大象传媒

In Santo Cristo, a neighborhood in the marvelous city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the construction of a new building, , promises to usher in a new age of technology startups in the city. Currently, the construction of the technology and education hub鈥攚hich directly references 鈥攊s happening in an abandoned warehouse in Rio鈥檚 Port Zone that spans more than 3.59 square miles. 

But if you walk 30 minutes, to the very end of Mau谩 Square, , a science museum that was built in an attempt to revitalize the Port Zone, sits like a spaceship, and to its left, (MAR) towers over the sidewalk that leads visitors deeper into the city. These three buildings, as well as in the area, are part of an that has ebbed and flowed since 2009鈥攇aining steam when Rio hosted the Olympics in 2016 and the World Cup in 2018鈥攖o make the area into the city of the future.

Amid these investments, the Port Zone is filled with Black activists, researchers, and curators who are passionate about reckoning with the city鈥檚 past. The Port Zone, which spans the neighborhoods of Sa煤de, Gamboa, Santo Cristo, and Caju, was from the last few decades of the 18th century up until 1830, receiving an estimated 700,000 enslaved Africans, with some sources estimating the real number being . After the abolition of slavery, free Black people used the area to build communities designed to preserve African religions and cultures within a society that increasingly wanted to erase any memory of slavery. 

Walking inland, past the graffitied warehouses and toward the neighborhood of Gamboa, the historical landmark of Cais do Valongo can be seen, protected by a few metal barriers. The site, where historians estimate arrived in the 20 years it functioned in the 19th century, was nearly erased : In 1843, it was remodeled to remove evidence that enslaved people were chained to be sold there, and in 1911, it was landfilled to build a square. 

Though Black researchers had known for decades that the site was hidden under the ground, when the city began doing construction for the 2016 Olympics. 鈥淭his rediscovery marked a new era of Black memory in the city of Rio,鈥� says Thais Matos, a Black geographer and researcher at Universidade Federal Fluminense. 鈥淚t signified that Rio is an undeniably Black city, even though there are attempts at erasing this history.鈥� Matos says Black activists and researchers, who鈥檇 already been working to preserve the territory, strategically used the Port Zone urbanization plans to argue for , highlighting the violent history of slavery in the area and also emphasizing how the urbanization project was . 鈥淭he universities in the city would never have enough money to do this excavation.鈥� 

But this strategic use came with a price. 鈥淭he city understood that it wasn鈥檛 in the city鈥檚 interest to continue to erase that history anymore,鈥� Matos explains. 鈥淭hey thought this history [could] be appealing for tourists coming to our city.鈥� Hoping to capitalize on this discovery and not lose the momentum of construction, the city agreed to preserve the site, and UNESCO declared Cais do Valongo a in 2017. 

White-Owned Opportunism

For community activist and photographer Maur铆cio Hora, who has lived in Morro da Provid锚ncia, the favela (working-class neighborhood) that towers over Gamboa, his whole life, the city鈥檚 begrudging preservation of Cais do Valongo wasn鈥檛 an attempt to honor Afro-Brazilian culture. Instead, , allowing white-owned businesses to move into the area and edge out Black residents. As Tara Nelson details in a 2019 story for , these white-owned businesses, including YouTube, have moved into the area.聽

Hora mentions Largo da Prainha, a spot recently highlighted as one of the best spots in the city in a package about Rio. 鈥淣othing on that square belongs to us. We don鈥檛 have animosity with anybody there,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he problem is that that area became a money-making space because of our culture. Our intentions in the area were never commercial.鈥� 

In his studio in Gamboa, where large photos of his community are displayed on the wall, Hora says that the city鈥檚 projects in the Port Zone have brought opportunistic entrepreneurs to the area who haven鈥檛 hesitated to capitalize on his neighborhood鈥檚 Black history. 鈥淚 call it afro-opportunism. This is an area that will stop being Black because of businesses that push Black people out.鈥�

This money-making machinery came to a head in March 2022, after business owners in Largo S茫o Francisco da Prainha鈥攁 historical square where Black women used to host and feed people who escaped slavery鈥攈ad a disagreement with a local all-women samba band, Mo莽a Prosa, that had been holding monthly shows in the public square for nearly 10 years. Newly opened bars in the areas to perform in the square because the band sold their own drinks to cover the costs of their performance. While bar owners argued that this could cut into their profits, Mo莽a Prosa refused to perform for free. 

After a number of meetings, the parties couldn鈥檛 reach a consensus, so Mo莽a Prosa decided to move to a nearby property that was given to them by the city. 大象传媒 reached out to the city of Rio for comment, but received no response.

鈥淲e aren鈥檛 new here, we aren鈥檛 opportunistic,鈥� Mo莽a Prosa producer Ana Priscila da Silva . 鈥淲e just want to come back to where we used to play after we were forced out because of the pandemic.鈥�

Practically, Hora also says the projects have disrupted public transport in the area, particularly because of the tram system that was implemented to connect Rio鈥檚 city center to the Port Zone. Hora and other sources interviewed for this article say the system works well for people who come from the outside of the Port Zone, but the buses the local population depended on to reach other neighborhoods were removed to make space for the tram. 鈥淚 used to be able to go anywhere in the city from here because of the buses,鈥� Hora says. 鈥淣ow we only have the tram.鈥� 

Preserving Buried History

In 1996, civilians doing construction work in their home about 10 minutes away from Cais do Valongo discovered a cemetery where newly arrived Africans who died right after arriving in the port were buried. Merced Guimar茫es dos Anjos and Petruccio dos Anjos alerted the authorities about their discovery, but the state didn鈥檛 offer resources to preserve the site at the time. 

In 2005, the New Blacks Institute of Research and Memory (IPN) was founded, with private resources and funding. Today, the institution survives on ticket costs, private partnerships, grants, and a postgraduate degree offered by the institute鈥檚 educational branch. Upon the discovery of the cemetery, the state promised to research the findings, but Guimar茫es dos Anjos says that never happened, and she had to take preservation efforts into her own hands. In 2017, due to lack of funding. 

鈥淔or 27 years, since the archeological discovery, the Institute never had effective help from public authorities,鈥� says Alexandre Nadai, spokesperson for IPN. 鈥淲e have to charge entry to the museum because we don鈥檛 have a sustainable way to keep the doors open otherwise.鈥� While the Museum of Tomorrow receives financial support from the state that maintains its free entry, IPN has to charge entry to keep itself above water, receiving 41,000 visitors in 2022 alone. 鈥淲e are educating people on racism, but we never have the guarantee that we will have enough money to be functioning tomorrow,鈥� Nadai says.

The Port Zone is full of places like IPN, where residents and activists took it upon themselves to preserve Black history鈥攑laces Black researchers know are significant but haven鈥檛 been deemed historically significant by the city. 

If you walk five minutes from IPN, you鈥檒l come across a house where the belongings of , one of the foremothers of samba itself, are shoved into a tiny, rectangular space that Matos says used to be a public bathroom. The space is managed by Ciata鈥檚 living descendants, but they don鈥檛 receive public funding for their work. The Morro da Provid锚ncia, which Hora says is the first favela in the world, is not marked as such. In the old neighborhood of Santa Rita, another cemetery for enslaved people lies beneath the tracks of the tram system, but there isn鈥檛 a single plaque marking the significance of the location. The 补蹿谤辞虫茅 group Filhos de Gandhy, founded by port workers in 1951, is currently .

鈥淲e have to preserve this memory, so [slavery] never happens again,鈥� Nadai says. 鈥淏ut in a structurally racist country, things in Rio are only given value when someone will benefit from it financially. No political party fights for Black people, for the Black cause effectively. There aren鈥檛 many Black people in the government, and , a young Black person is killed in Brazil.鈥� 

For Hora, who co-wrote an op-ed for in 2012 about the construction being done in the Port Zone at the time, the city鈥檚 interest in revitalizing the area doesn鈥檛 include the people who already live there. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 think about the people who are from here,鈥� Hora says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the big problem when a place is set to be transformed by public authorities.鈥� 

When approached for comment, the city of Rio said there is a concern for preservation of Afro-Brazilian history in the Port Zone but did not provide a response to questions about the impacts of gentrification in the area. 鈥淭he city has created the African Heritage Circuit in the Little Africa region, which includes Cais do Valongo, [and] coordinated the process to make it into a World Heritage Site by UNESCO,鈥� the statement said. On the inclusivity of the Porto Maravalley project, the city said the hub will have diversity and inclusion policies 鈥渇or Black people and LGBTQIA+ populations,鈥� and that their education branch, Instituto de Matem谩tica Pura e Aplicada, will have 100% of students funded by scholarships.

Bringing the Past Into the Future

In March 2023, Brazil鈥檚 first lady, Janja Silva, and the new Minister for Racial Equality, Anielle Franco, . Nadai hopes the incoming federal administration, which has , will be favorable to the institute鈥檚 concerns and needs. However, the Port Zone has three branches of government that exercise their authority鈥攎unicipal, city hall, and federal鈥攚hich can complicate juridical processes of preservation.

鈥淲e understand that our cause is supra partisan,鈥� Nadai says. 鈥淲e have a good relationship with many branches of the government, and we use that dialogue to not let people from the outside of the neighborhood profit off Black culture.鈥� Nadai and the staff at IPN hope that one day, governmental policies will enable the institute to stop charging, making their work more accessible to all. 鈥淥ur wish is that there鈥檚 a state policy that gives us better sustainability and longevity,鈥� Nadai says. Despite Porto Maravalley鈥檚 promise of inclusive policies, it鈥檚 difficult to understand why state funding isn鈥檛 directed to the institutions that already exist in the Port Zone of Rio. 

Until then, the people who live in and love the Port Zone of Rio will continue to do the preservation work that keeps Afro-Brazilian memory alive.