Plan to launch Brazil's only slave memoir, revisit dark past
Plan to launch Brazil's only slave memoir, revisit dark past
Adriana Gomez Licon, Associated Press
Updated 11:20 pm, Thursday, July 16, 2015
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Taken from Africa and sold into slavery in Brazil, Mahommah Baquaqua's tale of escape to freedom in New York is the only known story of its kind, an in-depth, firsthand account of slavery in the South America country.
But few in Brazil are aware of Baquaqua's biography which, 160 years after it was written, is being published in Portuguese for the first time as momentum builds for the country to examine its complex racial past.
A truth commission was established this year to investigate Brazil's 350-year period of slavery. Next year, tourists coming for the Olympic Games will be able to walk a pathway marking historical sites such as a mass grave for slaves who died en route from Africa.
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Through partnerships with universities in the U.S. and Angola, the commission and others hope to access even more archives kept abroad that could help quantify how much the government gained by taxing slave traders.
More:
http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Plan-to-launch-Brazil-s-only-slave-memoir-6389959.php