LITTLE AFRICAS

In a series of articles entitled “As religiões no Rio” [Religions in Rio] that were published by Gazeta de Noticias, Paulo Barreto (1881-1921), under the pseudonym João do Rio, describes the city’s Afro-Brazilian religious practice in strongly prejudiced tones. A person of African descent who never mentioned his origins, one of the Belle Époque’s most popular reporters saw the Black city as exotic and primitive. “Asseata”, as Tia Ciata was also known, appears as “one of the sorceresses of deception” in his texts, which were published in book form in 1904, the same year they appeared in the newspaper.