 If you look at both of us, you might think that we are all from Africa, but we are all from Ghana. It looks like my uncle from Ghana. Oh, okay, okay, thank you, thank you. And indeed, being in Salvador by here, I can confidently say that this city indeed is the blackest city out of Africa. No black people here. Oh man, I'm telling you, bro. Can I take you to Africa? Deep Africa. Deep Africa? He said he's going to be eaten by animals. Oh no, come on. How does it feel being here? Loving and amazing. You know the funny thing about it? I'm seeing people. I look at the guys there. That's my uncle. Everything. It's the black place. It's the black place. She didn't know that it's 80%. Black, the city is 80% black. Yeah, I love it, man. What's the difference between living in Salvador and living in the United States? Shoot, it's way less dangerous. I grew up in the projects, you know, dangerous situations in New York. You don't have to deal with the U.S. white Americans. Sorry for all the white people out there, but y'all know how y'all are. Our hair is just way better, man. I love it. It's always beautiful, everyone. The food is amazing. The people are nice. The music is lively. The blood is amazing, man. For over 400 years, but when we see these people, we connect. You don't have to say anything. We just connect. Salvador is like the hub for the diaspora, because in Africa you've got 54 countries to choose from. But in Brazil, you only got one city to come to. So everybody comes here. By the way, a big shout out to Kali for taking us around Salvador Bahia. And please, she has a YouTube page. You all should surprise her by subscribing to her YouTube channel. The link is in the description. Coming to Brazil is definitely one of the best things that I've done in 2023. And if you agree with me, then please, like this video. Leave a nice comment, and please share this video so that audience can have a piece of this. You live here? So, I live in New York. I used to live here. I lived here for seven years. And then last year I bought an apartment here in Baja. So I kind of lived between New York and here. Why did you decide to live in here? Do you remember the Michael Jackson video? They don't care about it. I saw that video when I was a kid. And then back in 2002 or 2003, India re-recorded a live DVD here in Bahia. And it kind of inspired me to want to come. I came for vacation in 2007. And I ended up staying for seven years. And then last year I came back just on vacation. And I ended up buying an apartment. Yeah, it was just kind of crazy. How does it feel living in here as a black person? It's great. It kind of reminds me a little bit of being in West Africa. But like with other influences, clearly, I feel like living in Salvador as a black person is much more comfortable living in some of the other cities in Brazil like Sao Paulo or Rio where it becomes strange like walking into a high-end store and people look at you like you don't belong there. Well, there's work, there's... Like, you're walking, then the person thinks he lost something. He didn't lose something, but he thinks you stole something. Or you go to a store, a shop, a security guard goes after you. Have you ever suffered racism? Yes, I have friends who have suffered too. But you can get that in Salvador too, but not nearly as much as some of the other cities in Brazil. So for me, it feels really comfortable being here. Hey, kind of performing, and then we just get a shot. Yeah, boy. You know me? What about persecution? Wow. And there are two types of capoeira. Angola, capoeira angola. Acrobatic movement and stuff like that. So the dance came into existence. Well, we didn't create it, right? The capoeira was already in the world before me. But I'm 67 years old, and I've been arranging this capoeira here for 52 years. But before me, there was another path of another generation. They said capoeira came into existence before he was born. This was a long time ago, 1861. Before he was born, the capoeira existed. But as they are growing, they are also modifying it to make it a fight. But before, it was a dance. After being here for the past five days, I would say that Salvador by here consists of two cities in one. That is the lower city and upper city. Now it's called Pelorino? Yeah, it's called Pelorino Historical Center of Salvador, the city originated by here. And you're going downstairs to the downward city. So Pelorino is the largest colonial preserved property, right? Yeah, the historical house in Pelorino is the largest conjunction of colonial architecture of Brazil, maybe in Latin America. Upstairs, we had houses for families, for white families, and upstairs we have shops and markets where enslaved people used to go. So we are going down to the lower city? Yeah. And we're going to use the first elevator? The first elevator construction in Brazil, it's called the Levadola Cerda, which leads the upper side city to the down side city. We are here to take the elevator to the down part of the city. Yeah. And how much is it? 15 cents. 15 cents. Okay guys. It's not panoramic. So you can't see anything? No, panoramic. Wow. There's 20 seconds of history. So, yeah, we are inside the first elevator built in Brazil. I made this tree, right? This is here. Okay. How long does it take? The other thing there. It's fast. Okay. So imagine during the slavery time where there was nothing like a lift, the slaves need to carry all the stones up. Up? By step streets. By steps? Step streets. Wow. We have a lot of step streets linking the lower city with the upper city. So, it doesn't mean that during the slavery time, the slaves need to carry up everything. Including the slave lords. They have to carry even their slaves up. Yeah. Yeah. We are in the lower city in the oldest part of Salvador. And it was exactly here in the colonial period, the 70th century, that we had the first most important port in Brazil. And it was by here that we received thousands. The total in Brazil was about five million Africans, enslaved people. And here, this place, we received many of these Africans. They arrived in Brazil by here, northeast of Brazil, especially Recife and Salvador. It was exactly here. And I've seen like a floating fort. What is that useful? This fort was also built in the 60th century, between 60th and 70th century. It's one of the oldest defensive system in Brazil. And it was built exactly from the city, because Salvador's planet was started to be built there to protect the city of any kind of invasion, attack. Do you understand? So we have the fort there and more forts to the left. There's Baja, more to the right, because the city was concentrated here. To the top. In the top. So Salvador was chosen to be the first capital in Brazil, also because of the strategic position. In the northeast, also having the most important fort, and also because of the position there. Because from there, it would be easy to see any kind of attack. And that building, the palace, was the first Brazilian government like Opsi in Brazil. One thing that I really want to know is that the fact that in Salvador Bahia, even though it's the largest black community, you still see a lot of mixed race in the country. Why is this so? Another thing that we have to emphasize in this miscegenation process is that there were even public policies by the government to whitewash the Brazilian population. So the sale of immigrants to Brazil was not only, as it is said, a perspective of replacing the enslaved in the labor market, in the sense of being more qualified than the enslaved. There was a component of racism in the sense of looking to whitewash the Brazilian population. And in that sense, it was made public policies to bring and give conditions for European immigrants to Brazil to establish themselves in a counter-position. You had on the other side, you had the marginalization of the black population that even today lives in the worst socio-economic conditions. So it was a state policy, this process of whitewash. So this diversity that we have today we cannot let take into consideration this whole violence process that I said at the beginning. You have this perpetrated violence about black women and indigenous women. The presence of the black population was supposed to be an obstacle to the national development, a contradiction in the measure that at the beginning was precisely this black labor world that gave conditions for Brazil to enrich. And when it comes to the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, already close to the slavery period, what will you do with this black mass? Just look at the number of dead, young black people who are dead every day here for violence. And who is the one with the worst indicators in the economic field? It's the black population. So you are talking about 55% of the population according to the data of the IBGE 55% to 56% of the population who live in the worst conditions based on this racism that structure the Brazilian society saying who will be poor and who will be rich. So if you take a picture of the rich in Brazil, you will hardly see the black. But if you take a picture of the chain, you will see the black mass all present there. And in the academy, you also realize in some courses, for example, the absence of black people. How has Salvador been able to maintain the culture of Africa? Even though it's been years since they came in here. Yes, we have a very important legacy of African culture. And Salvador, yes, is one of the places, one of the cities that keep the most African heritage. But this in Brazil is also a manifesto. But Salvador really has this outstanding role. But recently we are suffering many threats regarding the value of this African legacy. You have evangelical religions that have omitted, for example, what the African legacy is. That is, you have a demonization of what the African legacy is. And this is very, as I would say, dangerous for a city that was built with this heritage and suddenly it can be just lose a good part of this legacy in terms of religious intolerance. And it is important that the black youth has precisely this dimension of the value that this African culture has. How you doing? Yeah, I'm fine. How you doing? Hey, you so big man. Yeah, big man. Can you tell us how the privilege came in your existence? This history with which our rights were denied, right? You say is because of the rights of the black people they were not getting their rights. And so, taking away the right of having a good life, a good job, the rights that come to the part of the food part of society, right? You say because of oppression not these things that they are not giving the black people the life that they need, they end up finding where there is no body, where it's more higher, the mountains, the rocks. So that's where they've been running to. That's where they started excluding them from the city, having their own. But this place was bush for us before. That's where they started, you know, they are getting off the city. How was life growing up in Pavelas in those days? See, there was a gist that they said Brazil fought with Uruguay, another country. So when they started the war, they put the black people in the front wall to promise them that if they win the fight, they are going to give them houses, lands and all those things. Okay. So this season, this time, they have a seed of a plant. They call it fava. It's a seed. It's called fava. So each one, two mundo tinha. Okay. So they have a lot of this plant that have these seeds. So they end up calling this community favela. So they won the gift of the war. So when they came back from the war, they didn't give them what they promised to give them, the black people. So they started going to the higher places, the part that is more excluded from the city. End of having the name favela. So now favela is home for black people or home for everyone? So the basic of the culture is in the favela. That's the base. I had so many people that I want to visit a favela. I want to meet my own people because when I'm living, I haven't seen black people. And what I was about to tell others is please don't go. Please don't go. It's dangerous. It's risky. But I'm like, you know what? My people can never be dangerous to me. So I need to go. And when I came in here, to my surprise, I'm meeting the most friendliest people that I've ever met in my whole life. And everybody wants to say hi. Everybody wants to talk to me. The fact that they know that I'm coming from Africa. I was born on Tuesday too. He picked me up on Tuesday too. So I'm called Kobina. Elya Kobina. And you are called Abena. And you are Apo-Sah. And you are called Abena. Abena. Yes, I'm Abena. You walk in the streets and you see somebody of me like, this person looks like my sister. Looks like my aunt. Looks like... Indeed. Indeed now. I need to agree with you all that indeed this is the blackest city out of Africa. Literally every minute that you move you see somebody who looks like you. You get it. And it's, you're not in Africa. It's interesting. Very, very interesting. See the kind of shops. Yes. Yes. The size of the shops. Yes. The outside, you know, you can see how they stand there. Everything is like, like, like Legos or Akra. I won't lie, man. The women here are so gorgeous, bro. They're so gorgeous. Like, you see some gorgeous African sisters right here. Look at that. This side, a real pretty African man. Look at that. He's waving at me back. That looks like an auntie. Oh, man, I just, I'm telling you, bro. I just get so excited when I see my people. Oh, look at that. These are yum. Yum. Yum. I've been to Benin and I've seen how proud the people of Benin are when it comes to their indigenous religion, which is voodoo. And it was so cool to see that in Salvador Bahia, there's a shrine for voodoo. It means that they are so proud to connect with the religion of their ancestors. That voodoo isan. You see, that is voodoo isan. This voodoo is from the whole of Benin. From Benin. From Benin, so it's Benin. So, you guys, you believe that you guys came from Benin? You guys believe that you guys came from Benin? Yes. Yes. And what religion are you performing in here? Is it voodoo or does it have a name? This tradition, they are fighting so much to maintain the traditional of the voodoo. So their ancestors hand over to them? You see, there is somebody, a woman who came from Africa at that time. She said she was from Tuzanus. She came from Tuzanus. Yes, great. About 200 years ago, there was a Benin that stayed. So, as she died, some of her families that are coming from Benin, they came and established the whole thing and bring it back to life. So they are here maintaining the culture, everything going on. All the difficulties, but they are still maintaining it. Okay. They even grow Kalabash in here. Like, literally, this is Africa. You must impudation my speaker. The more you leave it, the bigger it becomes. What is Kalabash? Growing up in Ghana, sacrifices like this are done by our parents. And coming to Brazil, Salvador Bahia, seeing the same sacrifices being done, this is what we call food for the gods. If somebody want to kiss you way back in Africa, they do exactly the same sacrifices. Hi, how are you? Tutubeng? Tutubeng. I love your outfit. This shows that, indeed, our sisters left Africa, but Africa within them never left. Welcome to Salvador Bahia. There is an African party that is happening that I need to be around, yeah. So I came in here, and what I'm seeing is that almost everyone here is wearing white. I think that's a lot of people, especially, like the Nigerian and European happening group. Yeah. And so they have the religion called Kandong Black. And with the Orishas, and the Deities, and then on Fridays, they all wear white. Wow. Yeah. So that's how you're wearing white. Exactly. Are you a robot too? Yeah, I actually did a DNA test. Wow. Yeah. Not like 35% Yoruba, yeah. That's amazing, man. This city is more like an Afrocentric city. Yeah. It's like very, like, we call it like Black Rome, like Afrocapital, like, yeah. Like the Afro influence is so important to the people here. And they really, like, cherish it. I think even, I have some Nigerian friends that even say to me, like, it seems like we know more. But because there's so much assimilation on the continent right now and, like, Christianity and everything, and here it's still very strong. Like, the, yeah, like the old religions, yeah. The African spirituality religion. Yes, exactly. Two church basilic cathedrals, one more thing. This is the most visited church in Salvador. It gets in the Lower City. This church was built in 1745, so a long time ago. It's a special church, you know, just because of the religion, but also because of the syncretism that is very beautiful between Candomble and Catholicism, the Afro-Brazilian religion with the Catholicism. So we have this mixture. And this church, you can see very clear during the celebration of the same, the one thing that happens every year in the beginning of the year. So it's the most popular party after the Candomble. It's very beautiful. Everybody comes from the other side of the city walking for about eight kilometers, dressed in white, singing, praying, laughing. It's a very beautiful church. I hope you come here. I think this ribbon is very important, and I see it everywhere in the city. Yeah. The original place is here, exactly here. When the faithful people from this Saint Jesus, they were used to bring ribbon, but bigger than this, to make like an offering for Jesus, saying thank you for the blessing, thank you for the cure. And the manager of the church, the priest decided to start to produce smaller and sell in order to get money to the church. And after, along the years, we start to have colorful ribbons. But what means the ribbon now? Each one that put the ribbon here, they made it three wishes for Jesus. So you take the ribbon, you make it one, two, three. So it's a place special because you also can touch the fate of the people. So imagine I'm touching the fate of the people. Wow. You cannot do this anywhere in the world. Yeah. These are people's wishes. They pay to hear dance and it's colorful. And these are all people's wishes? All the people's wishes. If this now is full, but they cut this often, and they burn. When they catch fire and burn, they say that the smoke of this brings the wishes to the sky. What does it mean? This means wishes or also people that bring something like pictures or representation of the cure. Example. She's asking about the daughter for the cure about the children. So the issue part that you see here like this is a person asking to cure the leg. So we have this kind of belief for 100 years. And I believe that this is also consequence from the Africans. The African flu is why? Because in Africa the many religions are used to give offerings for the gods. And we don't see this in other churches around the world. I only see this in Brazil. So whenever you come to Salvador by here and you want somebody to take you around, you definitely need Kali. She's been amazing, she's been awesome, taking us all over Salvador making sure we know all the history, the culture, and also everything that we need to know about people. Yeah, and I focus working more showing the local Salvador. So if you want to escape a little from the tourist place and you want to visit the communities to see interesting places here, you can send a message to my Instagram, my YouTube channel, your local host Kali. And I also offer a tour here that I call the Afro-Brazilian Salvador. We walk about 5 hours visiting good places here, very interesting about history, culture, food, dance, gastronomy. Nice to meet you and thank you so much for showing me around your city. So much. Appreciate it. It's time to say goodbye to Salvador by here, but a big shout out to my brother from Eritrea who met me in here and he's like, you know what? I'm going to host you because you're doing an amazing job. So he gave us this Airbnb and it's our final day and I just want to say thank you, thank you so much. I'm going to put a link in the description if you are traveling to Salvador by here and you want to stay in this brother's Airbnb, check out the link in the description and yeah, book and support. It's a three bedroom house. Everything is here and I love my five days in here. African supporting Africans.