glamorization of slavery, you know, as if it were something beautiful, and it is not. Because it shows the farms as a beautiful thing, when, in fact, that, for us, was a place of suffering”. In Ouro Preto, one of the highlights of afrotourism is the visit to Mina do Chico Rei, an enslaved African who was king in Congo, before being brought to Brazil to work in the mines, and who managed to buy his manumission and also that of other enslaved people. In Salvador, the blackest city in Brazil, there are many museums and monuments that revere black culture, in addition to its strong influence on religion and cuisine.

Agência Brasil