The publication of this translated work by the Brazilian Eduardo Silva clearly proves the adage that history is nothing more than the collected experience of people’s lives. It is the lives of the little people in this work that give meaning and sustenance to history.
This book focuses on the life and times of Candido da Fonseca Galvão, who later came to be called the Prince Dom Obá II d’Africa. Through the life of this Afro-Brazilian, the author weaves the history of Brazil and, by doing so, provides new insights into the society and culture of imperial and early republican Brazil during the nineteenth century. The horrible slaughter of the War of the Triple Alliance and the squalid streets of Rio de Janeiro have new meaning when described through the life experience of this flesh-and-blood person.
Galvão’s quiet dignity as he buffets the indignity of racial and class biases and the trials of poverty are well represented. Galvão’s letters soliciting a pension, in which he outlines the suffering he experiences from war wounds, clearly demonstrate the difficulties the poor endured in the last days of the Brazilian monarchy. Even so, his sincere protestations of loyalty to that monarchy reveal Afro-Brazilians’ fragile social status. Galvão’s knowledge of his African origins and the culture that heritage represents, however, give him special pride that enables him to survive the racism and poverty of his day.
Through the life of this remarkable Afro-Brazilian, Eduardo Silva has given students of Brazilian history and of the African diaspora in the Western Hemisphere new understanding of this critical time in Brazilian history.
