The most African of the Brazilian villages in the south of Bahia bears a Swiss name: Helvécia.
It was founded 200 years ago by Swiss and German colonists and the coffee grown on its vast
estates produced great wealth for them. This would not have been possible without exploitation:
in the mid-nineteenth century for 200 white colonists there were 2 000 slaves of African
origin. Black people still make up the majority of the population today many do not know the
origins of their community. With great sensitivity and in dialogue with the inhabitants Swiss
photographer Dom Smaz goes in search of traces of the past capturing the lives of the local
people. Smaz's pictures and text contributions by internationally renowned
post-colonialism-expert Shalini Randeria among others allow a new look at history and the
origins of Switzerland's wealth revealing global histories of interconnectedness and power
relations of the past that continue into the present.
