Brazil: Why the country has the largest Afro-descendant population outside of Africa

On the coasts of Bahia, people dance capoeira, celebrate the orishas, and eat acarajé. This is hardly surprising: Brazil has the largest Afro-descendant population outside of Africa. How did this come to be?

The largest slave trade to the Americas

Between the end of the 16th century and the 1860s, approximately 4.9 million Africans were deported to Brazil. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database records 4,821,126 people who disembarked, about 70% of whom came from West Central Africa (Angola, Congo). Brazil abolished slavery on May 13, 1888, with the Golden Law (Lei Áurea): it was the last country in the Americas to do so.

What the 2022 census says

The 2022 Brazilian census counts 20.7 million people who identify as "Black" (preta), or 10.2% of the population, and 92.1 million who identify as "brown" or mixed-race (parda), or 45.3%. Together, they represent 55.5% of Brazilians. These categories are based on self-declaration: each person chooses the one they identify with.

Salvador de Bahia, the "Black capital" of Brazil

With more than 80% of its inhabitants being Afro-descendants, Salvador is often described as the Blackest city in the world outside of the African continent. As a former major port for the arrival of deported Africans, it is today one of the main centers of Afro-Brazilian culture.

A heritage that crossed the Atlantic

Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion, draws from the traditions of the Yoruba, Fon, and Bantu peoples, who came from regions that correspond today to Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Angola, and the Congo. Capoeira is associated with the peoples of Angola, notably the Mbundu, even if its exact origins are a subject of debate.

Key takeaways

Brazil reminds us that the history of Africa does not stop at its borders: it is also written on the other side of the Atlantic, in the music, religion, cuisine, and identity of millions of people.