Drum band Olodum performs in Pelourinho during Carnival, Feb. 8, 2013, in Salvador, Brazil. The Brazilian government is making a concerted push to acknowledge, celebrate, preserve and promote Afro-Brazilian history and experiences. (Philippe Lissac/Godong/DPA/Zuma Press/TNS)
Rhonda Holder’s first visit to Brazil came from a desire to see Rio de Janeiro’s world-famous Copacabana Beach, Christ the Redeemer statue and colorful Selarón steps. The 67-year-old retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and nurse from Hampton, Virginia, had stumbled upon a Facebook ad from Travel Divas, a company offering luxury group tours for Black women. They seemed to be having a ball, she says, and she felt she could relate to them.
After booking her spot on a March trip, Holder searched for activities to add to her itinerary and found a “Rio Little Africa” tour listed on TripAdvisor Inc.’s online tour marketplace, Viator, offered by Florencios Tours & Travel. Named after the central Port Zone known for its large Afro-Brazilian population, less than nine miles north of Copacabana Beach, it promised a deep dive into the city’s lesser-known African heritage and its ties to the transatlantic slave trade through a four-hour walking tour.
Intrigued, Holder suggested it to her group of 32 Black women, most of whom signed up. “Wherever we travel, we want to know the Black history behind it,” she says, speaking of Black consumers.
And the Brazilian government has finally caught on. A new concerted push to acknowledge, celebrate, preserve and promote Afro-Brazilian history and experiences is a first in the country’s history. It’s poised to become a revenue stream as well as bring change to an industry in which Afro-Brazilian tour guides have largely been left out. Heritage travel can be a catalyst to build a more equitable and inclusive country where inequality runs deep.
Consider that in the U.S. alone,…