Quilombola Identity Research Articles

Justice in an Unequal Relationship? Negotiations Between the Quilombo Bombas and the Upper Ribeira State Touristic Park, Brazil

In Brazil, the implementation of protected areas has often caused impoverishment and injustice to forest-dwelling peoples. With the launching of the re-democratic 1988 Constitution, numerous claims for access to resources, recognition of ethnic identities, and participation in environmental decision-making have been made by traditional peoples. Using an environmental justice approach, this article analyzes the spaces for and processes of negotiation over strictly protected areas through an examination of the land claim of the Afro-Brazilian quilombola community Bombas located inside the Upper Ribeira State Touristic Park, São Paulo. The article argues that exclusionary practices and discourses were used by the Brazilian state apparatus, hampering the recognition of a quilombola identity, land rights, and access to infrastructure development. The negotiation meetings served as a forum for challenging the power imbalances, but did not open up space for meaningful participation where quilombolas' voice did significantly influence the agenda and key decisions.

Social-Ecological Changes in a Quilombola Community in the Atlantic Forest of Southeastern Brazil.

Through a combined adaptive cycle and political ecology approach, this article explores how the Afro-Brazilian Quilombolas of Bombas, living inside the protected area of PETAR, respond to and shape social-ecological changes in the Atlantic Forest. Field data reveal that both environmental restrictions and social policies of state transfer payments and food packages have contributed to decreased engagement in agricultural practices, loss of traditional knowledge, and reduced agro-biodiversity. The claim to land rights based on a Quilombola identity and recent negotiations with forest authorities insinuate a shift of this trend. Contrary to dominant conservation narratives, the findings indicate that small-scale shifting cultivation practices by the Quilombolas have the potential to increase structural ecological complexity of the Atlantic Forest. The article therefore argues that legalization of settlement and subsistence activities is important not only for livelihood security and social cohesion of Bombas inhabitants, but also possibly for biodiversity conservation.

A CONSTRUÇÃO DE UMA IDENTIDADE QUILOMBOLA A PARTIR DA PRÁTICA CORPORAL/CULTURAL DO JONGO

Este trabalho objetiva descrever o processo de construção de uma identidade quilombola a partir da prática corporal/cultural do jongo. Para tanto, realizamos uma pesquisa de cunho qualitativo em uma comunidade remanescente de quilombo situada no município de Angra dos Reis, no estado do Rio de Janeiro: Santa Rita do Bracuí. Os dados empíricos acumulados ao longo de dois anos de trabalho (2010 e 2011) compõem um vasto material que aliou etnografias de rodas de jongo a entrevistas em profundidade realizadas com personagens privilegiados. É em torno da prática do jongo que a comunidade vem construindo e reafirmando sua identidade quilombola.

Identidade étnica e poder: os quilombos nas políticas públicas brasileiras

A partir da atenção específica aos quilombolas, inserida na nova Política Nacional de Assistência Técnica e Extensão Rural (Pnater), o texto aborda a relação de poder entre as políticas públicas e a identidade étnica. Discute como o conceito reformulado de desenvolvimento influencia a atuação estatal nos contextos rurais e a adoção de ações compensatórias para categorias excluídas. Descortina uma breve trajetória social, jurídica e conceitual em torno dos quilombos, localizando as dinâmicas de poder na construção da identidade quilombola, um projeto em constante reelaboração pela sociedade brasileira.

“DONOS DO LUGAR”: A GEO-GRAFIA NEGRA E CAMPONESA DO SAPÊ DO NORTE – ES

This paper aims to discuss ways of territoriality built by communities of African descent in northern Espirito Santo, whose ancestors settled there during the colonial period, initially as slave workers. With the end of slavery, these communities began to play his peasant existence, building territories that were expropriated from the middle of the twentieth century the production of cellulose. Currently, enable forms of reappropriation of these territories, which highlight the facho and the conformation of quilombola identity.