Experience: I discovered a mass grave under my house

In 1996, when I was 10 years old, my mother and I moved to Gamboa, a neighbourhood by the waterfront in the Port Zone of Rio de Janeiro.

We closed off half of the house so construction workers could start digging holes in the back for the pillars needed to support the extension.

It was a hot, sunny day in January when, over lunch, one of the workers told me about finding animal bones in the holes they were digging.

Hecame over that evening and showed me a history book that identified the area under my house as the New Blacks cemetery.

Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend.

We provide free walking tours of the Port Zone, telling the story of the African diaspora in Brazil and the history of slavery in this area to students across Rio de Janeiro state.