The black past of São Paulo’s Japanese neighbourhood

São Paulo’s Liberdade neighbourhood, home to the largest Japanese community outside Japan, is renowned for its Asian-style architecture, restaurants and public lighting resembling paper lanterns. Thousands of tourists enjoy the area’s cuisine and culture, often unaware of the neighbourhood’s black history.

The name “Liberdade” (liberty in English) has been linked to the story of Chaguinhas, a formerly enslaved black soldier who was sentenced to death in 1821 after he led a protest for better wages, prompting spectators to the execution to call for his “liberty”.

“When people see the neighbourhood, there is another history being told,” said Debora Pinheiro, a guide on a tour attended by Reuters. “The Japanese arrived in the early 20th century and started a process of gentrification. But the black presence is still huge.”

Afrotourism — tourism with a focus on black history — is a growing industry in Brazil. Guia Negro, an organisation founded in 2018, aims to disseminate the often overlooked history in Brazil. It now offers tours in 22 cities, including Salvador, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

In 2023, the tourism agency announced that it would promote businesses in addition to tourism. The same year, Pequena Africa (Little Africa) in Rio de Janeiro had more visitors than the iconic Christ the Redeemer or Sugarloaf Mountain, according to the agency, which cited data from the Rio mayor’s office.

Pinheiro said the addition of “Japao” (Japan) to the name of Liberdade’s metro station highlights how black history is still erased in São Paulo.

Despite not being known as the “blackest city outside Africa” like Salvador, in the northern state of Bahia, or the neighbourhood of Little Africa in Rio de Janeiro, the city of São Paulo has the largest population of black people in Brazil in absolute numbers.

Black American tourists are among Guia Negro’s most frequent clients, choosing Brazil as a more welcoming destination. “Brazil made me feel like a black queen,” said Chanel Adrian Clifton, who participated in the tour. “I feel very welcome, powerful, and understood.”

Guilherme Soares Dias, the founder of Guia Negro, started the organisation after experiencing frequent racial profiling abroad. “I wanted to create a platform to encourage more black people to travel and for everyone to learn more about black history and culture,” he said.

Guia Negro emphasises history education to combat prejudice.

In October 2020, police officers, alerted by social media posts about a “black march”, came to the tour. For three hours, they questioned, filmed and followed the organisers, suspecting the tour was a protest. In April 2024, a judge ordered the São Paulo state to pay 750,000 reais ($138,000) to Guia Negro in compensation for “moral collective damage and discriminatory action, with clear outlines of institutional racism”.

Reuters