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More enslaved Africans came to the Americas through this port than anywhere else.
More enslaved Africans came to the Americas through this port than anywhere else. Why have so few heard of it?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=
RIO DE JANEIRO — When tour guide Pedro Andres arrived at the site historians call the most important physical evidence of the arrival of enslaved Africans to the Americas, the scene he found was familiar. The Valongo Wharf was empty.
Addressing a family of Paraguayan tourists, Andres described its historic significance. At the height of the transatlantic slave trade, nearly 1 million enslaved Africans arrived on its cobbled stones, likely more than anywhere else in the world, and twice as many as were trafficked to all of the United States. UNESCO has called the wharf, discovered in 2011 during an urban renovation project, a “unique and exceptional” place that “carries enormous historical as well as spiritual importance to African Americans.”
But Andres, who brings tourists to the wharf out of his own volition and not because it’s recommended by his tour agency, saw little indication of that remarkable history. There are no memorials. Only a single sign above a large puddle far removed from the street. The wharf has been unearthed but is still ignored. Even people who live nearby, whose ancestry leads back to this point, don’t know of its existence.
...A tourism welcome center has not been built. Almost all of the African artifacts that have been recovered — rings, amulets, religious items — remain locked away out of sight. The site itself has at times been littered with trash or flooded. The drainage system has repeatedly malfunctioned. A city worker was electrocuted in 2020 while trying to drain the site. The United States and the Chinese state utility company have each donated $500,000, but the money has yielded few improvements. There is still no concrete management plan for the site.... /div]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/01/17/brazil-slavery-valongo-wharf/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=
RIO DE JANEIRO — When tour guide Pedro Andres arrived at the site historians call the most important physical evidence of the arrival of enslaved Africans to the Americas, the scene he found was familiar. The Valongo Wharf was empty.
Addressing a family of Paraguayan tourists, Andres described its historic significance. At the height of the transatlantic slave trade, nearly 1 million enslaved Africans arrived on its cobbled stones, likely more than anywhere else in the world, and twice as many as were trafficked to all of the United States. UNESCO has called the wharf, discovered in 2011 during an urban renovation project, a “unique and exceptional” place that “carries enormous historical as well as spiritual importance to African Americans.”
But Andres, who brings tourists to the wharf out of his own volition and not because it’s recommended by his tour agency, saw little indication of that remarkable history. There are no memorials. Only a single sign above a large puddle far removed from the street. The wharf has been unearthed but is still ignored. Even people who live nearby, whose ancestry leads back to this point, don’t know of its existence.
...A tourism welcome center has not been built. Almost all of the African artifacts that have been recovered — rings, amulets, religious items — remain locked away out of sight. The site itself has at times been littered with trash or flooded. The drainage system has repeatedly malfunctioned. A city worker was electrocuted in 2020 while trying to drain the site. The United States and the Chinese state utility company have each donated $500,000, but the money has yielded few improvements. There is still no concrete management plan for the site.... /div]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/01/17/brazil-slavery-valongo-wharf/
1 replies
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