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In the nineteenth century, Rio de Janeiro was home to the largest slave port in the Americas, and was probably the largest black city in the world. Since its discovery in 2011, the former slave disembarkation point of Valongo Wharf has been the focus of many local, national and international heritage policies. In 2017, the Valongo Wharf Archaeological Site was designated by UNESCO as a part of World Heritage. Various cultural displays are also held on the wharf and in the small surrounding arena and square. As the principal organizers of a new annual ritual washing ceremony of the wharf, a few Baianas, priestesses of the candomblé of Rio de Janeiro, have become privileged intermediaries of the public authorities, managers of the local memory of slavery, and custodians of cultural heritage. This article describes the birth, consolidation and institutionalization of this ritual washing ceremony. It analyses the relationship between ritualization and the politics of heritage, between uses of the past and religious practices, and between the communal memory of Afro-Brazilian people and national, social and political issues.