Little Africa

Located in Rio's port region, Little Africa (Pequena Africa) was one of the first predominately Afro-Brazilian communities in the former capital. Today, despite two centuries of change, the area retains stark reminders of slavery’s role in making the city. A walking tour of the area will take you to Valongo Wharf, where an estimated 900,000 enslaved Africans disembarked prior to 1831. The human toll of this site is made tangible in a nearby museum, Instituto de Pesquisa e Memória Pretos Novos (the Institute for Research and the Memory of the Pretos Novos, or IPN), founded in 2005 and dedicated to the tens of thousands of “new Blacks” who died during the Middle Passage or soon thereafter. The remains of these individuals were discarded, alongside general refuse, in mass graves near the wharf. After the suppression of the transatlantic slave trade, Afro-Brazilians created a community in this very place to pursue work. Overall, the neighborhood's lessons are poignant, and they immediately shed light on the prominence of Afro-Brazilians, both free and enslaved, in the making of southeast Brazil.  

To learn more about Little Africa, see: Passados Presentes

For more information on the IPN, see:IPN (pretosnovos.com.br)