Nearly 5 million kidnapped Africans disembarked in Brazil, more than 12 times the number taken to mainland North America.
The executive manager for institutional relations at a Brazilian state bank took the microphone before roughly 150 people at a forum on slavery’s legacy in his country, which kidnapped more Africans for forced labor than any other nation.
“Today’s Bank of Brazil asks Black people for forgiveness,” André Machado said to the mostly Black audience at the Portela samba school in Rio de Janeiro.
“Directly or indirectly, all of Brazilian society should apologize to Black people for that sad moment in our history,” he said, reading a statement to audience members who sat watching from plastic chairs, their eyes fixed upon him.
Lula appointed Tarciana Medeiros to lead the bank, and she is its first-ever Black president. He has pledged to further racial equality, and created the country’s first ministry dedicated to the issue.
The family of João Cândido, who served in the navy two decades after Brazil abolished slavery, hope a more receptive executive branch will finally hear their pleas.
After witnessing a sailor’s flogging, Cândido led a revolt against regular whipping by officers in 1910. He and fellow mutineers were tortured, and only two survived — including Cândido. Kicked out of the navy, he and his family missed out on pension benefits and promotions, then he fell into poverty, according to prosecutor Julio Araujo, who also leads the Bank of Brazil probe.
Cândido’s family is demanding compensation from the federal government. They also want him inducted into the nation’s official pantheon of heroes, Adalberto Cândido, 85, the sailor’s only living son, said in an interview in Sao Joao de Meriti, on Rio’s outskirts.
Reparations “would make a difference because we are a modest family. We’ve always earned the minimum wage, which in this country is a joke,” said Cândido, who started working at 14. He spoke in front of Cândido’s last home, where a colorful mural depicts his story.
That story will take center stage in one of the top Carnival parades. In the warehouse where samba school Paraiso do Tuiuti is constructing its giant floats and fashioning gold-sequined sailor costumes, references to slavery abound — such as a print of French painter Jean-Baptiste Debret’s depiction of a slave being whipped.
Jack Vasconcelos, who created the school’s parade theme, said he decided to honor Cândido because violence reminiscent of slavery continues to occur. He cited a Black delivery man’s whipping with a dog leash by a white woman in Rio last year.
That delivery man will perform as Cândido during the parade, which aims to help society remember slavery – one form of reparation, Vasconcelos said.
“But we also need to fight for tangible reparations, not just contributing to memory,” Vasconcelos added.
