How to deal with the pain related to the memory of the slavery, when it becomes heritage? Could the process of patrimonialization become a way of healing this traumatic past? In this chapter I propose to discuss the meaning of sensitive memory sites related to the history of African slavery in Brazil, focusing on the case of Valongo Wharf, recognized as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017. I also intend to analyze how local black communities could participate, discussing the ways of representing the history of our ancestors, considering the suffering of slavery and also their capacity to fight for life and freedom. The history that can be narrated when crossing the pathways of the Valongo Wharf, in Rio de Janeiro, where thousands of enslaved Africans landed between the end of the 18th century until 1831, is at the same time painful and affirmative. In addition to the crucial aspects of violence, there is also resistance and celebration of the struggle for life as strong symbols. The region of Valongo as a whole is a place of memory. In the area near the quayside, besides the warehouses where enslaved people were sold, dwellings of a population that worked in the services offered by the port and commercial activity began to appear, especially from the second half of the 19th century onwards. In the houses of black families, often headed by women, nocturnal drums accompanied religious celebrations in which deities of African origin took on new garments in the Brazilian diaspora. I will tell a story that, in a broader perspective, crosses the ocean and relates to the African Diaspora in the Americas, as well as to many other parts of Brazil, in which, through the internal and coastal routes, black people circulate - and with them, their ideas, knowledge, technology, and spirituality.
