hey guys I'm fighter and today we're
going to be talking about the African
diaspora in Brazil did you know that
Brazil has the biggest African asper
community outside of Africa the 2010
census in Brazil shows that for the
first time the majority of the Brazilian
population identified this
afro-descendant this between 7% of
Brazilians the equivalent of over a
hundred million people self-identified
as black or mixed-race the statistic I'm
about to give you are truly staggering
the transatlantic slave trade as we know
it began when the Portuguese completed
the first transatlantic slave voyage to
Brazil in 1526 from 1501 to 1866 an
estimated 4.9 million enslaved Africans
were trafficked to Brazil
that's nearly 40% of all slaves traded
in the transatlantic slave trade and at
least four times the number of slaves
that were trafficked to the United
States Brazil was the last country in
the Western Hemisphere to a boyish
slavery in 1888 slave labor was the
driving force behind several key
industries in Brazil including sugar
production golden diamond mining coffee
production and agriculture as was the
case across Latin America enslaved
Africans in Brazil escaped and formed
maroon settlements could Columbus the
most famous of which was Palumbo dos
palmares which existed for most of the
17th century it was a relatively large
Colombo with a population of several
thousand escaped slaves and indigenous
people who formed a complex and
structured society at its height it had
a population of 30,000 people and
spanned over eleven villages occupying a
landmass the size of Portugal the most
famous afro-brazilian slave resistance
leader was zombie the last king of
palmares who led the fierce
counter-attack against the Portuguese
forces trying to seize the Colombo
although the settlement was captured in
1695 and zombie was decapitated
today he is a powerful symbol of
assistance against slavery in Brazil and
Portuguese colonial rule to this day the
descendants of Africa's ilion's living
in Colombo settlements fight for the
right to their ancestral land in 2018
for the first time a Colombo community
was given land titles when the cash
weighed a pathetic immunity of 500
people was formally granted 220,000
hectares of Amazonian rainforest a key
turning point was the Haitian Revolution
which ended in 1804 whereby the
afro-descendant population of Haiti
rebelled against the white French elites
and claimed their independence both from
French colonial rule and their European
slave masters this sent shockwaves
across Latin America which were felt as
far as Brazil some afro-brazilians even
wore portraits of Haitian revolutionary
leader jean-jacques the saloon in
pendants around their necks however
after the collapse of the sugar industry
in Haiti
it was Brazil that catered to the
increased demand for sugar enslaved
Africans continued to be imported in
large numbers to the region of by air
from the Haitian Revolution onwards
slave rebellions became more frequent
and more brutal the largest rebellion
occurred in 1835 in salvador and was
known as the male uprising it was
orchestrated by African born Muslim
slaves who intended to free all of the
slaves in Bahia
however the rebellion was crushed and
many participants were arrested executed
flogged or deported relations were tense
between enslaved Africans who had
recently been imported and the enslaved
Africa's ilion's who had been born into
slavery on Brazilian soil the
afro-brazilians were comprised of blacks
and mulattoes who were mixed with the
European ancestry of their slave masters
they were treated better were more
likely to be emancipated often because
they were the slave masters children and
had great opportunity for social
mobility once they had been freed in
fact it was not uncommon for wealthy
free blacks and mulattoes in Brazil to
have slaves of their own it was arguably
these internal divisions that held the
enslaved population back from staging a
successful revolt although Brazil gained
its independence from Portugal in 80
22 slavery wasn't formally abolished
until 1888 when Princess Isabel of
Brazil passed the lay area the golden
act
this made Brazil the last country in the
Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery
the sheer amount of slaves that had been
trafficked to Brazil during the slavery
era meant that the Brazilian population
was now majority black and
afro-descendant at a time when
scientific racism was gaining popularity
the Brazilian government sought to
whiten the racial profile of the country
it implemented a tactical whitening
whereby from the late 1800s to the early
1900s Brazil encouraged and even
subsidized the mass influx of white
European immigrants to Brazil the
countries with the highest numbers
settling in Brazil were Italians
Portuguese and Spanish although this
didn't eradicate blackness from Brazil
it reinforced the trope that whiteness
should be aspired to and that marrying
someone whiter was an instrument of
social mobility in the 20th century the
black movement in Brazil gained momentum
a defining moment was in 1931 when the
French ii- Brazil ADA was formed the
first black political party in Brazil
organized by our Linda Vega dos Santos
the party put forward candidates for
political office run literacy classes
health clinics and legal services for
black communities across Brazil they
also published a newspaper called avoid
ste Haase which circulated news about
black communities both in Brazil and
overseas the party was short-lived
however when in 1937 the Brazilian
dictator J Tulio Vargas dissolved all
political parties from the 1950s onwards
there were a number of black social
movements in Brazil they lobbied for
black rights one of the most famous was
the unified black movement also known as
the M nu founded in 1978 which is
arguably the most influential black
organization in Brazil in the second
half of the 20th century among things
the organization spoke out against
police brutality the oppression of black
women and discrimination against the
LGBTQ community in 1995 the M nu helped
organize the march for zombie
in the capital of Brasilia the event
protested racism in Brazil and also
celebrated the anniversary of the death
of zombie the slave resistance leader
who was the last king of the Colombo dos
palmares with a turnout of over 40,000
people it was the largest national black
demonstration in Brazil in recent years
social media has played a pivotal role
in black political activism in Brazil
particularly amongst afro-brazilian
Millennials social media platforms such
as YouTube Instagram and Facebook have
allowed afro-brazilians to connect and
mobilize online social media provides a
forum to discuss the collective struggle
but crucially it has also allowed the
dissemination of photos and video
footage showing police brutality against
afro-brazilians
one such example is the murder of
Claudia the Silva fajita who passed away
in 2014 after a police van dragged her
down the road for over a thousand feet
the grisly incident was captured on
camera and circulated on social media
sparking national outrage the black
lives matter movement in particular
gained traction with afro-brazilian
youths who coined the hashtag vidas
import them the fact an
unprecedented number of people
self-identified as black and mixed-race
in the 2010 Brazilian census shows that
Brazilians are prouder and more willing
to claim their African heritage than
ever before
however the census also brought to light
the grave disparities between the
distribution of wealth amongst white and
afro-descendant Brazilians the
socio-economic gap between white and
black Brazilians persists the 2010
census found that in major cities white
Brazilians earn 2 to 3 times more than
their black counterparts the wealthiest
strata of Brazilian society remains 82%
white and the poorest rata is 76 percent
black afro Brazilians have far less
access to quality education health care
or fair wages and they are
underrepresented in the government the
most prominent African derive religions
in Brazil are candomble a and Amanda
Amanda centers on the belief in spirits
both good and evil can delay is derived
from the belief
systems of a number of African ethnic
groups particularly Yoruba fun and Bantu
similar to the arisia of Santeria
practiced in Cuba and other regions the
deities of candomble a are called the
Orisha over time they have become
syncretized with Roman Catholic saints
this dates back to when enslaved
Africans were forbidden by the European
masters for practicing their African
religions and so had to do so in secret
under the guise of praying to Catholic
saints because of the historical ties
between kin Bombay and Catholicism
Catholicism is also widely practiced
amongst afro-brazilians
one afro-descendants Saint venerated in
Brazil is ask Rafa and Aspasia a slave
woman of African descent who is depicted
wearing a metal facemask the story goes
that her master's wife accused her of
flirting with her husband and as a
punishment force her to wear an iron
mask over her face for the rest of her
life until she died from tetanus from
the rusty metal the biggest
afro-brazilian festival is the festival
of Yemanja celebrated every february 2nd
in heal Vermeil the festival brings
together members of several religions
including Catholics and practitioners of
the afro-brazilian religions can Don
Blake and Amanda Yemanja
is the arisia of the sieve and loosely
corresponds to the Cuban or Isha
Yemaya it is custom to lay offerings for
the goddess of flowers jewelry and food
and of course resin is famous for its
carnival around Mardi Gras there are
celebrations across the country but the
most famous is hosted in Rio de Janeiro
for over 5 million people participate in
the street parties one key element of
the Carnival is the Samba music and
dance a clear vestige of African
influence in Brazilian culture the fast
footwork of Samba dancing originated in
the dancers practiced by the enslaved
Africans who were trafficked to Brazil
and the singing style is derived from
the traditional call-and-response style
the Africans would use to evoke the
orishas during religious ceremonies
another afro-brazilian style of dance is
capoeira which combines martial arts
moves with elements of dance and
acrobatics to create graceful and
flowing sequences it's originated
amongst enslaved Africans
Raziel who sought to hone their combat
skills without arousing the suspicions
of their masters in 2014 it was declared
an expression of intangible cultural
heritage by UNESCO
the afro-brazilian Museum located in San
Paolo is home to over 6,000 works
pertaining to a per bazillion history
culture and heritage it seeks to
celebrate the arts and accomplishments
of Africans and Africa's ilion's and is
the largest collection of artifacts of
African descent in Latin America black
Awareness Day has been celebrated
annually in Brazil since the Year 1960
it's held on November 20th to honor the
life of our Brazilian slave resistance
fighter zombie famous afro-brazilians
include the footballers Pele and
Ronaldinho the scholar and politician of
gs the Nascimento actresses aermotor and
the politician benedita de silva he
became the first black woman in the
Brazilian center that brings me to the
end of our video on the African Diaspora
in Brazil for more videos don't forget
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at freedom is mine official I'll see you
in the next video
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