Pardos’ Triumph

On September 13, 1745, the pardo (mixed-race Afro-Brazilian) brotherhood (lay Catholic association) of Nossa Senhora do Livramento (Our Lady of Emancipation) of Recife, Pernambuco, in collaboration with the pardo brotherhood of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe) in neighboring Olinda, enthralled Pernambuco’s largest city with a great festival in honor of Blessed Gonçalo Garcia (1556–97). Like many colonial festivals, the festivities included fireworks, artillery salvos, five triumphal carts, seventeen allegorical floats, five different dance performances, and jousting. Yet never before had such an extravagant display of material wealth been made by an Afro-Brazilian brotherhood. The pardo irmãos (brotherhood members) had two important issues they wanted to settle once and for all with this festival. One was the question of Blessed Gonçalo’s pardoness, since the would-be-saint was the son of a Portuguese man and an East Indian woman, and pardoness in Brazil had been defined as the result of white–black miscegenation. The other issue was the popular notion that mixed-race Afro-Brazilians constituted colonial Brazil’s most deviant and unruly socioracial group. In this article, I analyze how mixed-race Afro-Brazilians used the material culture of early modern festivals to publicly articulate claims about their sacro-social prestige and socio-symbolic status. I contend that material culture played a central role in the pardo irmãos’ articulation of their devotion to Blessed Gonçalo and claims of sacro-social and socio-symbolic belonging, and that they used this material culture to challenge colonial notions about their ethnic group.

As identidades negras da EJA em diálogo com a (re)educação das relações étnico-raciais

O propósito do texto é discutir o processo de reeducação das relações étnico-raciais na educação de jovens e adultos, a partir das identidades negras no cotidiano escolar da EJA. É um estudo de abordagem qualitativa em que recorremos à pesquisa bibliográfica, cujos referenciais estão pautados em documentos legais como a Lei 10.639/2003, Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais das Relações Étnico-Raciais e para o Ensino de História e Cultura Afro-Brasileira e Africana, Censo Educacional de 2019; além do aporte teórico em Falola (2020), Oyêwùmí (2018), Gomes (2005), Odé Inocêncio (2001), Schwarcz (2012), dentre outros que fundamentam a discussão. No primeiro momento, consideramos os dados oficiais de pardos e pretos informados nas matrículas da EJA, como resultado do Censo Educacional (2019) e seus efeitos na produção das identidades e reconhecimento das culturas africanas e afro-brasileiras. No segundo momento, problematizamos a questão da reeducação para as relações étnico-raciais reconhecendo que, passados dezessete anos de implementação da primeira versão da Lei 10.639/2003, não foram suficientes para a ressignificação dos conhecimentos potenciais de África e da diáspora. Por fim, é necessário continuarmos a discutir os aspectos ligados à dimensão da corporeidade, africana e afro-brasileira, tornada invisível e negada nas salas de aula da EJA; às múltiplas abordagens das religiosidades de matriz africana; às inúmeras manifestações e práticas culturais de raiz africana conectadas com as experiências de seus descendentes brasileiros, sem esgotarmos o debate.Palavras-chave: Relações Étnico-Raciais; Identidades africanas e afro-brasileiras; Educação de Jovens e Adultos.EJA’s black identities in dialogue with the (re)education of ethnic-racial relationsABSTRACT The purpose of the text is to discuss the process of re-education of ethnic-racial relations in the education of young people and adults, based on black identities in the daily life of EJA. It is a study with a qualitative approach in which we resorted to bibliographical research, whose references are based on legal documents such as Law 10.639/2003, National Curriculum Guidelines for Ethnic-Racial Relations and for the Teaching of Afro-Brazilian and African History and Culture, Census 2019 Educational; in addition to theoretical contributions in Falola (2020), Oyêwùmí (2018), Gomes (2005), Odé Inocêncio (2001), Schwarcz (2012), among others that support the discussion. At first, we considered the official data of browns and blacks informed in EJA enrollments, as a result of the Educational Census (2019) and its effects on the production of identities and recognition of African and Afro-Brazilian cultures. In the second moment, we problematize the issue of re-education for ethnic-racial relations, recognizing that, seventeen years after the implementation of the first version of Law 10.639/2003, it was not enough for the re-signification of the potential knowledge of Africa and the diaspora. Finally, it is necessary to continue to discuss aspects related to the dimension of corporeality, African and Afro-Brazilian, made invisible and denied in EJA classrooms; the multiple approaches to African-based religiosities; to the countless manifestations and cultural practices of African roots connected with the experiences of their Brazilian descendants, without exhausting the debate.Keywords: Ethnic-Racial Relations; African and Afro-Brazilian Identities; Youth and Adult Education. Las identidades negras de EJA en diálogo con la (re) educación de las relaciones étnico-raciales RESUMENEl propósito del texto es discutir el proceso de reeducación de las relaciones étnico-raciales en la educación de jóvenes y adultos, basado en las identidades negras en la vida cotidiana de EJA. Se trata de un estudio con enfoque cualitativo en el que se recurrió a la investigación bibliográfica, cuyas referencias se basan en documentos legales como la Ley 10.639 / 2003, Lineamientos Curriculares Nacionales para las Relaciones Étnico-Raciales y para la Enseñanza de la Historia Afrobrasileña y Africana y Cultura, Censo 2019 Educativo; además de aportes teóricos en Falola (2020), Oyêwùmí (2018), Gomes (2005), Odé Inocêncio (2001), Schwarcz (2012), entre otros que apoyan la discusión. En un primer momento, se consideraron los datos oficiales de pardos y negros informados en las inscripciones de EJA, como resultado del Censo Educativo (2019) y sus efectos en la producción de identidades y reconocimiento de las culturas africanas y afrobrasileñas. En un segundo momento, problematizamos el tema de la reeducación para las relaciones étnico-raciales, reconociendo que, diecisiete años después de la implementación de la primera versión de la Ley 10.639 / 2003, no fue suficiente para la resignificación del conocimiento potencial. de África y la diáspora. Finalmente, es necesario seguir discutiendo aspectos relacionados con la dimensión de la corporeidad, africana y afrobrasileña, invisibilizados y negados en las aulas de EJA; los múltiples enfoques de las religiosidades africanas; a las innumerables manifestaciones y prácticas culturales de raíces africanas conectadas con las vivencias de sus descendientes brasileños, sin agotar el debate.Palabras clave: Relaciones étnico-raciales; Identidades africanas y afrobrasileñas; Educación de jóvenes y adultos.

Conceptions About Health and Care Practices of Black Men from a Quilombola Community

Introduction: Universal health coverage will be guaranteed to all individuals, safeguarding the rights of traditional communities, as in the quilombola population, respecting the dimensions of interculturality, gender and ethnicity. Objective: The aim of this study is to describe the conceptions of health and health care practices of Afro-Brazilian men from a quilombola community. Methods: This was a qualitative descriptive study conducted with Afro-Brazilian men from a quilombola community in Bahia, Brazil, where there is a significant concentration of black people and quilombola communities. Results: This group’s conceptions of health are based on the combination of the individual body with the body that is socially and culturally situated in the community. Health care practices are anchored in cultural knowledge and strengthened by the bonds with nature, friends and religious leaders. Conclusion: The black men from quilombola communities are in a state of vulnerability due to the lack of access to health services.

Racism and Religious Intolerance: A Critical Analysis of the Coloniality of Brazilian Christianity

This article examines the persistence of religious intolerance experienced by practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions. Drawing from recent reports and historical resources on religious intolerance, it approaches religious diversity in Brazil from a decolonial perspective, pointing to the contradiction between the image of Brazil as a place where religious change and plurality occurs with minimal conflict and the painful reality experienced by practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions. Picturing religious intolerance and racism as two faces of the same coin, it argues that both must be resisted. The article concludes with a call for a religious-racial literacy which is intercultural in nature and promises a path to overcome the insidious persistence of racism and religious intolerance. Such a way forward, however, demands a de-centering of Brazilian Christianity, despite its religious majority status, in favor of an epistemic humility which gives full consideration to the knowledge, memories, and lived experience of Afro-Brazilian religious practitioners.

Decolonial Coalitions: Afro-Brazilian Feminisms and the Poetic-Politics of Quilombo

Moving beyond the legal and historical hegemonic definitions of the quilombo, this paper investigates continuities in gendered racial violence in Brazil by evoking the political and poetic of the quilombo. Inspired by the works of the historian and poet Beatriz Nascimento, the multifaceted notion of quilombo is conceptualized as an ongoing praxis of fugitivity and coalition that draws on the interconnectedness of anti-colonial, feminist, and anti-racist struggles. In exploring geopolitical breaks and epistemological ruptures, this paper fosters a necessary conversation between theory and practice by engaging with the living archives of three Afro-Brazilian writers and activists: (i) Beatriz Nascimento’s fundamental contributions on the political, material and symbolic dimensions of quilombo; (ii) the legacy and vision of Marielle Franco focusing on the necessity to ocupar the institutional politics like a growing seed; (iii) the work of Erica Malunguinho and Mandata Quilombo through the praxis of aquilombar the constitutional democracy, based on the alternation in representative power and repossession.

The pursuit of a life less ordinary. The trajectory of afro-brazilian actor Milton Gonçalves.

Milton Gonçalves is one of the most awarded actors in Brazil. He is a descendant of slaves, born in 1933 and, as such, he faced the challenges imposed on Afro-Brazilians during post-abolition: poverty and racial discrimination. This article utilizes interviews, newspapers and other media to examine the trajectory of Milton Gonçalves: his origins, life in São Paulo during the Vargas Era, the Teatro de Arena, the TV Channel Globo. Milton goes from being a shy young man to becoming the face and voice recognized by hundreds of millions in Brazil. He also became engaged in the struggle for racial equality in Brazil.

Intersectionality and the Election of Bolsonaro

News coverage of Jair Bolsonaro’s 2018 presidential campaign routinely focused on his misogynistic, homophobic, and racist rhetoric. He derided women and Afro-Brazilians, even though both groups are majorities of the Brazilian population. Notwithstanding his offensive rhetoric, Bolsonaro was elected president with significant support from both members of both groups. In this paper, we use public opinion data to investigate why women and Afro-Brazilians voted for him. Informed by intersectionality research, we explore why individuals voted for him. The results of a quantitative analysis point to important distinctions among women and Afro-Brazilians. In particular, our results show that Afro-Brazilian women were least likely to support him. These results underscore the importance of using an intersectional perspective to understand political behavior in Brazil.