This picture captures Eugen Keller and his nanny in Pernambuco, Brazil, in 1874.

📸 This picture captures Eugen Keller and his nanny in Pernambuco, Brazil, in 1874.

🖤 It’s more than just an old photo – it’s a quiet window into a deeply unequal world.
Eugen sits perched on the edge of an ornate table, while his nanny sits beside him, one hand gently supporting him. She’s not behind him, not below him – but beside him. It’s a subtle but powerful visual cue: she is the one keeping him steady, quite literally.

Her gaze into the camera is firm, unwavering. There’s no trace of submission – only calm strength. She doesn’t smile, and she doesn’t need to.

Her presence speaks louder: she is composed, proud, and deeply aware of the role she plays, even if history has tried to forget it.

She likely fed him, comforted him, and knew the rhythm of his cries and the stories that soothed him to sleep. And yet, history records only his name. Like countless Black women in post-slavery Brazil, her labor was intimate and essential – yet invisible.

This isn’t just a nanny. This is a woman who stood at the crossroads of care and colonialism. Her image deserves more than a footnote.

🖤 It deserves to be seen, remembered, and honored.

100african #afrobrazilian #blackhistory #unsungheroes #herstorymatters