Favela tour (Brazilian slums)

A favela (Brazilian Portuguese for slum) is the generally used term for a shanty town in Brazil. In the late 18^th century, the first settlements were called bairros africanos (African neighborhoods), and they were the place where former slaves with no land ownership and no options for work lived. Over the years, many freed black slaves moved in. However, before the first settlement called "favela" came into being, poor blacks were pushed away from downtown into the far suburbs. Most modern favelas appeared in the 1970s, due to rural exodus, when many people left rural areas of Brazil and moved to cities. Without finding a place to live, many people ended up in a favela.

Shanty towns are units of irregular self-constructed housing that are typically unlicensed and occupied illegally. They are usually on lands belonging to third parties, and are most often located on the urban periphery. Shanty town residences are built randomly, although ad hoc networks of stairways, sidewalks, and simple tracks allow passage through them. Some favelas are inaccessible by vehicle, due to their narrow and irregular streets and walkways and often steep inclines. These areas of irregular and poor-quality housing are often crowded onto hillsides, and as a result, these areas suffer from frequent landslides during heavy rain. In recent decades, favelas have been troubled by drug related crime and gang warfare. There are often common social codes in some favelas which, for instance, forbid residents from engaging in criminal activity inside their own favela.

Some of the older favelas in Brazil were originally started as quilombos (independent settlements of fugitive African slaves) among the hilly terrain of the area surrounding the cities, which later grew as slaves were liberated in 1888 with no places to live. The favelas were formed prior to the dense occupation of cities and the domination of real estate interests.  Favelas are built around the edge of the main city so in a way they are actually expanding the city.

The people who live in favelas are known as Moradores da favela, or pejoratively as favelados. Favelas are associated with extreme poverty. Brazil's favelas can be seen as the result of the unequal distribution of wealth in the country. Brazil is one of the most economically unequal countries in the world with the top 10 percent of its population earning 50 percent of the national income and about 34 percent of all people living below the poverty line.

The drugs trade has impacted Brazil and in turn its favelas, which tend to be ruled by drug lords. In some favelas, regular shoot-outs between traffickers and police and other criminals, as well as assorted illegal activities, lead to high murder rates. In these favelas controlled by drug dealers, traffickers ensure that individual residents can guarantee their own safety through their actions and political connections to them. They do this by maintaining order in the favela and giving and receiving reciprocity and respect, thus creating an environment in which critical segments of the local population feel safe despite continuing high levels of violence. Drug use is highly concentrated in these areas run by local gangs in each highly populated favela. Drug sales and use run rampant at night when many Favelas host their own baile, or dance party, where many different social classes can be found. These drug sales make up a business that in some of the drug dealers occupied areas rakes much money.

The best-known favelas are those in and around bigger Brazilian cities, up the hills that face the cities prosperous side neighbourhoods and tourist spots, that made them readily visible. They provide a dramatic illustration of the gap between poverty and wealth, juxtaposed with the luxurious apartment buildings and mansions of social elite. Several hills in Brazil are densely populated by favelas.

Brazil has launched some projects allowing tourists to visit some slums, after the shantytowns have been cleared of drug dealers and other criminal elements. The new venture will afford curious visitors a chance to see the interior of a favela, which sometimes are lawless shantytowns rampant with drug-trafficking and violent crime. But slum dwellers are impoverished but are just like common people everywhere. Most of them are really friendly and funny. Favelas are neighborhoods, communities, like everywhere else. And there is usually a very rich cultural life and activities in those areas. Even if they have a bad reputation as being violent places, this tours show tourists they are also nice and interesting places to be visited. These favela-tourism ventures take place throughout the country, at locations patrolled by special police squads that ensure they remain safe and free of criminal activity. Visitors can take walks around the favelas streets and stairs, meet and talk to local residents to get to know how their daily lives are, visit their houses,  take beautiful pictures of the city, eat typical food and drink a cold beer with them, visit the cultural centres located in the favelas, the religious temples and even go to a party there.

For more information about the favela tour in Recife, please contact us by e-mail: sindri_o@hotmail.co.uk