It is considered the city with the largest black population in the world outside of Africa, and the city where the largest community of Afro-descendants in Brazil lives. São Salvador da Bahia, founded by the Portuguese 475 years ago and which prospered largely due to the slave trade, was the location chosen by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) to launch a campaign against racism in sport and to value its footballers with African ancestry.
The most famous among them, Vinícius Jr., discovered this Tuesday, November 19th, on the pitch before the game between Brazil and Uruguay, that his ancestors were Cameroonians.
Without the player knowing, but with his father’s complicity, the CBF had a DNA sample from Vinícius analyzed and a genetic tracking company concluded that his family origins are among the Tikar people, who have inhabited a mountainous region of Cameroon for centuries.
The surprise for the football player was the start of the “Golden Roots” campaign, with which the CBF wants to discover and value the concrete ancestries of its Afro-Brazilian players. “All athletes from the Brazilian team will undergo these tests,” he told the Globo the president of the federation, Ednaldo Rodrigues. The motto of this initiative is “to ensure that discrimination is fought vehemently, in particular racism, so that through football we can have a better world”, said Rodrigues.
This Wednesday marks Black Awareness Day in Brazil. The Government of the state of Bahia, which has one of the most significant black populations in the country, considers that “racism remains one of the biggest obstacles to social and economic development” at state and state level. This can be seen, according to a report released on Tuesday, in access to education and the job market and in salary levels – in these indicators, the black population is at a disadvantage compared to the white population, says the document.
Vinícius has been the target of racism in stadiums on several occasions and, at the same time, has become one of the most vehement opponents of racial discrimination in sport. “I know my importance”, admitted the Real Madrid player in an interview with the CBF channel. “I alone cannot combat everything that black people are suffering, but I know my size, but I know the strength I have, my speech, and I can speak for all those people who don’t have the strength,” he added.
“In the last three months we managed to put three or four people in jail and make them pay for the crime they committed”, he also highlighted, referring to cases that occurred in Spain.
When he received his “certificate of ancestry” on the pitch, Vini could not hide his astonishment and said few words. “I didn’t know, I see it now. But I’m very happy. Now it’s time to win the game, let’s get going”, he said, quoted by site from CBF.
The game ended in a 1-1 draw.
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