Salvador de Bahia - The Blackest city outside of Africa.

Along Brazil’s Northeastern Coast is Salvador de Bahia, the Blackest city outside of Africa. Over 80% of the city identifies as Afro-Brazilian, but it’s no utopia for black people.

Known to many as ‘Black Rome,’ Salvador is a hub of Black culture. With no reason needed for celebrating, a walk through the city means hearing drums roar, buying Afro-inspired goods from boutiques, and eating local dishes made with ingredients that show up around the diaspora, like black-eyed peas and okra.

Today I bring you insight on the Blackest city outside of Africa, Salvador de Bahia, Brazil.

Salvador de Bahia is the capital of Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia. It’s located along the country’s coast. Also known as Salvador, it’s been called the blackest city outside of Africa. The city’s most distinctive characteristic is its deep bond with Africa and its customs. It’s a city in Brazil where 80 percent of its residents are of African descent. African culture has been experiencing a renaissance there as well.

Salvador's population is the result of 500 years of interracial marriage. The majority of the population has African, European and Native American roots. The African ancestry of the city is from Angola, Benin, Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Senegal and Mozambique.
According to an autosomal DNA study from 2008, the ancestral heritage of the population of Salvador was estimated to be 49.2% African, 36.3% European and 14.5% Native American. The study also analyzed the genetic backgrounds of people by type of surname. Those with surnames with a religious connotation were 53.1% African in genetic ancestry and tended to be in lower economic classes. During the colonial era, it was typical practice for Portuguese priests and missionaries to baptize converted African slaves and Native Americans with surnames of religious connotations. These have been passed down to their descendants.

The African influence in many cultural aspects of the city makes it a center of Afro-Brazilian culture. As the first capital of Colonial Brazil, the city is one of the oldest in the Americas and one of the first planned cities in the world, having been established during the Renaissance period. Salvador's historical and cultural aspects were inherited by the intermarriage of such ethnic groups as Native-Indian, African and European. This mixture can be seen in the religion, cuisine, cultural manifestations, and custom of Bahia's people. African cultural practices are particularly celebrated.

Salvador de Bahia local cuisine, spicy and based on seafood, strongly relies on typically African ingredients and techniques, and is much appreciated throughout Brazil and internationally. The most typical ingredient is azeite-de-dendê, an oil extracted from a palm tree brought from West Africa to Brazil during colonial times.
Using the milky coconut juice, they prepare a variety of seafood based dishes, such as Ensopados, Moquecas and Escabeche. Sugar cane bagasse is mixed with molasses and Rapadura, in the creation of coconut desserts like Cocada Branca and Preta. In the markets of Salvador, it is possible to find stands selling typical dishes of the colonial era.

The capital's beaches range from calm inlets, ideal for swimming, sailing, diving and underwater fishing, as well as open sea inlets with strong waves, sought by surfers. There are also beaches surrounded by reefs, forming natural pools of stone, ideal for children.
There are so many interesting places to visit around Salvador like
Porto da Barra Beach which was the third best place to visit in the world. According to the British newspaper, The Guardian, in 2007.
The large island of Itaparica in the Bay of All Saints is also a great place to visit. It can be visited either by a car-ferry, or a smaller foot-passenger ferry, which leaves from near the Mercado Modelo near the Lacerda Elevator.
The city is served by many shopping malls, including Shopping Iguatemi, Salvador Shopping, Shopping Barra, and Shopping Paralela.
Salvador has four parks and protected green areas like, Jardim dos Namorados Park, Costa Azul Park, Park of the city, Park of Pituaçu.


Though Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery, the cloud of anti-Blackness still hovers over the city.

Like black people fighting for liberation in the U.S., Afro-Brazilians have also been fighting. From working from sunup to sundown since the dawn of the 17th century on sugar plantations to fighting modern-day systemic racism.

Black Brazilians have inequitable access to healthcare and are three times more likely to be killed by police. This shows that despite where blacks ended, Black folks across the African diaspora have always experienced the world similarly.

I hope you found this video interesting and insightful?

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