On the Colonial Past of Anthropology: Teaching Race and Coloniality in the Global South

Maria Andrea Dos Santos Soares

doi:10.3390/h8020088

Abstract

This article addresses some of the discussions taking place at the Social Sciences program of the Afro-Brazilian International University for Lusophone Integration (UNILAB), such as the coloniality of knowledge, racial hierarchies, and anthropology’s complicity in colonialism. The article reviews current literature and draws on ethnographic fieldwork for two main purposes: First, to analyze how Afro–Brazilians, and Afro–Brazilian culture have been depicted and used in the process of national formation. Second, to examine the role that social and anthropological analysis played by dismissing “race” and “racism” as a structuring feature of Brazilian society. I propose that the ethics of an anthropological praxis aiming to create the necessary conditions for a different kind of knowledge to emerge, would be critically reflective about its own process of knowledge production, and aware as well, of voices and locations where this knowledge is being produced. The process of decolonization relies on epistemological choices made in the field, at the institutional level within the departments and programs, and in classrooms.

Highlights

It is possible to say that I have the job of my dreams
As a black Brazilian anthropologist and graduate of an African Diaspora Studies Graduate program at a reputable U.S University, I have the privilege of teaching in a Brazilian University that was planned as a bridge between Brazil and the African continent
Following an analysis of how “race”, “racial mixture”, miscegenation, Afro-Brazilian culture have been deployed by both state actors and social movements, I will discuss this historical trajectory in relation to UNILAB—an institution whose very founding was a result of progressive socio–political mobilization against racial inequality—and will advance a position regarding the anthropological practices and its canon, as well as the implications for anthropologists’ positionalities according to race, gender, and region (Global South) of origin and of knowledge production

Summary

Introduction

It is possible to say that I have the job of my dreams. As a black Brazilian anthropologist and graduate of an African Diaspora Studies Graduate program at a reputable U.S University, I have the privilege of teaching in a Brazilian University that was planned as a bridge between Brazil and the African continent. The discussions, courses designs, and syllabi at UNILAB focus on goals and themes, such as the decolonization of educational practices; “race” as a category in Brazilian and in African contexts, black feminisms; the politics of fighting racism; and the implementation of Federal Laws 10.639-03 and 11.645-08 (which, respectively, mandate the teaching of African history, and of Afro–Brazilian and indigenous culture at all levels of formation). The article starts by pinpointing how race, racial mixture, and Afro-Brazilian culture was, and continues to be, deployed in the context of the Brazilian nation This will help us to grasp the intricacies of the “racial problem” in Brazil, and how the subject of race/racism was, or was not, addressed by Brazilian social scientists. I will discuss this historical trajectory in relation to UNILAB—an institution whose very founding was a result of progressive socio–political mobilization against racial inequality—and will advance a position regarding the anthropological practices and its canon, as well as the implications for anthropologists’ positionalities according to race, gender, and region (Global South) of origin and of knowledge production

A Black University and an Anthropological Canon

The “Race” Problem in Brazil

Anthropologists and “Others”

Same and Other

Closing Remarks