Interview: Celso Almeida da Silva Cunha, PHD, EtniCidades Research Group, Federal University of Bahia Faculty of Architecture

The fastest-growing cities of the world have expanded in size, number, and wealth; most of those in the developing world have become home to large numbers of people living on very few resources. In Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Latin America, high rates of urbanization have been accompanied by high levels of poverty and inequality, creating serious challenges for good governance and urban leadership.

Many cities and countries are addressing these challenges and opportunities by adopting innovative approaches to urban planning and management that are inclusive and responsive to threats posed by environmental degradation and global warming. Governments are making critical choices that promote equity and sustainability in cities. Many cities are also coming up with innovative institutional reforms to promote prosperity while minimizing inequity and unsustainable use of energy.

Enlightened and committed political leadership combined with effective urban planning, governance, and management that promote equity and sustainability are critical components to the building of cities for all.

1. Tell us about your educational and professional background that led you to become an architect.

My journey into architecture was driven by a desire to understand and reshape the relationship between space, culture, and identity in Brazil. I was born to an architect father and an artist mother, so one of the great adventures of my childhood was drawing at my father’s drafting table and modeling scaled cities—which occupied quite a bit of my bedroom—using my mother’s clay.

As I grew older, I naturally fell in love with design as a profession. However, as a researcher, I realized that traditional urban planning often overlooked the complexities of Afro-Brazilian territories. This led me to specialize in Cultural Heritage, specifically 'Black Heritage' (Patrimônios Negros). My academic path, including my work with the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), has been focused on making visible the values, the cosmovision, and the spatial logics of African diaspora communities, ensuring that our architectural and urban disciplines serve as tools for social equity and cultural preservation.

2. What was the idea/inspiration behind your involvement with EtniCidades Research Group?

The inspiration comes from the urgent need to confront structural racism within the built environment. EtniCidades (Ethnic-Racial Relations in Architecture and Urbanism) was born out of the necessity to analyze how architecture and city planning can either perpetuate exclusion or promote belonging.

My involvement is rooted in the belief that we cannot plan sustainable cities in Brazil—especially here in Salvador, often called the 'Black Rome'—without centering the epistemologies, cosmovision, and spatial practices of the Black population. It is about bringing an Afro-centric perspective to the fields of architecture, urbanism, and heritage, ensuring that our ancestral territories are recognized not just as history, but as living, vital parts of the city's future.

3. For our international audience who might not be familiar, could you explain exactly what Candomblé and the "Terreiro communities" are, and why they play such a central role in Brazilian culture and environmental preservation?

Candomblé is an Afro-Brazilian religious tradition developed by enslaved Africans who, despite the brutality of colonization, managed to preserve and reinvent their ancestral knowledge in the New World. However, it is much more than a religion in the Western sense; it is a comprehensive worldview (cosmovision) and a civilizational value system.

The 'Terreiros' are our temples, but they function essentially as sanctuaries of resistance—historical hubs that maintained African social structures, languages, philosophies, and culinary traditions. They are the womb of Afro-Brazilian identity; much of what defines Brazil culturally—from Samba to our cuisine—was born or preserved within these spaces.

Crucially, regarding the environment, Candomblé is inherently ecological. We do not worship abstract gods in a distant heaven; we worship the Orishas, who are the forces of nature themselves. The rivers, the winds, the leaves, the stones, and the earth—these are the divinities. Therefore, there is no separation between the sacred and the natural. To pollute a river is to harm the deity itself. This makes the Terreiro communities historically the guardians of green urban areas and biodiversity, protecting nature not just as a resource, but as a living, sacred entity.

4. The "Pós-Afro" research group at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) focuses on ethnicities, particularly Afro-Brazilian, Afro-Latin-American, Afro-Caribbean, and indigenous populations, and is located in Salvador, Bahia, which has a significant Afro-descendant population and has been historically referred to as Brazil's "most African city" due to its large Afro-Brazilian population and the preservation of cultural traditions. Tell us about your Organization's initiatives.

Thank you for highlighting that context. It is essential to start by acknowledging that our work stands on the shoulders of giants. The Pós-Afro (Graduate Program in Ethnic and African Studies) and the CEAO (Center for Afro-Oriental Studies) are the pillars of Afro-diasporic thought in Latin America. Founded in 1959, the CEAO was a pioneer in bridging Brazil with Africa and Asia, long before these themes were central to global debate.

Today, these institutions lead vital initiatives that we are proud to be associated with. One standout is the Museu Afro-Digital, which preserves the memory of Black heritage in a digital repository accessible to the world. Another is the 'Afro-Ásia' journal, a prestigious publication that has been circulating critical research for decades. Furthermore, the CEAO acts as a vibrant community hub in Salvador, offering language courses in Yoruba, Kimbundu, and Kikongo, and hosting the 'Fábrica de Ideias,' an advanced international school that connects researchers from the Global South. These initiatives do not just study culture; they keep it alive and politically active.

My specific organization, the EtniCidades Research Group (Ethnic-Racial Relations in Architecture and Urbanism), based in the UFBA’s Architecture Faculty, works in dialogue with this legacy but with a distinct focus: Space and Heritage. While Pós-Afro and CEAO produce fundamental historical and sociological knowledge, EtniCidades focuses on how these ethnicities shape the city. Our mission is to translate 'Black Heritage' into preservation laws and urban planning.

To foster this critical debate, one of our flagship initiatives is the 'Salvador e Suas Cores' Seminar (Salvador and Its Colors). This annual event has become a crucial international forum, addressing recent themes such as Black Heritage, African and Afro-Brazilian Architecture, Anti-racist Urbanism, Ancestrality, and the Right to the City. The seminar serves as a bridge, connecting us with universities, specialists, and researchers across Africa and Europe. This academic diplomacy is made concrete through mobility and partnership: while EtniCidades members travel to European and African institutions to expand their research, we actively welcome African students who come to Brazil to pursue their Undergraduate, Master's, and Doctoral degrees as part of our group. This exchange creates a true cycle of knowledge between the Diaspora and the Continent.

Building on this foundation, and through my role as a local coordinator for the Preserving Legacies initiative, our work becomes deeply practical. We are currently mapping and developing climate adaptation strategies for Candomblé Terreiros. One of our key actions involves combining ancestral knowledge with climate science to protect these sacred territories from impacts such as flooding and landslides. We recently organized the I International Seminar on Heritage & Climate, in local cooperation with the Municipal Secretariat of Reparation (SEMUR) and IPHAN (Brazil's National Heritage Institute), creating a platform where community leaders, scientists, and policymakers could co-design solutions for resilience and adaptation based upon the Terreiro’s values and attributes.

5. Does your organization collaborate with CHN, Preserving Legacies? 

Yes, extensively. I serve as one of the Local Coordinators (Custodians) for the Preserving Legacies: A Future for Our Past initiative in Brazil, locally named as Preservando Legados: Terreiros de Candomble da Bahia . This collaboration is structural: we work directly with the Climate Heritage Network (CHN)and major global partners to operationalize climate action at the local level.

Our work goes beyond simple implementation; it involves a deep exchange of methodologies. We are adapting global climate science frameworks to the specific reality of the Candomblé Terreiros. Through this partnership, we provide capacity building for community members, training them to interpret climate data and act as 'citizen scientists' and guardians of their own territory.

Furthermore, this collaboration acts as a powerful amplifier. Through the CHN, we elevate the voices of these Afro-Brazilian communities to high-level discussions, such as the UN Climate Conferences (COPs). This ensures that their traditional knowledge is not only preserved locally but is also respected and integrated into global climate resilience strategies as a model for the world.

6. Tell us about your COP30 program.

Our eyes are firmly set on COP30 in Belém. Our program involves building a robust 'Community Science' framework that we were showcasing there. We are currently working on establishing a permanent observatory for Heritage and Climate to monitor impacts on Afro-Brazilian territories. The goal for COP30 was to have the possibility to present a consolidated Letter of the Terreiro Peoples for Climate Justice, advocating that traditional ecological knowledge must be central to global climate policy. We were there to show the world that Afro-Brazilian communities are not just victims of climate change, but holders of key technologies for resilience.

Our strategy for COP30 was built on translating ancestral wisdom into technical climate policy. Currently, we are developing a 'Risk and Resilience Map for Sacred Territories' in Salvador. We are georeferencing Candomblé terreiros and overlaying this spatial data with climate projection models for 2100, specifically analyzing critical variables like flood risks, landslides, and heat islands.

This scientific mapping allows us to prove, with data, how disproportionately these heritage sites are affected. For COP30 in Belém, we wanted to present these technical findings alongside the 'Letter of the Terreiro Peoples for Climate Justice.' Our goal is to ensure that the specific vulnerabilities—and the adaptive technologies—of Afro-Brazilian communities are officially recognized in global adaptation frameworks and integrated into local policies like the Salvador’s Municipal Climate Change Adaptation Plan (PMAMC).

7. Tell us about the award you received and your collaborations across 74 countries.

I was deeply honored to receive the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) Champions Award in the 'Community Science’ category, on behalf of the entire Preserving Legacies family. This award recognizes the success of our methodology in Bahia, but also in the rest of the world, where we bridge the gap between technical climate data and community wisdom. It represents a collective effort, linking us to a network spanning over +30  sites through the Preserving Legacies initiative. This global collaboration allows us to share our local learnings from Salvador with peers in Petra, Angkor Wat, La Floresta, Koutammakou, Okavango Delta, Champagne, The Spa Towns, and other heritage sites, creating a worldwide community of practice committed to saving our history from the climate crisis.

8. Here is an article about the science and art initiatives at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, what are your thoughts?

This is a fantastic initiative, and it resonates deeply with our philosophy. I believe that Science and Art—much like Science and Spirituality in our context—are complementary languages for decoding the world. At the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, they are using art to bridge the gap between cold data and human emotion. We face a similar challenge in our local context in Brazil.

In our work with Candomblé communities, we view heritage and sacred rituals as sophisticated 'technologies of bio-interaction’. For us, the preservation of nature is not just a technical necessity; it is a liturgical duty. When a community recognizes a forest not merely as 'carbon stock' but as the dwelling of an Orisha or Vodun (divinity), the commitment to protecting it becomes absolute. The same with the water sources, the trees, the rocks, and the animals.

Therefore, whether through the visual arts in New York or through the sacred drums in Salvador, the goal is the same: to 're-enchant' our relationship with the Earth. Integrating these sensory and spiritual approaches is essential to move people from a state of 'cognitive awareness' about the climate crisis to a state of 'sensible urgency' and action.

9. Anything else you would like to add?

I would just like to emphasize that the fight for climate justice is inseparable from the fight for racial and heritage justice. Protecting our 'Territórios Sagrados' (Sacred Territories) is about protecting the biodiversity and the wisdom that can save our cities.

10. How can people reach you?

You can reach me via email at celso@preservandolegados.org, celso.almeida@ufba.br. I am always open to dialogue about heritage, climate justice, and Ethnic-Racial Relations.