BRAZIL enslaved more Africans than any other nation and held onto its barbaric practice the longest.

There are estimates that around 40 per cent of enslaved Africans brought to the so-called New World ended up in Brazil.

Slavery was abolished in Brazil on May 13 1888, but the legacies of slavery are still felt today by the millions of people of African descent who still live in the country.

Like the United States the descendants of enslaved Africans have remained largely at the bottom of the economic pile and have faced continuous harassment and discrimination from the authorities — especially the police.

The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, two years ago, set off protests across the US and across the world as the film of the murder by then police officer Derek Chauvin spread.

You couldn’t move for people taking the knee in a show of their commitment to race equality and the constant stream of proclamations about how much black lives matter to them.

Sadly, no such worldwide anger has resulted from the police murder of Genivaldo de Jesus Santos in the northern state of Sergipe in Brazil last Wednesday May 25.

Genivaldo was forcibly held down by two officers of Brazil’s Federal Highway Police inside a smoke-filled trunk of an SUV where video footage showed him screaming and kicking his legs for a time before he died.

Much like the murder of George Floyd, the officers seemed completely undisturbed by the events or the crowd gathering around them.

The death of Genivaldo came two years to the day after George Floyd was killed.

Brazilian social media erupted over the images, and dozens of people gathered to protest on Wednesday in Umbauba, where they blocked a road and burned tyres, but you would be hard-pressed to have found a protest to join anywhere outside Brazil.  

In a statement, the Federal Highway Police said, in echoes of the George Floyd case, that the man had displayed aggressive behaviour and was “actively resisting” the officers who pulled him over. 

The agents immobilised him, the statement said, then used “instruments of lesser offensive potential” to contain him.

The statement says Genivaldo fell ill as he was being transported to a police precinct and was taken to a hospital, where his death was confirmed.  

A preliminary autopsy concluded the man died of respiratory failure due to “mechanical asphyxia,” said George Fernandes, a spokesperson for Sergipe state’s forensic institute.

Genivaldo’s nephew Alisson told reporters that he saw police stop his uncle and that officers were told he had medication and a prescription in his pockets, indicating that he suffered mental health problems, before they began what the nephew described as “a torture session.”

“They took my uncle, put him inside the vehicle and took a gas bomb and held the trunk closed with him inside,” he said. Alisson said his uncle was hit and shoved by the officers before they held him in the back of their SUV. 

Five officers involved in the incident have since been placed on leave pending an investigation.

The brutal murder has shocked Brazilian society in much the same way that the killing of George Floyd did.

I have taken the time to recount this story for three main reasons. First, this is yet another brutal police killing of a black man by state authorities. An all too common occurrence wherever people of African descent find ourselves.

Second, I think most people would not have heard of this atrocity and they should. 

Third, and largely because of the second reason, there has not been anything like the same level of worldwide protest about this murder. In fact, truth be known, we have seen barely any protest. 

Maybe the world is preoccupied with events in Ukraine? Although I see little evidence there is much concern about the 39 other conflicts taking place in the world, largely involving “non-Europeans” — except those who provide the finance and weaponry.

Or maybe the all too frequent death of another black Brazilian is not newsworthy outside of Brazil. If so, that is tragic and, of course, completely unacceptable.

We rightly hear lots about the slave revolts in the US and also, but to a lesser extent, those that took place in the Caribbean. 

But little is told or known about the heroic slave revolts in Brazil in 1798, 1807, 1814 as well as the Male Revolt of 1835. 

Our gaze is constantly drawn towards North America and so we sometimes miss the heroic resistance of enslaved Africans in Brazil and elsewhere as well as the ongoing struggles of their descendants.

Yet we all continue to be routinely harassed, treated as second-class citizens and far too regularly brutalised or killed.

Profiling or being seen as not belonging is all too common. The most recent for me happened in Parliament last week where some staff clearly didn’t believe I was a genuine press-pass holding journalist as I stood before them with my black skin, dreadlocks, Nehru jacket and African print headband. 

My being looked up and down with a “who the hell do you think you are” stare was my not uncommon experience. But at least I’m still alive!

Racism is very real and woven into the very fabric of capitalist societies. Those of us who are black and choose to assert our blackness in our activism should never be dismissed as indulging in “mere identity politics,” as put to me recently.

To be black is to live with the reality of racism every day. The way that people choose to treat us is often, literally, a matter of life or death — wherever we are on this planet.

RIP Genivaldo de Jesus Santos and all other victims of racism.

Roger McKenzie is a journalist and general secretary of Liberation (liberationorg.co.uk).