Race of Death

The pandemic has brought to the fore Brazil’s own brand of apartheid

- JENNIFER ALISA SANDERS

Bats did not bring Covid-19 to Brazil, the deadly virus came through the noses, lungs and throats of revellers eager for the Carnival. It was carried by upper-class Brazilians who had the means to escape to Milan, Aspen or Rome during the world’s biggest street festival. The arrival of the virus was not a surprise as we watched the news from Wuhan and YouTube videos of abandoned Italian streets, wondering if local governments would cancel the Carnival this year. They did not, and this country of 211 million saw more than 27 million people, from across Brazil and the world, take to its packed streets for seven days. And that is how Brazil, now projected to be the epicentre of the pandemic, became our collective nightmare. Added to the challenges every country is facing with lock-downs, illness, death and economic collapse, Covid-19 has thrown us offa cliff and into the chasm that is Brazil’s great social, economic and racial divide—our peculiar brand of tropical apartheid.

I am not Brazilian. I am an African American singer who fell in love with this amazing country and moved here two decades ago. I live in what many refer to as “Black Rome”, the city of Salvador in the state of Bahia. Brazil received 40 per cent of all Africans who were enslaved and shipped as cargo to North America, the Caribbean and South America to provide the free labour that created great wealth for European merchants and nobles. This, unfortunately, is the story of the whole “New World”.

UNMASKING THE REALITY African descendants in Brazil are hit hard by the pandemic, which has thrown light on racial inequalities in the country