Tarikh al-Brasil | History of Brazil

Tarikh al-Brasil can be translated from Arabic as History of Brazil and is a visual research on the visibility/invisibility of Muslims of African origin in Brazilian history and society. With more than four hundred years of presence in Brazil, African Muslims first arrived in the Americas through the slave trade and, although enslaved, yielded an expressive cultural and social influence that triggered numerous freedom revolts, being the Malês uprising of 1835 their best known historical chapter. The present photo essay is a reflection on the possibilities of seeing/reviewing through a photographic practice that drives the image to the limit between the document and the invention. The photographs also convey the author’s engagement, himself a reverted Muslim, in his ten years as an active member of the largest community of African Muslims today in Brazil and its struggle to overcome social negligence and underrepresentation.