In 1853, Viscount José Bernardino de Sa, a Brazilian who made his fortune in the slave trade, became the largest single shareholder in the country’s oldest bank, Banco do Brasil.
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One hundred and seventy years later, this bank, now in government hands, is the subject of a judicial investigation into its links to slavery.
Enough to add to the growing pressure in several countries, forcing those who benefited from transatlantic human trafficking to make reparations.
In Brazil, the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery in 1888, the debate was reignited last September when 14 historians sent federal prosecutors a study on the Banco do Brasil’s involvement in the slave trade.
The public prosecutor’s office has initiated an investigation and is now demanding compensation from the bank. According to historians, this is the first case of its kind in Brazil.
Founded in 1808, Banco do Brasil is currently the second largest bank in Latin America with assets of around $380 billion.
“Capital in the form of human bodies was a fundamental part of the Brazilian financial system,” we can read in the study prepared by historians from local universities, but also from Harvard and the University of Pittsburgh (USA).
The scars of centuries of slavery are still widely visible in Brazil, a country of 203 million where 56% of the population is black or mixed race.
Racism continues to hit Afro-Brazilians hard: on average, they earn half as much as their white counterparts, their life expectancy is shorter and they face discrimination on a daily basis.
“These are not problems of the past, they are problems of today,” emphasizes Martha Abreu from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (Uerj).
Beyond excuses
In November, prosecutors held a public hearing with activists, government authorities and Banco do Brasil representatives.
The meeting took place symbolically at the headquarters of Portela, one of the prestigious samba schools that parade in Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival, a symbol of the black influence on Brazilian culture.
André Machado, a director of the bank, opened the proceedings by reading a text in which he publicly apologized for the bank’s role in the “perverse history” of slavery.
Banco do Brasil recalled that it is currently led by Tarciana Medeiros, the first black president in its history.
The bank also put forward a plan to reduce inequalities, with funding for black women entrepreneurs or for research projects on racial issues.
But prosecutor Julio Araujo considered these proposals “inadequate.” His team will continue to demand higher reparations, he told AFP.
“When we talk about reparations, it can’t just be excuses,” adds activist Silvia de Mendonça of the United Black Movement.
According to her, it is “not necessarily about paying individual compensation,” but rather about funding projects that are intended to improve the “inclusion” of the black community. She mentions cultural centers, educational projects and police reforms, although the vast majority of victims of police violence are black.
Slaves as security
Brazil is the country that received the most slaves from Africa in the transatlantic trade. From the 16th to the 19th century, around 5.5 million of them came by boat to the Portuguese colony, which became independent in 1822.
According to historians, the Banco do Brasil had very close ties to slavery.
José Bernardino de Sa was one of the world’s leading slave traders and was responsible for the arrival of at least 19,000 Africans in Brazil between 1825 and 1851.
The bank’s director at the time, Joao Henrique Ulrich, had participated in the slave trade in Angola. Its vice president, Joao Pereira Darigue Faro, came from the family that owned the most slaves in the southeast region, the center of coffee production in Brazil.
The study also showed how the Banco do Brasil used its capital – most of which came from the slave trade – to support an entire economy based on slavery. Slaves even served as collateral for loans.
Historians now want to go further. Targeted: other companies, but also families whose current wealth is linked to slavery.