The executive manager of institutional relations at the state-owned Bank of Brazil gave a speech to about 150 people at a forum on the history of slavery in Brazil, where more Africans were forced into forced labor than in any other country.
"The Bank of Brazil asks for forgiveness from black people," Andre Machado told a mostly black audience at the Portela samba school in Rio de Janeiro.
"Directly or indirectly, the entire Brazilian society should apologize to black people for that sad period in our history," he said.
Brazil, where more than half the population identifies as black or biracial, has long resisted coming to terms with its past. That reluctance began to subside.
Public prosecutors have begun probing the Banco Brasilia, Latin America's second-largest financial institution by assets, with $380 billion, due to historical ties to the slave trade.
Their investigation could lead to a recommendation, an agreement or the filing of a lawsuit, and they called on the Bank of Brazil to start a dialogue with blacks at the Portela school in the working-class neighborhood of Madureira.
Jislen Almeida e Cunja, the spiritual leader of the Afro-Brazilian Umbanda religion, came to Rio from the Amazon city of Belem and stated that "this is a historic moment." She welcomed the apology and announcement of measures, although the bank did not promise compensation.
About five million kidnapped Africans were brought to Brazil, 12 times the number taken to continental North America, according to estimates from the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database.
Brazil was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery, in 1888.
The Valongo pier in Rio, which UNESCO calls "the most important physical trace of the arrival of African slaves to the American continent", was only excavated in 2011.
Discrimination still remains. Blacks and Brazilian tribes are poorer, more often in prisons and die violently. Less than a third of leadership positions are occupied by these groups, and they make up one quarter of the representatives in the Lower House of Congress of Brazil.
On December 7, a Senate committee heard from experts who argue that Brazil should prioritize reparations. And when the carnival begins next Sunday, the samba school will parade in front of tens of thousands of spectators and millions more TV viewers to present the story of a black man whose family is seeking reparations.
Brazil's desire for reparations is growing and joining existing movements abroad.
In the US, New York, California and Illinois have established working groups on the issue.
In November, the African Union joined with Caribbean countries to form a "united front" to persuade European countries to pay for "historic mass atrocities".
Institutions such as Harvard University and the Bank of England are confronting their historical ties to the slave trade, but neither has approved direct financial reparations.
In 2021, US President Joseph Biden expressed support for a federal commission to study a national reparations plan for black Americans, but did not support any state-level efforts.
Such discussions in the US inspired the Brazilian nonprofit Educafro to sue the federal government in May 2022, Irapua Santana, the lawyer who filed the suit, told The Associated Press. The organization, which fights for better access to education for blacks and Brazilians, is demanding an apology and an anti-racism fund, among other measures.
Brazil has long presented itself as an "inclusive democracy" that has left racism behind. Only in recent decades have there been concerted efforts to publicly debunk that myth. The country has so far largely addressed the legacy of slavery through affirmative action, notably its 2012 law requiring public universities to reserve a certain number of seats for blacks.
But many on the right argue that the past is irrelevant and deny that any compensation is owed.
"What debt? I have never enslaved anyone," said Jair Bolsonaro in a TV interview in 2018 before winning the presidency. The former leader and current right-wing standard-bearer questioned the basis for quotas, saying black and white people should be treated equally. In October, his son proposed an end to race-based quotas, and nearly one-third of senators supported the measure.
But reconciliation advocates disagree.
"Faced with the horror of 350 years of slavery, the enrollment quotas are insufficient. We need to expand the discussion on reparations," said lawyer Humberto Adami, president of the Commission for Racial Equality of the Brazilian Bar Institute.
That demands for reparations are being heard in public, prominent places for the first time is partly a reflection of the political climate ushered in by leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office in January 2023. Last year, prosecutors began an investigation into Bank Brazil, which in cooperates with that.
Its largest shareholder at one point was José Bernardino de Sa, a slave trader responsible for transporting about 19.000 Africans to Brazil, according to historical research that triggered the prosecutors' investigation. João Henrique Ulrich, who in 1842 was caught running slave shacks in the capital of Angola, was the director of that bank for almost a decade.
The institution also allowed clients to declare enslaved blacks as financial assets to guarantee loans that built Brazil's economy — one example of how "slavery is central to the formation of Brazil," said Tiago Campos Pesoa, one of the historians.
In addition to the apology, the Bank of Brazil announced measures to facilitate jobs for blacks and said it was "working intensively to counter structural racism."
Lula appointed Tarciana Medeiros to lead that bank, and she is its first black president. He pledged to pursue racial equality and established the first ministry on the issue.
The family of Joao Candido, who served in the Navy two decades after Brazil abolished slavery, hopes a more receptive executive branch will finally hear their pleas.
Having witnessed the flogging of sailors, Candido led a revolt in 1910 against flogging by officers. He and fellow rebels were tortured, and only two survived, including Candide. Kicked out of the Navy, he and his family lost pensions and promotions, then fell into poverty, according to prosecutor Julio Araujo, who is also leading the Bank of Brazil investigation.
Candido's family is seeking compensation from the federal government. They also want him inducted into the nation's official Pantheon of Heroes, said Adalberto Candido, 85, the sailor's only surviving son.
Reparations "would make a difference because we are a humble family. We have always earned minimum wage," said Candido, who started working at age 14.
He spoke in front of Candide's final home, where a colorful mural depicts his story.
That story will take center stage in one of the top carnival parades. In the warehouse where the Paraiso do Tuiuti samba school constructs its giant floats and tailors its gold-sequined sailor costumes, there are many references to slavery, such as a painting of a whipped slave by French painter Jean-Baptiste Debre.
Jack Vasconcelos, who created the theme for the school parade, said he decided to honor Candide because violence reminiscent of slavery still occurs. He stated that a black woman in Rio was whipped with a dog leash last year.
That delivery boy will perform as Candido during the parade, which aims to help society remember slavery, which is a form of reparations, Vasconcelos said.
"But we also have to fight for tangible reparations, not just a contribution to memory," he stressed.
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