In the 19th century, Rio de Janeiro was one of the most black cities in the world. And, the area most frequented by these forced migrants was Valongo street, now known as Rua Camerino. Soon after slavery ended, at the beginning of the 20th century, the area was given the name of Little Africa by the composer and performer Heitor dos Prazeres.
For the researcher Rogerio Jordao, City Hall has behaved in a paradoxical way in commemorating this painful time. “It is as if City Hall were practicing this strange dynamic of remembering through forgetting,” Jordao said.
The researcher highlights the Museum of Tomorrow and the Rio Art Museum, built with an investment of 215 million reals, both run by the Roberto Marinho Foundation and considered symbols of the Porto Maravilha, the “Marvelous Port”.
“These two museums started being built at the same time [as the rediscovery of the Valongo Wharf], and are already open to the public, while thousands of objects of African origin found during the works [of excavation] are still not available to the public.”
These include pieces of clay, a tool used for accounting, monjolos (a water serving machine), broken plates, whelk shells, ocuta (a kind of stone which attracts Orixa gods), all kept in a warehouse in Gamboa, close to the Cidade do Samba, but far from the eyes of the public.
City Hall and the Institute of National Historic and Artistic Heritage (Iphan) have registered Valongo Wharf, Pedra do Sal and the New Blacks Cemetery as World Heritage Sites with UNESCO, the United Nations’ organisation for education, science and culture. It was selected on March 3 2016.