The mural project honouring the Black cultural heritage of Rio de Janeiro
Despite its majority Afro-descendant population, fewer than 10% of public monuments across Rio commemorate Black people. Photographer María Magdalena Arréllaga chronicles the project seeking to redress the balance
TL;DR
- Rio de Janeiro, a city with a majority Afro-descendant population and a history linked to the transatlantic slave trade, has fewer than 10% of its public monuments commemorating Black people.
- The NegroMuro (BlackWall) project, initiated by Pedro Rajão and Fernando Sawaya, aims to rectify this by creating murals of prominent Black figures.
- The project has produced 80 murals across the city, depicting about 120 individuals and has been recognized as part of Rio's intangible cultural heritage.
- Murals are strategically placed in less-visited neighborhoods to ensure visibility and are created with extensive research, except for an immediate response mural for Marielle Franco.
- The project focuses on portraying beauty and telling the story of Black people in a positive and lighter way, in contrast to historical pain.