In 2011, during the excavations carried out as part of the revitalization works in the Rio de Janeiro port area for upcoming Olympics, two wharves - the Cais do Valongo and Imperatriz - were discovered, one on top of the other, and, along with them, a large number of amulets and objects of worship from Congo, Angola and Mozambique. It was the site of the landing and trading 500,000 to one million Africans to be enslaved in Brazilian territory from 1811 to 1831. Until 2011 it had been neglected, hidden, covered up. The wharf was officially designated a World Heritage Site in 2017.
Brazilians Leticia Caetano, a native of Rio de Janeiro, history teacher, mother, activist and tour guide of the Pequena Africa (Little Africa) neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, and Anderson H. Gonçalves, a native of Cachoeira, Bahia whose research is on quilombos (Brazilian Maroon communities), racial terror and the Black Atlantic, discuss this topic with Heather Mac Intosh of Trinidad & Tobago.
The conversation was originally conducted in Brazilian Portuguese. This version is with interpretation voice-overs in English.
for more info on the conversation participants or the festival go to our website or our FB and IG pages
