A mural project to honor the Black culture of Rio de Janeiro – photo essay | Brazil

Once the largest port in the world for African slaves, Rio de Janeiro it has, like the rest of Brazil, a large population of Afro origin.

Many of the country’s most famous black people – scientists, lawyers, athletes, politicians, writers, musicians, activists and intellectuals – were born or lived in the country’s second largest city, which served as the capital for nearly 200 years.

But of the 360 ​​or so statues scattered around Rio, less than 10% commemorate black people: 29 men and only three women.

The striking absence of such public monuments is what led two black men to create a mural project that has just been recognized by law as part of the city’s invisible heritage.

“We are making a Black Memory painting,” said Pedro Rajão, 40, a researcher and producer who created the project in 2018 with artist Fernando Sawaya, 39.

He has been summoned NegroMuroor BlackWall, the project now has 80 images spread across the city, depicting about 120 people, 60% of them men – a difference that the two say they are working to eliminate.

On the walls of schools, museums, train stations and even public buildings are colorful portraits of people born in Rio – like. Joaquim Maria Machado de Assiswho is known as the greatest Brazilian writer of all time – and figures born elsewhere but who had a strong connection with the city, as an activist for Black feminism Lelia Gonzalez.

“If there are no bronze statues, then there will be paintings – big and beautiful,” said Sawaya, who creates and paints the works while Rajão raises money and researches the history of the students.

Most of the art is in the north, away from the south which is a tourist destination with world-famous beaches and a statue of Christ the Redeemer – deliberately choosing to focus on areas that do not receive the same amount of money or attention even though they are home to a large part of the population.

“I have always wanted to know the history of the areas around where I was born, and about the historical people from the areas that are not known at all,” said Rajão.

Although it focused on Rio, the project began with the introduction of someone who has never placed in Brazil: the Nigerian star. So you can.

In 2013, Rajão was a researcher of African music and wanted an artist to paint a mural in honor of Kuti “because I heard that he must be famous in Brazil”. He was introduced through a close friend to Sawaya, who has been painting murals since he was 13. They painted the first picture together and, five years later, the two collaborated on another Kuti mural, this time in front of a public school.

Sawaya said: “When we were filming Fela, we realized: ‘Horrible, there are no black people in the whole city’…

Today, even after the good that led the work to be to be recognized as part of the city’s culture, they are still living “from wall to wall”, said Rajão. Sometimes support comes from a government agency, sometimes from private companies or crowdfunding. They also run workshops and guided tours, which were recently published a coloring book and he is ordered to make paintings in other cities such as Brasília and São Paulo.

All the artists have gone through a lot of research to choose everything that is in the pictures, except for the one that honors the city councilor Marielle Francohe created the next morning his execution eight years ago. “It came more from instinct, from the idea that we needed to do something in response to that terrible death.” The photo shows Marielle standing tall, looking up scornfully.

One of their most famous projects stands in the center of one of the most sought-after areas of Rio, Largo de São Francisco da Prainha, an area full of bars and samba performances that attract hundreds of tourists to an area known as Little Africa because of its Afro-aged population.

There, he painted a 20 meter long mural Conceição Evaristo79, one of the most famous writers in Brazil. Just a five minute walk Valongo Wharfwhere more than one million enslaved Africans are said to have arrived in the 19th century.

“When you get to Little Africa and look at the big picture of Conceição, it suddenly makes sense to understand the surrounding area and say: ‘This is the Black area’,” said Sawaya.

One thing the paintings don’t do is show pain, Sawaya said: “Our concern has always been to bring beauty. There has been enough pain associated with the history of black people in this city, so the goal here is to tell our story in a beautiful, light way.”