The UNESCO World Heritage Committee officially declared the Archaeological Site of Cais do Valongo, in Rio de Janeiro (RJ), a World Heritage Site.
The wharf, located in Praça Jornal do Comércio in Rio, is a symbol of the pain of thousands of black slaves brought to Brazil over more than 300 years.
The site had already been declared a Cultural Heritage of the city of Rio de Janeiro by the Rio World Heritage Institute (IRPH). The designation was announced on Black Consciousness Day (November 20 in Brazil) in 2013.
Around the same time, UNESCO representatives began to consider the archaeological site as part of the Slave Route, the first place in the world to receive this recognition. Both events reinforced Cais do Valongo’s candidacy for the World Heritage List.
Discovery
In 2011, two docks (Valongo and Imperatriz) were discovered during excavations carried out as part of the revitalization of the Port Zone of Rio de Janeiro before the 2016 Olympic Games. The sites contain enormous quantities of amulets, rings, and bracelets, shells, and cult objects from Congo, Angola, and Mozambique. Cais do Valongo was designated as heritage without reservations, based exclusively on its relationship with events of remarkable universal significance (in this case, slavery and the slave trade).
“The Archaeological Site of Cais do Valongo now joins a unique list of cultural assets inscribed exclusively under this criterion, a list that includes Auschwitz and Hiroshima,” explained Adam Muniz, head of the International Promotion Department of Brazil’s Ministry of Culture.
The president of the National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage (Iphan), Kátia Bogéa, highlighted that “in the context of slavery, Rio carries the sad title of the largest slave port in history. However, it is also a place where the contributions brought by African peoples found one of their greatest sources of expression, nuanced by the miscegenation inherent to Brazilian identity.”
Source: BrazilGovNews