The Media Village at the Rio Olympics Is Built on a Mass Grave of Slaves
By Erin Blakemore
SMITHSONIAN.COM
JULY 22, 2016
When journalists show up en masse in Rio de Janeiro to cover the Summer Olympics next month, many will stay in the Barra Media Villages, a self-described group of “over 1,500 spacious and modern apartments” complete with kitchens, 24/7 food access, along with a huge pool. But, write Daniel Gross and Jonathan Watts for The Guardian, that luxury comes at a price: Part of the village was constructed on top of a mass grave for slaves.
Gross and Watts report that part of a Brazilian quilombo, a community of people whose ancestors were runaway slaves, was torn down to make the village. Residents say that developers did away with “sacred” archaeological remnants of African slaves by building over them. In contention is a colonial-era sugar mill that Camorim Quilombo residents claim was razed without an archaeological survey—and, given that a huge mass grave of slaves was found nearby 16 years ago, they claim that the village is built over the graves of their ancestors.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/media-village-rio-olympics-built-mass-grave-slaves-180959873/
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