Through Malã's story, told by his great-great-grandson, we will learn about a journey of suffering, participation, and overcoming, as well as the inhumanity of slavery, struggles, and social inequality that mark the history of Afro-descendants in Brazil.
In A caixa dos segredos , Rogério Andrade Barbosa invites the reader to follow the character's life from his childhood, in the lands of old Africa at the beginning of the 19th century; through his capture and the terrible journey on the slave ship; his sale as merchandise to a Portuguese merchant from Salvador; his participation in the Malê Revolt, in 1835... The secrets that come out of Malã's chest witnessed the decree of the Lei Áurea (Golden Law) and the Revolta da Chibata (Chibata Revolt), with João Candido at the forefront.
Recovering aspects not often highlighted in the saga of Africans enslaved in Brazil, the author opens up opportunities for reflection by drawing on the narrator's reflections on the thinking attributed to the central character, his great-great-grandfather. The story of Malã, a strong and striking character, brings with it little-known aspects of African culture in Brazil.
"The box of secrets, that's what I called the mysterious object. There, they said, were preserved the accounts of Malã, my African great-great-grandfather, recorded during his long existence on Brazilian soil. He wanted to leave his vision of everything he witnessed, at a time when black people had no right to a voice. Malã's saga deserved to be known. For countless days and nights, I literally immersed myself in the pages of books, newspapers, and documents from libraries and archives in Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Lisbon, and the present-day Republic of Guinea-Bissau, attempting to verify and reconstruct the facts described by Malã. Therefore, this is my version."
