Black History in Brazil

Black History in Brazil, like in many other countries in the Americas, dates back to arrival of the Portuguese colonizers in the 16th century.

The exact number of Africans enslaved and brought here is not known, but it varies between an estimate of four to five million, from the years of 1539 to 1888.

The Eusébio de Queirós Law, enacted on September 4, 1850, prohibited the slave trade, however, it continued to exist illegally until the actual abolition of slavery in 1888. Which, in turn, made the task of defining the numbers of enslaved Africans arriving in Brazil impossible.

It is also known that the enslaved African men and women come from three major ethnic groups. The so-called Bantos, the Yoruba and the Fons peoples, coming from different regions, which today correspond to the current African countries of Angola, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.

In Brazil, these ethnic groups received different names, often related to the ports of origin of the slave ships, geographic regions or to names given by other ethnic groups also African, such as the “Nagô” nomenclature used to refer to the Yoruba.

Jejes, Mozambiques, Angolas, Congos, Benguelas, Minas, Monjolos and Cabindas are other examples of this variety of nominations.

Over the centuries when slavery persisted as an economic system, innumerable forms of resistance were registered, with quilombos, settlements built by escaped enslaved Africans, being the most well-known organizations in this context.

However, other movements also represented forms of resistance to slavery, such as black brotherhoods and sisterhoods, and abolitionist clubs. There were in addition to individual and collective resistances, cultural practices, arts and religious communities, whether syncretic or not.

As of the second half of the twentieth century, the international political situation exerts a great influence on black political, cultural and artistic resistance movements. Thus, specifically, the contexts of civil rights struggles in the United States and the processes of independence and decolonization in African countries leave their mark on black Brazilian movements.

And it is in this context also that the first challenges of the infamous myth of Brazilian racial democracy take place, as well as the first discussions and debates around the point that for a moment became central in racial discussions in Brazil: celebrating May 13 or the 20th of November?

May 13th (1888) was the date when the Golden Law, the law of abolition slavery in Brazil, was signed.

Celebrating Black History on this date has been widely criticized because, despite the end of slavery, black people remained marginalized and considered second class citizens.