LITTLE AFRICAS

Built in the 19^th century to drain the swampy area around Praça Onze, the Mangue Canal is intrinsic to the region’s physical and human landscape. From an urban viewpoint, it impressed with its palm trees, which still line its banks today. In symbolic geography, it became synonymous with prostitution and Bohemianism, the Mangue District of rogues, painters, sambistas and intellectuals. In “O X do problema” [The Crux of the Problem], a samba song from 1936, Noel Rosa underlines the place’s identity: “The Mangue’s palm tree / doesn't live in the sands of Copacabana”.