Tia Dodô and Tia Lúcia brought the spirit of the great Afro-Brazilian leaders into the 21st century. Maria das Dores Alves Rodrigues (1920-2015), or Tia Dodô, was born in the […]

Tia Amélia, in a rare record of her dressed in the typical clothing of the “tias”, was also born in Bahia. Her son Donga said that she carried the habit […]

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 […]

Little Africa’s formation is intertwined with the history of Rio’s port area. From the activity in the first warehouses to the inauguration of Praça Mauá in 1910, a large majority […]

Built in the 19th 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 […]

At the opposite end of Avenida Central, where the big-time carnival outfits were headlining at the official, white and Europeanized city’s parades, the revelers of Praça Onze occupied the streets […]

Photogenic Praça Onze has been widely documented. At times, it appears almost austere, with the clear outline of the Frenchified urbanization in the foreground. At other times, surrounded by leafy […]

Little Africa’s capital, Praça Onze was the point of convergence of the multi-ethnic and cultural spirit that characterized the region in the formation and dissemination of urban samba. The large […]

In 2011 and 2012, during excavations in the area where the Valongo Wharf stands today, near the Port of Rio de Janeiro and the only material vestige of enslaved Africans’ […]

In 2019, Carlos Vergara covered part of the ground at the Valongo Wharf with nine units of canvas. Using fragments and soil from the archaeological site as pigment, he imprinted […]