Paper short abstract:

My presentation explores the recent process of public commemoration of slavery in the port area of Rio de Janeiro and its relation to national identity.

Paper long abstract:

My presentation explores the recent institutional efforts to commemorate slavery in Rio de Janeiro, with the establishment of a slavery memorial and an Afro-cultural itinerary in the port area. Rather than being completely accidental, the facts described interweave with the contemporary flourishing of affirmative action in favour of Afro-Brazilians, which aims to redress historically-rooted social inequalities, include minorities, and challenge the myths of racial democracy in Brazil. These facts give the impression of a radical revision of Brazil's national identity from mixed and non racial to multi-racial and multi-ethnic. Looking at the discourses of different social actors involved in the process of slave-heritage making in the port area of Rio de Janeiro, I discuss how new discourses of inclusion can also cohabit with persistent practices of exclusion. Examples of these relate to the growing urban gentrification in the port area and the relative marginality of black social movements in the decision processes of public memorialisation of slave memory. This case study is useful to reflect on changing ideas of the nation, setting out discontinuities but also the continuities between the myth of racial democracy and the recent turn in favour of racial and ethnic politics/policies in Brazil.