The Court of Justice of Rio de Janeiro (TJRJ) plans to establish an agreement with the Pretos Novos Research and Memory Institute (https://pretosnovos.com.br/), in Gamboa, in the city’s port area, so that convicts provide community services work on the historic and archaeological site of Cemitério dos Pretos Novos.
After visiting the African and Afro-Brazilian material and immaterial heritage preservation center this week, the president of the TJRJ, judge Henrique Carlos de Andrade Figueira, informed that the court will prepare a document to formalize an agreement with the institute.
“Many people are penalized for providing services to the community. The proposal is to indicate the Pretos Novos Research and Memory Institute as the place where they [condenados] can, in some way, contribute to the development of society. We are going to make an agreement to formalize this partnership”, said the magistrate.
He highlighted that the development of the institute is essential, as there is a rescue of the history of the city of Rio and the country. “It’s not a pretty page in our history, but it’s essential to know who we are. It’s an exciting environment. It is impossible to be insensitive to what you see here,” he added.
The institute’s president, Merced Guimarães dos Anjos, said that the institution already has a partnership with the 9th Federal Court of Rio to receive the convicts with the provision of community services. “We train them to receive visitors. We have a small number of inmates at the institute to provide services,” she said.
According to the TJRJ, the visit also had historical symbolism of the dialogue between the institutions, as the Archive of the Judiciary of the State of Rio and the Museum of Justice keep hundreds of cases from the period of slavery in Brazil. Among the documents are letters of manumission, certificates of purchase of slaves, requests for authorization of marriages of slaves to their masters and documents of purchase of freedom by the slaves themselves, among others.
The collection of the Pretos Novos Research and Memory Institute is one of the most valuable – Tomaz Silva/Agência Brasil
Research Institute
The Pretos Novos Research and Memory Institute was inaugurated in May 2005 and is located over the old cemetery intended for blacks captured and brought from Africa to serve as slaves in Brazil.
The archaeological find was surprisingly identified in 1996, during a renovation carried out by the owners of the mansion, Petrúcio and Maria de La Merced. At the time, during the soil survey, fragments of objects and human bones were discovered. The finding was communicated to Organs responsible bodies, which sent experts to the area. After research, professionals confirmed the discovery.
The cemetery was intended for the burial of new blacks, that is, slaves who died after ships entered Guanabara Bay or immediately after disembarkation, before being sold. It operated from 1772 to 1830, in Valongo, a strip of the Carioca coast that ran from Prainha to Gamboa.
The institute aims to develop research, studies and investigations aimed at the preservation of African and Afro-Brazilian material and immaterial heritage, whose conservation and protection are of public interest, with emphasis on the historical and archaeological site of the Cemitério dos Pretos Novos, with the purpose of value the memory and Brazilian cultural identity.
