In this 1996 photo released by Ana de la Merced Guimaraes, bones from African slaves sit in boxes after being recovered by Guimaraes in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (AP Photo/Ana de la Merced Guimaraes)
RIO DE JANEIRO — Wearing full-skirted white dresses and turbans, the religious leaders chanted blessings and sprinkled water on the concrete floor of a modest house near this city’s port. Beneath their feet were the remains of tens of thousands of African slaves who had died shortly after arriving from their horrific sea voyage. The bodies had been dumped into a fetid, open-air cemetery, often chopped up and mixed with trash. With the 15-minute ceremony this week, the Afro-Brazilian priests were finally giving the slaves at least the semblance of a proper burial centuries later.