ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the recognition of the Valongo Wharf archaeological site as a World Heritage Site and how it shapes the life stories of social agents with different ties to the port region of Rio de Janeiro. The narrative of value constructed for the application to include Valongo Wharf on the UNESCO list first was analysed, as well as the treatment of the nearby New African Cemetery in relation to this heritage site. Valongo Wharf’s impact on the lives of the interviewed subjects and their relations with the port area was adopted as an initial rationale in order to expand the processes of listening about the heritagization of the area. This reveals the emergence of decolonial perspectives in their narratives. By focusing on different uses of heritage, difficult pasts and identifications with imagined collectivities related to blackness presented themselves as forms of resistance to structural racism present in Brazilian society. Silencing is the key category in this analysis and is understood as an active, intentional practice and an integral part of coloniality which naturalizes discriminatory principles. Focusing on what can be learnt from individual narratives has become an important means of displacing centralities as well as illuminating changes in attitude.
