{"id":35646,"date":"2017-03-28T08:58:20","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T11:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=35646"},"modified":"2017-03-31T09:47:58","modified_gmt":"2017-03-31T12:47:58","slug":"new-blacks-institute-launches-ipnresiste-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=35646","title":{"rendered":"Americas’ Largest Slave Cemetery to Close at End of Week Due to Abandonment by Rio Authorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

In 1996, Merced Guimar\u00e3es and her husband Petrucio made a chilling discovery in their new home<\/a> during an extensive renovation project: workers excavating in the soil beneath their house in the neighborhood of Gamboa<\/a> in Rio de Janeiro’s Port Region<\/a> unearthed human bones. After calling the authorities, leading to an investigation of the site, it was\u00a0discovered\u00a0that this crime scene<\/a> was in fact the site of a mass grave, the until-then rumored\u00a0Cemetery for New Blacks<\/a>. It was here that tens of thousands of captured Africans were buried from around 1791 to 1831. With bodies\u00a0weakened\u00a0during travel across\u00a0the Middle Passage, they\u00a0died shortly after arriving to Brazil\u2019s shores and prior to sale, and were\u00a0discarded into large pits, their remains periodically crushed and burned along with trash.<\/p>\n

\"Bones<\/a><\/p>\n

This unexpected exhumation of a horrific past marked the starting point of Merced\u2019s life work. After an initial archaeological survey, the city government was prepared to cover the cemetery once again<\/a>. Merced could have very well proceeded with her renovation plans and all would have been forgotten once more. Instead, she decided it was her duty to dedicate this space to the memory of the tens of thousands of lives buried there and to the history of slavery in the Port Region of Rio<\/a>. After a nearly ten-year battle, she was able to inaugurate the New Blacks Institute (IPN)<\/a>\u00a0on May 13, 2005. The Institute serves as a museum, memorial and research center exploring the history of the cemetery and the Port Region, and celebrates\u00a0Rio’s black heritage. It is a nonprofit organization, and depends largely on the support of individual small donors. It is the only stop on Rio’s Black Heritage Circuit<\/a> where detailed historical information is exchanged and people are regularly available to answer questions and deepen the visitor’s understanding\u00a0of\u00a0the tragic and dramatic history of the world’s largest slave port<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This month the Institute has been running the campaign #IPNResiste<\/a>\u00a0(#IPNResists), a challenge to local government to resume providing the basic funding which allows IPN to keep its doors open to the public and carry on with its research and educational programming. In 2013 the IPN began receiving\u00a0some\u00a0financial support from the Urban Development Company of the Port Region (CDURP)<\/a> and the New Port Concessionary during implementation of the City’s Porto Maravilha<\/a> port redevelopment plan. The budget was cut halfway through 2016, however, and\u00a0there is no promise that the City will resume its support. As Merced writes in a letter announcing the campaign<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cWe cannot close this Institute that for 12 years has been trying to implement actions to preserve, research and dynamize the African and Afro-Brazilian cultural heritage in a diasporic perspective, aiming at the validation of human dignity, universality of knowledge, racial and religious equality and the building in the present of memories buried in the past.\u201d As it stands now IPN is struggling to even afford basic cleaning supplies and utility bills. If the city government fails to respond by the end of the month, IPN will have no choice but to close its doors.<\/p>\n

Merced and supporters of the Institute are adamant that the issue is not one of lack of government resources, particularly given the minimum requirement to stay open being only R$6,000 monthly (US$2000). Certainly the country has been hard hit by its most recent economic recession, and the Rio City government\u00a0is still reeling from the post-Olympic fiscal crisis. However, the costs of port zone projects like the Museum of Tomorrow <\/a>(R$250 million), the Rio Art Museum<\/a>\u00a0or MAR (R$185 million), the VLT light rail project<\/a> (R$1.2 billion), the new aquarium<\/a> (R$100 million), and Olympic Boulevard, demonstrate that where there is political will and corporate interest, plenty of money and resources will be put to use. Professor Carlos Eug\u00eanio is a longtime supporter of IPN. In his testimonial featured below, one of many<\/a> for the #IPNResiste<\/a> campaign, he proclaims, \u201c[financing] is an obligation of the state. The state has the resources, and the IPN barely costs anything. It is scandalous to say that there are no resources available.\u201d<\/p>\n