One of my favorite places to travel in the world is Brazil. I am always fascinated with its rich culture, beaches, and historical beauty of architect, landscape and people. Perhaps what the average person doesn’t know is that there is so much more to most places than what syndicated news, social media or television will ever show or tell… such as it is with Brazil.
Our journey this time took us to about an eight-hour drive outside of the hustle and bustle of the metropolis of the state Sao Paulo, (Brazil’s capitol, and the 5th largest city in the world) to a small isolated quilombo. (Quilombo’s are settlements and rural communities founded by African taken as slaves of the transatlantic slave trade, who escaped from their captors and fled to dense mountainous jungles for refuge). It was before Brazil abolished slavery in 1888 that these village-like communities were strategically established by the Africans and to date, over 400 years later there are at least 3500 known quilombos yet existing throughout the country.
During my earlier travels to Brazil, I learned that of the mass number of Africans taken from their countries, the majority were not brought to the United States as I always assumed, but rather they were transported to South Americas, Brazil holding the highest number.
I might also add, a “wow” moment of learning for me as of the early 2000’s when I first began to travel to Brazil, I learned that outside of the country of Nigeria Africa, the largest number of Black populations in the world is in Salvador, the capital city of the state Bahia, where 80% of the population is made up of Afro descents. Maybe we missed class the day this was taught in our history classes in North America, huh?
Well, back to my first visit to the Quilombos… Our group was invited by an African American Missionary who was a dear friend and had lived in Brazil for over 30 years. She wanted us to experience these unique environments where time seemed to have stood still; and where she had done humanitarian work for several years. The Quilombalians were at this time completely off the grid of mainstream life. They had no social services or governance from the outside, and strictly lived off the land in which they cultivated, farmed, and developed.
It was a two-day process for our host to send word to her contacts in the quilombo, to get permission from the Leaders/Elders to allow us access. To our surprise, upon our arrival from an eight- hour bus ride, we had to trek a five mile walk on a trail to the river through dense bush, and a forty-five-minute boat ride on a man-made canoe, where we would be carried on the small canoe six at a time across the river to the quilombo. Before boarding the canoe, we were briefed and given specific instructions from a community leader who greeted and welcomed, us as their first Black American group that had visited their quilombo. Until then, they had only met our host or heard stories or read in sparce materials given to them about African Americans. It was certainly to our advantage that our host had learned the Portuguese language and was fluent in speaking and understanding it. But, unfortunately, there was one of her and 18 of us who only spoke and understood English… Not really considering these dynamics I wondered how could this possibly turn out okay!
To be continued…