For their Spring Break 2024, nine Morehouse students traveled to Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, the epicenter of Afro-Brazilian culture with Dr. Denise Callejas. Historically serving as the country’s first capital and with the second largest Black population outside of Nigeria, the city stands testament to not only the painful suffering of those who survived the transatlantic slave trade but also to their resistance in the quest for freedom and towards preserving their African identity.
A major goal of the program was for students to understand the Afro-Brazilian experience through the unique syncretism that gave way to such traditions as candomblé, capoeira, and carnival through a series of lectures, workshops, homestays and site visits. Particularly noteworthy was a day trip to the Kaonge quilombo, a community that descends from enslaved African fugitives followed by a visit to Casa do Pé da Cajá, a candomblé temple founded in 1865. Additionally, students participated in a service-learning project at Berimbau Arte, a non-profit school organization that offers free capoeira lessons and other learning resources to youth from lower income communities.
Elementary school students welcomed our group by painting Tupinambá symbols on us. Under the tutelage of local graffiti artist Eder Muniz, Morehouse students helped paint the new library wing with images inspired by the capoeira nicknames of the school’s first cohort. Through these encounters, students were forever changed by the indelible mark they both made and were given as they learned that very little separates the Afro-Brazilian experience from their own African-American experience.
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Student Success