Ancestral Territory — Afro Anthropological Tour in Salvador

We begin in the historic center of Pelourinho, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where the visit gains layers: to Museu Afro-Brasileiro we add the Pierre Verger Gallery, with the photographic collection of the French anthropologist who documented Afro-Bahian religiosity and life like few others; the Memorial das Baianas, dedicated to the figure of the Bahian woman of acarajé, a living heritage of Afro-Brazilian cuisine and aesthetics; and Igreja do Rosário dos Pretos, founded by one of the first black religious brotherhoods in the Americas. Together, these four stops make up a dense panorama of the African presence in the historic heart of Salvador.

We continue towards the peripheral regions of the city, observing the social and urban transformations linked to Afro-Brazilian heritage, to Feira de São Joaquim, the largest and most traditional open-air popular market in Salvador, with roots in African traditions — a living study of economy, subsistence and popular culture.

From the fair, we headed to the popular neighborhood of Garcia, for a feijoada lunch at the Tia Leda restaurant — a stop that deviates from the conventional tourist circuit and requires a note of context: the restaurant is located within a favela community, run by the same family for over fifty years, which prepares and serves feijoada daily. The space is simple, without any sophistication in decoration — and it is exactly this simplicity, added to half a century of uninterrupted tradition, that transforms lunch into something rare: you are not in a restaurant designed for tourists, but sharing a table with a real history of resistance and permanence.

After lunch, we visited a Candomblé terreiro, not as spectators of a ritual, but to understand, through an anthropological lens, how this institution structured networks of resistance, solidarity and black identity over more than a century. We ended the journey at Casa de Iemanjá, at Rio Vermelho — a symbolic closure next to the altar dedicated to the water orixá.