ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys the impact of the international rise of public memories of slavery in Brazil and discusses how slavery gradually started gaining visibility in public space. It examines the existing monuments and museums commemorating slavery in Brazil to contend that there have been considerable obstacles in creating permanent places dedicated to the public memory of slavery in the country. The chapter presents a brief overview of Brazilian slavery and its abolition, the racial inequalities that followed abolition during the twentieth century and the fight against racism. It discusses how memories of slavery remained confined in the private sphere and concealed in Brazilian public space. A close examination of the initiatives to commemorate Brazilian slavery through monuments, museums and memorials indicates that the country is far behind several other nations in Africa, Europe and the Americas, which since the 1990s have started publicly acknowledging their role in the Atlantic slave trade and slavery.
