When he was appointed in 1961 to take over the Brazilian embassy in Ghana, Raymundo Souza Dantas became Brazil’s first black ambassador, breaking a paradigm that had lasted 138 years since the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was created.
The appointment, however, made him the target of attacks by the press and sectors of the Foreign Ministry. “They considered that he was not qualified for the position, which generated a lot of criticism”, explains Fábio Koifman, author of a biography on Souza Dantas and professor of history at UFRRJ (Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro).
According to the researcher, critics said at the time that the ambassador was inexpressive and that, as he came from a career as a journalist, he had no diplomatic experience. He points out, however, that other nominees in the same period without this background —such as the writer Rubem Braga and the painter CÃcero Dias, assigned to the representations in Morocco and Senegal— were not attacked like Souza Dantas.
“But these were not the points that really bothered him, but the fact that he was black, northeastern and of humble origins”, says Koifman. “Some texts had a racist connotation and attacked him personally.”
Born in Estância (SE), a city 67 kilometers from Aracaju, the son of a washerwoman, Souza Dantas began to become literate at the age of 18. After moving to Rio de Janeiro, he worked as a street sweeper and apple seller until he reached journalism, a profession in which he distinguished himself.
According to the researcher, part of Itamaraty supported the indication of the Sergipe citizen, but the institution’s servers leaked distorted information to the newspapers to harm him. One said that Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972), then president of Ghana, was upset with the appointment of a black person to the embassy and that he was therefore delaying the sending of the agrément —in diplomatic jargon, consultation with a country that can come to receive a new ambassador.
Koifman maintains, however, that the document took a long time to be sent due to internal reasons for Ghana, which at the time was only four years old as an independent country. “The government was still structuring itself”, he says. To reinforce the argument, the researcher claims that Rubem Braga faced similar problems. “His agrement came much later, but no one said anything.”
Upon disembarking in Ghana, the mishaps of Souza Dantas only increased. “My father had many difficulties. He felt abandoned by Itamaraty”, says Roberto Souza Dantas, 75, the ambassador’s son. As soon as they arrived, he says that a diplomat refused to vacate the official residence to make room for the Sergipe man, who had to spend about two months in hotels.
When they installed themselves in the chancellery, they found a property in such precarious condition that, when they received a guest, the guest had to sleep on the floor. “He talked about the difficulties, he found himself isolated. He commented that he was an exotic personality in the diplomatic corps”, says Roberto.
The book that Souza Dantas wrote about the period received the title “Difficult Africa”. In an excerpt of the work, he says: “My purpose is just to register that what everyone considers achievement is nothing but drama: being an ambassador”.
In another passage, about his son’s studies, he adds: “May God help him and put the idea of ​​a diplomatic career out of his mind. I know he will suffer for being black.”
The appointment of Souza Dantas to the embassy in Ghana did not immediately mean an improvement in the representation of blacks in Itamaraty. Today, officially, the folder does not have information on the racial profile of diplomats, but a survey by IPEA (Institute for Applied Economic Research) indicates that, in 2020, 11.7% of these professionals declared themselves black, while 58.2% claimed to be black. whites — and the table has a large gap, given that 28.2% did not report their racial classification.
Only almost 50 years after Souza Dantas did Brazil have its first career black ambassador. In 2010, Benedicto Fonseca Filho, then 47 years old, 25 of them in the diplomatic corps, was promoted to ambassador to head the Department of Science and Technology at Itamaraty.
“The promotion was not only a joy and an honor, but also the realization of a dream that began in the 1970s,” he says, in an email interview. At that time, Fonseca Filho moved with his family to Prague, accompanying his father, who was a concierge at the Foreign Ministry.
The diplomat says that when he was appointed ambassador, he did not encounter the hostile environment that the former representative in Ghana faced. For him, cultural and political changes in the country, in addition to the fact that he already has a long career at the agency, help to explain the difference in treatment. “I believe that the combination of these factors contributed to the acceptance of my name in an environment of greater normality than that faced by Ambassador Souza Dantas.”
Fonseca Filho estimates that, when he entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there were less than ten people who declared themselves black, a scenario that has changed over the years. “Today, the body has a growing number of black men and women diplomats, quotaholders or not, usually endowed with exceptional personal and professional qualities.”
Since 2002, Itamaraty has had an affirmative action program that grants scholarships to fund the studies of afro-descendant candidates. Of the 789 people who entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 2002 and 2014, 20 were blacks covered by the scholarships (2.5% of the total). Between 2014 and 2020, 127 people joined the diplomatic corps, of which 27 through racial quotas (raising the proportion to 21.3%).
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