CemitériodosPretosNovos

In 1996, the couple Mercedes and Petruccio dos Anjos, upon starting renovation work on their house at Rua Pedro Ernesto 36, came across something “strange.” While drilling into the ground, the workers found a large quantity of human bones mixed in with the soil. The Departamento Geral de Patrimônio Cultural (DGPC) was notified, and from then on, archaeologists and historians began investigating what was there.

Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph showing excavations at a site that appears to be a cemetery. On the left side, there is a wooden ladder leaning against a wall. In the center, we see a large crack in the ground, revealing stones and earth. On the right, two people are bent over the crack, possibly examining something. One of them is wearing a white shirt with the inscription "NICCA." In the background, there is a person standing, wearing a white t-shirt and shorts, holding a wide, rectangular object. On the right, we see a wall with a vertical pipe and a hanging plant.

This is the beginning of the story of recovering the memory of the Cemitério dos Pretos Novos, which was part of the so-called Valongo Complex and also included the wharf where enslaved people were disembarked (Cais do Valongo), the street that housed a large part of the markets (present-day Rua Camerino) and the Lazareto, a hospital that treated the illnesses of recently arrived Africans.

According to the German traveler G. W. Freireyss, who visited Rio in 1814: "In the middle of this space there was a mound of earth from which, here and there, protruded the remains of corpses uncovered by the rain." The cemetery was nothing more than a shallow pit, in which thousands of bodies were buried "just beneath the surface of the ground."

Image description: The image is a watercolor depicting a cemetery, with several buildings and green areas. On the left side, there is a house with a red roof and a green garden. In the center, there is a large area with a central tomb, surrounded by small houses and plantings. On the right, there are two more houses with red roofs, also surrounded by vegetation. The background of the image shows a strip of blue water. In the lower left corner, it is signed "Reinaldo Tavares 2015".

With the increase in population density, the Valongo area began to draw criticism, but this was not out of concern for the enslaved people living in degrading conditions -- rather, it was about what citizens found unpleasant to their eyes and to the eyes of those visiting Rio: the foul smell and the miasmas generated by the decomposition of bodies, which were pointed to as responsible for the diseases of a city that sought, at all costs, to modernize itself.

In the 1830s, the cemetery was closed down, having itself, ironically, been "buried" to make way for the progress and modernization that were demanding passage. The cemetery's location became uncertain, and it was only in 1996 that the cemetery was unearthed, along with countless stories from the more than 350 years of slavery in Brazil.

Image description: The image is a photograph of a human skeleton found in a cemetery. The skeleton is lying on its side, with the bones exposed and fragmented. The head is at the center, with the skull visible and some teeth still preserved. The ribs and vertebrae are clearly identifiable, as are the leg and arm bones. The skeleton is buried in dark soil, with pieces of rock and earth around it. On the right, there is an object that appears to be a long bone, possibly from the upper limb. The image is in black and white, with predominantly gray tones.

Today, Mercedes and Petruccio's house is a memorial -- the Instituto dos Pretos Novos (Institute of the New Blacks) -- which is open to visitors and offers several courses related to the theme, historical tours, and even a graduate program on the History of Africa and the Diaspora.