Quilombolas and citizens: national projects and the right to land in Brazil

ABSTRACT

In Brazil, the legal, political, and civil status of the Afro-descendant population in the post-abolition period has long been a topic of conflict and controversy. Public policies relating to access to land, for example, have skewed the concentration of real estate – in both physical and symbolic terms – in favor of certain segments of the population and to the detriment of others who have nevertheless frequently attempted to subscribe to the so-called ‘whitening’ (Europeanization) of the nation. In this article, I trace the trajectory which has carried quilombolas (maroons: the descendants of self-liberated African slaves) of the north of the state of Espírito Santo to a position of publicly affirming their rights to both identity and territory by making land claims against other agents in the public sphere. I seek to identify the contexts of the formation of these assertions of agency in the midst of multiple rural and quilombola identities in order to identify how quilombolas have asserted their relational differences vis-à-vis all other social groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Quilombolas
• territory
• law
• ethnicity
• Espírito Santo (Brazilian state)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Although various studies show that the formation of quilombos in the colonial period included indigenous, black, and white populations (Almeida 1989; Arruti 1997b; Leite 2000; O’Dwyer 2002), modern spokespeople, in reconstructing the quilombola identity, acknowledge the Afro-descendant leader Zumbi of Palmares as an icon of black urban militancy in Brazil. This was especially the case in the 1970s.

2 Published in 2003, Presidential Decree 4487 regulates Article 68 of the Federal Constitution of 1988, which guarantees quilombola land rights (Brasil, 2003). Since its promulgation, this decree has been the target of attacks by rural elites who consider it a means of dividing whites and blacks. The conservative Brazilian Democratic Party presented a Direct Act of Unconstitutionality in the Brazilian Supreme Court. This led to various court cases throughout Brazil to contest the processes of land title for quilombolas, as well as to contest claims to the quilombola identity itself.

3 Terms placed within quotes are those used by my interview subjects. Terms in italics represent my emphasis. [Translator’s note: Terms foreign to English are also italicized.]

4 Although self-identification is the principal national policy by which the rights of quilombolas are recognized, the official process of land title requires that the Palmares Cultural Foundation release, upon request of community members, the ‘Certificate of Self-Identification’ in order to initiate acknowledgment and title of quilombola lands. For the geographic location of the Sapê do Norte region, see: http://cidades.ibge.gov.br/xtras/perfil.php?codmun=320490 and http://cidades.ibge.gov.br/xtras/perfil.php?codmun=320160.

5 These authors explain that the region was settled by Amerindians generically referred to as botocudos, as opposed to those who were considered more ‘civilized’ because of their alliance with religious missions. Moreira shows, for example, that various conflicts involved ranchers and Amerindians, as well as how militias of slaves were formed to combat the latter. This suggests the heterogeneous identities and political motivations of historical and contemporary quilombolas.

6 Movements for quilombola rights seek to reclaim land understood as having been occupied by quilombolas for several generations. Such a perspective is contrasted with the institutional perspective of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra (MST) or Landless Workers’ Movement, because quilombola lands are those that are thought and felt to be related to ancestors.

7 Immigrants were brought to Espírito Santo through a public policy of ‘occupation of empty spaces’, but these were, in fact, regions already traditionally given to the cultivation of coffee. The immigration initiative was administered by private businesses with support from public resources and followed certain requirements such as accepting the migrants along with their families. Several ‘colonial cores’ were created by engaging Italian immigrants who resided in the cities to then be reintroduced as rural workers in the countryside (Moreira 2005). Nova Venécia (‘New Venice’), the city that was considered the most Italian during the period of immigration, is today the political, economic, and ideological center of the region.

8 ‘Sister Luzia’, many quilombolas have argued, best understood the discrimination that their people have undergone. After 30 years in Africa,

the brothers told me that [I] would like [working with the quilombolas] because they were people who had suffered and [I] could help them. And, seeing as I too was black, I could be more comfortable among them, right? In those days, I worked with the Jongo community and I heard many of their oldest stories: ‘Look, Sister, around here we didn’t even have the right to enter a church!’ [they told me]. Me, with my nun’s garb and my veil flying to and fro…the folks here [doing their chants and dances and] clapping their hands was a real show! But what really stood out to me in São Mateus was that they had never seen a black nun! This black nun, dancing with the local black folks. (Sister Luzia interviewed by the author, Rio de Janeiro, June 2011)

9 GRUCON (o Grupo de União e Consciência Negra) was founded in Minas Gerais in the 1980s and maintained a network of collaborators throughout the southeast of Brazil. One of its founders, Frei (Brother) David, in an interview with Alberti and Pereira (2007), detailed his involvement with the black cause as a clergyman. He also discussed the support of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil toward the activities of GRUCON that, according to David, was composed of both lay and clergy members. This fact, he continued, denotes the conflicts that had surrounded the Church’s entry into racial issues in Brazil. Other Catholic organizations such as FASE and KOINONIA would continue in later years to develop activities alongside the quilombolas that tended toward projects of economic development.

10 Until the 1960s, rural unions were composed of bosses and landowners that leveraged their positions as political capital in elections. The formation of new rural workers’ unions led to a considerable disruption of these relations, thus resulting in a violent reaction on behalf of those previously in control (see Houtzager 2004).