São Paulo’s Liberdade neighborhood is renowned for its Asian-style architecture, restaurants, and public lighting resembling paper lanterns. Home to the largest Japanese community outside Japan, thousands of tourists flock to enjoy the area’s cuisine and culture, often unaware of its Black history.
The name “Liberdade” (liberty in English) is linked to Chaguinhas, a formerly enslaved Black soldier sentenced to death in 1821 after leading a protest for better wages. Spectators at his execution called for his “liberty.”
“When people see the neighborhood, there is another history being told,” said Debora Pinheiro, a guide on a tour attended by Reuters. “The Japanese arrived in the early 20th century and started a process of gentrification. But the Black presence is still huge.”
Afrotourism, focusing on Black history, is growing in Brazil. Guia Negro, founded in 2018, disseminates overlooked history and offers tours in 22 cities, including Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo. In 2023, the tourism agency began promoting businesses in addition to tourism. Pequena Africa (Little Africa) in Rio had more visitors than Christ the Redeemer or Sugar Loaf Mountain, according to the Rio mayor’s office.
Despite not being known as the “Blackest city outside of Africa” like Salvador or Little Africa in Rio, São Paulo has the largest population of Black people in Brazil in absolute numbers. Black American tourists frequently choose Brazil for its welcoming atmosphere. “Brazil made me feel like a Black queen,” said Dr. Chanel Adrian Clifton, a tour participant.
Guilherme Soares Dias, founder of Guia Negro, created the organization after experiencing frequent racial profiling abroad. “I wanted to create a platform to encourage more Black people to travel and for everyone to learn more about Black history and culture,” he said. Guia Negro emphasizes history education to combat prejudice.
In October 2020, police officers, alerted by social media posts about a “Black march,” questioned, filmed, and followed the organizers for three hours, suspecting the paid tour was a protest. In April 2024, a judge ordered São Paulo State to pay 750 thousand reais ($138 thousand) to Guia Negro for “moral collective damage and discriminatory action, with clear outlines of institutional racism.
Source: reuters
