Favelas of Rio

The latest research has shown that 1 in 3 Cariocas, that's a resident of Rio to you and me, live in a favela (shanty town). So it can easily be argued that if you have not been to one then you cannot truly say you have had full experience in Rio. Though I had previous visits to Julio Otoni, Babilonia and Male favelas with community projects, I had yet to be submerged in the culture and still had many questions and much more to learn. With this in mind, I was given the opportunity to have a visit Rio's 'Rocinha', the largest favela in South America, with a swelling population of over 300,000 residents. Having had my blog posts noticed, I was offered a day and night trip in return for writing an article promoting ethical tours to educate tourists and locals alike.

Favela housing

Favelas are notorious for violence, lawlessness and drugs and are often feared by the local Brazilians. Almost daily, there are news reports of shootings and troubles occurring in these areas - The British Embassy warns that, "they are characterised by poverty and extremely high levels of violent crime. Do not venture into a favela even with well-organised tours, as favelas can be unpredictably dangerous areas." Despite these warnings, it was clear during my stay in Rio that there is more to favela life than locals, the media and the embassy would lead you to believe. Though entering a favela unaccompanied would be far from wise, I was with Zezinho, a life-long resident of Rocinha who I had been working with through my job at Casa 579. Covered from top to toe in self-designed tattoos of his beloved favela, he is the city´s unofficial ambassador and has a mission to eradicate the stigmas of his community for both locals and tourists.

Rocinha from the sky

When arriving at Rocinha, enveloped by the Dois Irmaos (Two Brothers) Mountains, this fortress-like entity rests upon the landscape like a man made glacier. Standing at the mouth of the city within a city, you look up at thousands of simple brick shanty houses clumsily stacked five or six stories high. After an initial orientation, we ascended the steep slopes of Rocinha by mototaxi - a hair-raising experience where hundreds upon hundreds of motorbikes weaved up and down the small main road, three bikes to a lane, all racing each other up and violently swerving the giant potholes that plague the streets. At the top we got to see the beautiful, unique view across Rio before descending by foot to a small bar in the city centre to soak in the city sights over a beer.

I took this opportunity to get much more of an understanding about the fascinating history of the Rio favelas and how they operate. The etymology derives from the 'favel' plantations - black slaves from Africa were sent in their thousands to Brazil to work, though not allowed to stay in the city, they were sent far away to the hills to build make-shift shacks and mud houses to live in. The longer they stayed, the more permanent the structures would become, up to the point where the government set out to evict the population to keep them away from the city. Only when eviction was threatened the drug lords came, heavily armed, to take over and protect the favelas from the state. Before their reign, violence and crime within these communities was rife, but once they took control, all inter-favela violence and crime (with the exception of drug dealing) was forced to stop, pulling the community together against outside forces. Ironically, though the gangs brought drugs to favelas (most of which are sold to outsiders) they also brought stability and order to these towns.

Zezhinho

Today in Rocinha, the dealers of the A.D.A - Amigos dos Amigos (Frinds of Friends), or as Zezinho prefers to more subtly call them 'The Guys', make a total of around R$10 million (£3m) a month in revenue and make payments of R$240,000 (£100,000) a month to the police force in order for them to stay out of the favela. This leaves a city of 300,000 people running with zero police presence with almost zero crime levels (with the exception of drug dealing). A very counter intuitive and thought provoking concept that makes one question how societies are able to function in alternative ways... If there is any violence, it is almost always between the two other cartels in Rio - The Red Command and The 3rd Command, who will fight over territory and ownership of less fortified favelas.

Despite the bribes the police have to been seen to be active in the war against drugs and made a raid a week before my visit with 200 heavily armed police, 3 gunship helicopters and two tanks. A sizable force by any standards, although, upon seeing the capabilities and equipment of the 1,000 strong A.D.A, most armed with automatic rifles, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, this rarely makes a significant dent in the fortress that is Rocinha.

Zezinho´s roof terrace

As much as the drug lords offer protection and, now the government has finally revoked their agenda to evict the residents and offer infrastructural support, there are still significant problems with public services. Poorly funded schools mean that education levels are extremely poor, there is a big problem with water availability, the sewage network is very badly maintained and health facilities are old, outdated and understaffed. Although the infrastructure and poverty situations do not compare to those of many African counties, there is still a significant gap between the favela residents and the children at R$5,000 a month private schools just metres away outside Rocinha. Considering the average wage of a resident is R$600 a month and houses are worth R$20,000, there is an overwhelming wealth and class gap that seems almost divided beyond reconcile.

Many people call a modern Western city the 'Concrete Jungle', though having seen Rocinha, this place is truly closest to the metaphor. Hundreds of wildly unkept and unmaintained telephone and power cables drape over the roads at staggeringly short intervals creating a canopy over the roads, joining at lamp posts and telephone posts that are so overwhelmed by wires, they look like black trees. A trip through the Bacos, the narrow labyrinth of capillary-like lanes that weave throughout the city feels like an intimidating, dark forest trail that open into areas where half a dozen dealers will be sitting around brandishing their guns. Though they are not being intimidating, it is hard not too feel ill at ease this being such an alien sight.

The Concrete Jungle

The favelas of Rio are credited with the creation of samba music - a beautiful cultural fusion and evolution of African music with the soul of South America. This has long since been in the main stream however and the 21st century is a new era of electronic music in the slums. A grimy, heavy set of pounding baselines with repetitive rap lyrics is not to everyones taste, but is hugely popular at the Baile Funk parties that begin at around 2am near the top of the city which is where Zezinho and I went after chilling out on his terrace and a meal. The most popular song of the year is about a Rio football player called Petkovik



The club is a warehouse with speakers stretching wall to wall, standing over 6 meters high, the base so loud you could feel your rib cage rattle and static electricity build up from the hairs on your head to the tops of the fingers. At 4am, I experienced one of the most incredible experiences I have had on my travels yet - an overwhelming roar competed with the club speakers - at least one hundred motorbikes descended upon the club. The Guys had arrived. All armed with assault rifles, some also carrying pistols and anti-tank weapons, the A.D.A. collected out the club before marching inside to join the festivities. I wish I could have taken pictures, but I was assured this would be a very bad move... There was nothing aggressive about their entrance at all, their weaponry acting merely as outrageous bling - the sight of their entry though will always stay with me as one of the biggest culture shocks I have ever had. A shocking expression of how culturally different the European and South American continents can be. By 4:30am, and with a 16 hour shift at Casa 579 at 8am later that day, it was time to depart. A mototaxi ride with Zezinho to the bottom of the city would end my final favela visit in Rio, leaving me with much thinking to do about my previous premonitions about how societies function, the Rio drug trade and the city slums. A truly eye opening experience.


Zezinho´s website for favela tours in Rocinha:
http://favelatour.org/