LITTLE AFRICAS

If Little Africa’s capital is Praça Onze, then its main authority is Tia Ciata. Born Hilária Batista de Almeida, the Bahian woman who lived in the city for almost 50 years is the most famous incarnation of the “tias”, or “aunts”, leadership models in the Afro-descendant community. Around these women, most of whom hailed from Bahia and all of whom were connected to Candomblé, are networks of solidarity and protection that organize work, leisure and spiritual care. The houses where they live are on the threshold of the private and the public, since they are important meeting and exchange points, and of the sacred and the profane: in the terreiros and backyards, the orishas are revered, and samba circles are formed. In the tias’ orbit, the first carnival ranches are founded, and the Black population is able to combine material sustenance with the cultivation of their own political, religious and cultural values.