O branqueamento como missão de política externa e elemento atávico da política externa brasileira contemporânea para a África

This text analyzes the history of relations between Brazil and Africa in order to identify the causes of the country's limited interest in that continent throughout history. One of the elements identified was the whitening policy carried out by the Brazilian government, starting with the legal abolition of slavery. Through an investigation into the functioning of this mechanism, the text aims to revise the narrative currently dominant in the historiography on the subject, which understands the period from the end of the 19th century to the end of the first half of the 20th century as one without significant milestones for the history of these relations, nor analytical importance for understanding Brazil's current foreign policy towards Africa, given the apparent absence of exchanges in various fields. The methodology used was the analysis of the approved legislation in the period and of the bibliography on the period, focusing not on the linear narrative of facts, but on the gaps and absences existing in that bibliography. From this perspective, it was possible to verify that what is commonly described as a hiatus is, on the contrary, a process of consolidation in the Brazilian society - and, consequently, among the formulators and executors of foreign policy - ​​of a particular approach towards the African continent. The conclusion points to the weight of this approach - historically constructed and consolidated through regulations and practices - in the formulation and implementation of foreign policy to Africa, not only during the period when whitening was the dominant practice, but also, despite the temporal distance, in contemporary foreign policy, insofar as it atavistically affects the definition of priorities, recruitment processes, and the allocation of resources.