Querino, Manuel Raymundo (1851-1923)

Afro-Brazilian polymath Manuel Raymundo Querino (1851–1923) was the first Black scholar to study the history, culture and origins of the enslaved Africans and their descendants in Brazil. At a time when pseudoscientific racism was widespread in Brazilian scientific circles, Querino put forward alternative positive views based on his personal experience and respectful interviews with elderly Africans who had survived the transatlantic crossing and enslavement. After his death, attempts were made to disqualify his amateur scholarship, but Querino’s visionary anthropology and Black vindicationism have also been the subject of numerous reappraisals in Brazil and internationally.

Keywords: Ethnology | Folklore | Racism | Second half of the 19^th century | First half of the 20^th century | Brazil | African-American studies | Food anthropology | Slavery