• Situation

Brazil, the country with the largest black population outside the African continent, is also a country where black people are relegated to erasure: they make up 80% of violent deaths and 70% of school dropouts. A problem that dates back to the dawn of humanity,violates the constitutional right to memory and robs an entire people of their most precious possession: their history.

• Brief

Bradesco Seguros, the leading insurance company in Brazil and America Latina,believes that people's history is a precious heritage that must be secured. So,how can Bradesco help to recover and protect Black History (which is everybody's history) in order to recover the past and inspire the future?

• Objectives

- CELEBRATE the names of notable black people ignored by history.

- SHOW that historical erasure is a product of racism.

- INSPIRE future generations and grab people's attention.

- COLLABORATE with partners from black communities.

We demonstrated the erasure of black history in a book in which most of the pages couldn’t be read. The book was a statement, challenging dominant narratives and challenging the public, even though nothing seemed to be written there. It had been printed using invisible ink that, when in contact with a special light – a black light – reveals all its beauty and content. A powerful symbol that represents resistance and the ability to shed light on the long-suppressed past. The book was sent to leading figures active in the same areas as our luminaries: science, art, literature, engineering, anthropology, physics, medicine… The idea became an iconic art exhibition at the Museu Afro in Salvador, the city with the largest black population outside Africa. An immersive experience in which visitors could see the transformation of a seemingly empty exhibition in an explosion of beauty through the black light.

From the start of the project, we understood that if we were going to recover formerly erased black narratives, we’d need a diverse team. So we partnered with Projeto Goma, an organization dedicated to accelerating the careers of black professionals, which not only lent our research legitimacy, it also served to build a project that could inspire future generations, and Museu Afro-Brasileiro in Salvador, the city with the largest black population outside Africa.

Beyond the book, which was sent out to a variety of leading figures, we developed posters that became a permanent exhibition at the Museum in Salvador. The exhibition has been on display for 440+ hours.

The idea was not only to start a conversation about historical erasure in society as a whole by recovering long-neglected stories, but, above all, to create a project that would be relevant and powerful for the black community.

The greatest challenge in the execution was, understandably, uncovering that which centuries of racism had worked to obscure. It involved multiple partners and over 5800 hours of historical and investigative research to identify notable black figures who had been “erased” from the history books. We also partnered with university professors and specialized organizations like Projeto Goma to immerse ourselves in the results and arrive at the final curated selection. In the end, the book covers 4 millennia of history. The final project also required a lengthy period for its conception, illustration, and technical printing tests involving the ink and the intensity of different blacklights in order to ensure the most powerful experience possible. The finished book was sent out to leading figures in fields from the arts to engineering, and the project’s exhibition took pride of place at the Museu Afro-Brasileiro in Salvador, boosting its reach and social impact.

We recovered 4 millenia of black history through more than 5,800 hours of reading, research, illustration and curatorial work. The project offers up new perspectives on black history, helping to break away from the obvious and further enrich the community’s legacy. The book was invited to become part of the permanent collection of the Museu Afro-Brasileiro em Salvador, the city with the largest black population outside Africa. The exposition has already been on display for 440+ hours, and will keep on inspiring educators, students, historians and the general public by highlighting black history that goes far beyond narratives of slavery.

For Bradesco Seguros, in addition to its reputation as a brand with strong social values, this has been an opportunity to show that it’s dedicated to protecting all of its clients’ assets – including their history.