May 13: Black people’s freedom passes through memory – 05/13/2023 – Guia Negro

May 14, 1888 is considered the longest day in history by black thinkers like Hélio Santos. After all, the day after the abolition is not over yet. Black men and women won freedom, but not land, housing, employment, respect and dignity of society to be in it on an equal footing. Its history and culture have been denied and criminalized so many times that I am only sure of one thing: the freedom of black people also depends on the right to memory.

Today, I coordinate an action called “May 13 and the days after” for Guia Negro, with black walks through 22 Brazilian cities, from the five regions of the country. An opportunity to get to know our stories, characters, black culture and places that had systematic actions of structural racism to erase them and relegate them to the background.

It is the opportunity to get to know the maraçou, a black cultural manifestation in Amapá, or the strong presence of African-based religions in Porto Alegre. Perhaps the most important message is that there are little-told black narratives in all Brazilian cities: the stories we were not told.

Many places that marked the pain of the black people in the almost 400 years of enslavement are still in the oldest cities, they are pillories (places of torture), gallows (for execution), rosary churches of black men (resistance). Cities also have the contribution of the power and beauty of black people, through cultural manifestations, stories and legacies of little-known black heroes and heroines.

Among the characters who reveal themselves we have the activist Beatriz Nascimento, who was born in Aracaju and gains the protagonism she deserves; the enslaved Gertrudes Maria, who fought for her freedom, in João Pessoa; Eva Maria de Jesus, Aunt Eva, the freed ex-slave who arrived in Campo Grande and built the first church in the city there. Tia Eva gives her name to the urban quilombola community formed by her descendants and which, this May 13th, will receive visits from tourists.

A character who will also be remembered today (in Salvador and São Paulo) is the poet, lawyer, journalist and abolitionist Luiz Gama who fought for the freedom of his black brothers and managed to free more than 500 people. No wonder the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship managed to revoke Princess Isabel’s Order of Merit for Luiz Gama. A more befitting way of honoring those who provided “notable services” related to the protection and promotion of Human Rights.

After all, we have not forgotten that Brazil was the last country in the world to carry out abolition and that enslavement generated profits and dividends for colonial masters, the Catholic Church and other entities that still today benefit from legacies from the forced labor of our brothers.

Tourism is a choice, I always remember. And it’s important to know what narratives we want to know, who we’re going to strengthen by buying souvenirs, lunch, booking a hotel. Tourism makes histories, cultures live, moves the local economy and immortalizes experiences.

Today, black walks take place in Porto Alegre, Curitiba, São Paulo, Campinas (SP), Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Juiz de Fora (MG), Ouro Preto, Salvador, Boipeba (BA), Santo Amaro (BA), Aracaju , Maceió, Recife, Olinda (PE), João Pessoa, São Luís, Macapá, Cuiabá, Brasília, Corumbá (MS), Campo Grande.

Retelling these stories is no easy task and there is still a lot of work to be done. Other places, cultures and characters need to be known. As black thinkers and artists such as actor Antônio Pitanga and singer Gilberto Gil point out, it is necessary to carry out the second abolition and as the singer says that “it will come to mean freedom, the conquest of space, place and the most definitive protagonism that the black already has”.

And, I am sure, afrotourism is one of the abolitions that Brazil needs.

Long live the black people!

PS: Today this blog turns one year old! I take the opportunity to ask you to read and share other texts and thank all the people who follow.

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