Salvador, the first capital of Brazil, has maintained the evidence of its African heritage, introduced by the transatlantic slave trade from Africa to Brazil. During the Portuguese colonization, the Bay of All Saints was of fundamental importance as the main export site in the Southern Hemisphere, from which products such as Brazilian sugar and Bolivian silver were shipped to Europe. On this 4-hour tour you’ll learn about the transatlantic slave trade and its legacy by visiting key historical sites in the city of Salvador. The tour begins at the Fort and Barra Lighthouse at the port of arrival for enslaved Africans. Continue to the Tororó dike and see the monument dedicated to the legacy of African religious heritage and the worship of Orixas. The next sites you’ll visit are located in the Cidade Baixa (lower city), where you’ll take in important historic locations marking the presence of Africans in Bahia and Brazil. In the historic downtown area, you’ll visit the Afro Museum of Benin, where the collection highlights the African perspective in the formation of Brazilian identify and culture. You’ll also stop at the Church of the Rosary of the Blacks, the first Black Christian religious brotherhood in the New World. The tour concludes with a visit to the Casa do Benin Museum, one of the main African cultural centers in the state of Bahia.

Salvador is a city that holds that largest black population outside the African continent and hence, it is known as the Black Rome. It has preserved as part of its historical legacy an intense African-Amerindian religiosity.  The city safeguards charms and mysteries, hidden in magnificent places that you will have the opportunity to visit through this itinerary, carefully prepared in order to demystify erroneous notions and impressions disseminated over several centuries about religions of African origin in the world. The route begins in the Afro-Brazilian Museum which, through its collection, narrates the history of enslaved Africans and the transatlantic trade, and the ebb and flow of enslaved peoples and their identities. The artifacts come from several regions of the African continent, allowing you to understand the countless intellectual, artistic, cultural and religious manifestations of these peoples in Brazil. You will visit the Pierre Verger Foundation, the French anthropologist responsible for developing literary and photographic records of the history of slavery, and extensive audio visual documentation. You will get to know a maroon community, places that served as a haven for black people and their African gods during the colonial and post-abolition periods in Brazil. Soon after, you will get to know a Candomblé terreiro from the ewe-fon a nation of daomeniana origin and have the opportunity to consult the sacred oracle (optional activity - extra cost). As you walk through the streets, you will see the urban and cultural development of a slum originated from a maroon community, in the company of guide from the community, who is initiated in these traditions and knowledgeable of these historical processes.