Opinion – Black Guide: Salvador Capital Afro passes away from black protagonism

In 472 years, Salvador has never been governed by a democratically elected black mayor. The capital of Bahia has 82% of its population of black people, the highest percentage in the country. It is structural racism taking away political and economic power from most of the population.

Public policies for black people in Salvador are still made by white people today. Tourism in the black city also has a white perspective. For those of us who work with afrotourism, it has always been a dream to have governments and companies investing in this movement within tourism, which until then had been sidelined by public policies.

Salvador Capital Afro, a program promoted by the Municipality of Salvador that defines itself as a “movement to strengthen Afro culture in Salvador” and has a contribution of R$ 15 million from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), is a great dream that began to become a nightmare as the program progressed, as it did not have black people at the center of decisions.

The current mayor of Salvador, Bruno Reis (União Brasil), declares himself brown, as does his political godfather ACM Neto, but he has no known African ancestry and is not seen as black in society. Neto, as he is known, tried in his candidacy for the government of Bahia to make a political use of the agenda, which is “in fashion”, but it did not stick, it became a meme and he still lost the elections.

Still, Salvador is the only capital in the country that has a Municipal Secretariat for Reparation (Semur) and not for equality or diversity. It is also the only folder with a significant number of black people and was an important part of the project getting off the ground. Conquest of the local black movement, let it be clear.

The Salvador Capital Afro program was created through public notice, theoretically a democratic way of selecting projects. But economic power once again made white people’s companies win the main competitions.

The program was formatted with three pillars: Salvador Capital Afro (events to value and promote the city’s black creative economy and marketing), Afrobiz (platform for black entrepreneurs) and Rolê Afro (development of Afrocentric tourist routes).

Among the companies selected by the public notice for Rolê Afro, for example, are the Italian companies Target Euro and Artès. Each of the program’s tripods has a performance and the entire policy is managed by the National Program for the Development and Structuring of Tourism (Prodetur), which once again has non-black people in charge of the project.

Afrobiz registered Afro-entrepreneurs, events and consultancies. On the website, he copied some reports produced by us, from Guia Negro, without giving credit. Notified, they apologized and removed the content from the air.

There was no remuneration for the use of the material and the program does not yet foresee funding for the black media, which cover subjects like this and are usually excluded from the media plans of large projects. Black media could not have been left out of this plan. But it stayed. And so, the story continues to be told from the perspective of the colonizer, with the traditional white media buying the narrative of the event’s production, without any perspective and critical questions.

When Salvador Capital Afro was launched, Guia Negro was invited to launch it as media. Until that moment, no actor working with afrotourism had participated in the tables, decisions, provided advice or helped manage the program.

We wrote that it was not possible to do afrotourism without those who do afrotourism. And we saw the third part of the program that designs new tourist routes being pre-announced with a name very similar to ours, which also carries out this work. We emphasized in meetings with Prodetur and Semur that it was not going to be possible for them to copy us once more. The program was then named Rolê Afro.

It was enough for us to be considered persona non grata at the various events they held, without inviting us to tables or sending out announcement releases.

The Salvador Capital Afro Festival, which began this Wednesday (30th) and runs until December 4th, does not have Guia Negro among its panelists. Some of the main names in the sector only entered the event after intervention by those who work in the area. In general, the festival privileged air-conditioning startups over those that do basic work, on the street, that tell stories that the official story does not tell, as is our case.

According to the consortium, which is at the head of Salvador Capital Afro, all contracts for actions to implement the Afro Plan have as a contractual rule the composition of a team with at least 60% of black people. “It is also important to highlight that the majority of black people act in leadership positions”, he says in a note, disregarding that the companies belong to white people.

The absence of Guia Negro from the festival’s debate tables is justified by the invitation that was restricted to a mentorship aimed at 15 new companies in the sector. “It should be noted that the program includes different afrotourism initiatives from across the country, covering the diversity of actions in the segment”, he informs.

The Afroturismo manifesto made by us, which defines the movement as affection, affront and future, will not, however, be present. The affront, in this case, was what took us out of the event. They were afraid to hear us.

But you will have to read us and we have some questions. Is the consortium afraid of the debate we provoke? How to build public policies without listening to criticism? Why are there only companies headed by white people in the process? Will there be tourist signage for places of culture and black history? How will the appreciation of Bahian women, a symbol of the city, but always rejected by the public authorities on a day-to-day basis? What will be the role of the Afro blocks in this policy?

And I continue: When will black women (from Bahia with acarajé and trancistas) have a place for themselves in Pelourinho? Will there be heritage education for guides to stop replicating stories with Eurocentric narratives? Will there be investment to build monuments in honor of black people? Will black people be honored on behalf of streets and squares, as requested by the movement for Rua Alaíde do Feijão?

Deep down, Salvador Capital Afro shows that it wants blacks in that place only as executors. It is a policy for us, which was not thought through, nor does the money circulate in our community (the one for which we fight so hard and which we are entitled to).

Many of the hired blacks complain precisely about the amounts they are receiving. We remember that the movement we make is called afrotourism, not ethnic tourism, as it was in the past. Salvador is far from being Wakanda, but it is the Afro capital of Brazil, with all the power and racism that this implies.