Brazil: Cemetery of African Slaves Honored
Brazil: Cemetery of African Slaves Honored
By JULIANA BARBASSA Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO September 14, 2012 (AP)
Wearing full-skirted white dresses and turbans, the religious leaders chanted blessings in an African language and sprinkled water on the concrete floor of a modest house near this city's port. Beneath their feet were the remains of tens of thousands of African slaves who had died shortly after arriving from their horrific sea voyage.
The bodies had been dumped into a fetid, open-air cemetery, often chopped up and mixed with trash. With the 15-minute ceremony this week, the Afro-Brazilian priests were finally giving the slaves at least the semblance of a proper burial centuries later.
"I thank God for this opportunity," said Edelzuita Lourdes de Santos Oliveira, or Mother Edelzuita, a well-known leader of a house practicing the candomble religion. "We honored our ancestors today with songs left by them."
It's been a long journey not just for the slaves but also for the owners of the house and others seeking to recognize the tragic history in a multiracial country that has often avoided its legacy of slavery and racism.
More:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/brazil-cemetery-african-slaves-honored-17239103
