The diaspora in foz do Rio Itajaí (SC) in the XVIII and XIX centuries

Abstract

The paper investigates the presence of enslaved Africans in Foz do Rio Itajaí, on the northern coast of Santa Catarina, Brazil, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In this region there were whaling facilities where many of these slaves were kept, especially those brought from the region of the ancient kingdoms of the Congo, Angola and Matamba. Primarily using baptismal and marriage registers, the paper seeks to reconstruct aspects of everyday life in the context of the African Diaspora such as their marital status; their average life span; kinship relations, tensions and solidarities among the different ethnic groups. The research shows that the owners of enslaved Africans were mostly Portuguese: soldiers, traders, farmers and clergymen. One of the objectives of the paper is to give visibility to Africans in this region of Brazil, since the traditional official historiography has built a version of a Europe “embedded” in the South, making all other ethnic groups invisible. This article seeks to contribute to the efforts to reinstate the historic ties between Africa and Brazil.