Little Africa, Valongo Wharf and Pedra do Sal

Pequena Africa, Little Africa, is the name given to the old port neighbourhoods of Saude, Gamboa and Santo Cristo, and it holds some of the most important history in the Americas. Brazil received more enslaved Africans than any other country, and for decades much of that trade passed through Rio. The Cais do Valongo, the Valongo Wharf, was the main landing place: from its opening in 1811 until the trade was banned in 1831, hundreds of thousands of captive Africans were brought ashore here. The stone wharf was buried under later landfill and a second, imperial quay, and was rediscovered by archaeologists in 2011 during the works on the port; in 2017 UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site, as the most important physical trace of the arrival of enslaved Africans in the Americas. Today you can stand at the open excavation and see the two layers of paving. Nearby, the Instituto Pretos Novos preserves a burial ground where Africans who died soon after arrival were dumped, discovered by a family renovating their house in 1996, and runs a small memorial and research centre. After abolition in 1888, the neighbourhood became home to many Afro-Brazilian families, including migrants from Bahia, and the houses of the Bahian aunts, the tias baianas, became the meeting places where candomble, capoeira and music came together and samba was born. Its symbol is the Pedra do Sal, a great slab of rock with steps carved into it at the foot of the Morro da Conceicao, where salt was once unloaded and where early sambistas gathered. The area around it is recognised as a quilombo, a community of descendants of enslaved people. Today the Pedra do Sal is the setting for some of the most authentic samba in Rio: on regular evenings each week, traditionally Mondays and Fridays, musicians sit around a table in the square for a roda de samba, crowds gather on the steps and in the street with cold beer from the bars, and everyone sings along.

How to explore: by day, follow the self-guided Circuito Historico e Arqueologico da Celebracao da Heranca Africana, a trail of marked sites that includes the Valongo Wharf, the Pedra do Sal, the Instituto Pretos Novos, the Largo do Deposito and the Jardim Suspenso do Valongo, a terraced garden built in the early twentieth century. A guided walk with a local, Black-led tour company or historian adds much more depth, and the city tourism office publishes a guide to the area. The Morro da Conceicao above Pedra do Sal is one of the oldest and most charming corners of the city, with colonial houses and artists' studios, and it is a short walk to the Museum of Tomorrow, the Museu de Arte do Rio and the Kobra mural on the Boulevard Olimpico.

How to visit well: by day the area is lively near the museums and the VLT stops, but some streets are quiet, so walk with purpose and keep valuables hidden. For the evening samba, arrive by ride-hailing car, keep only a little cash and your phone in a front pocket, and leave the same way; the crowd is friendly and mixed, but pickpockets work it. Buy drinks from the bars rather than street sellers and watch your glass, as the US advisory specifically warns about drink spiking in Rio. Check local listings or ask at your hotel which nights the roda de samba is on.

Who it suits: anyone who wants to understand the African roots of Rio, its music and its history, and anyone who wants to hear samba played the way it was born rather than on a stage for tourists. Older children and teenagers will find the Valongo Wharf moving; the night samba is for adults.