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Unearthing Rio de Janeiro's history of slavery

December 28, 2022

Roughly half of all the people trafficked from Africa to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries ended up the Portuguese colonial empire of Brazil. This week we're revisiting the shocking history Rio de Janeiro's role as Brazil's gateway for slaves.

https://p.dw.com/p/4LUFP

No other city in the New World was so closely associated with the exploitation of African slaves as Rio de Janeiro, where the city's elite, among them Portuguese merchants and colonialists, made a veritable fortune.

More than two million African men, women and children who were shipped into slavery in the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries landed in the Portuguese colonial empire of Brazil, accounting for more than half of all slaves recorded during that time.

Now a small group of experts are conducting a reappraisal of the black history in Rio. But not everyone is ready to revisit the famed city's troubled past.

World in Progress previously aired this feature by reporters Anne Herrberg and Joao Soares, and presented by Elliot Douglas on October 5, 2022. 

Sarah Steffen Author and editor with a keen interest on underreported crises.
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