#MariellePresente: Black Feminism, Political Power, and Violence in Brazil

Abstract

This article examines black Brazilian activist and politician Marielle Franco’s importance as a political figure, both during her life and since her assassination in 2018. It explores the intersectional dimensions of Franco’s political life, by locating her within two political genealogies: black women politicians in the city of Rio de Janeiro and black feminist activists in Brazil and the United States. The analysis underscores Franco’s impact on the Brazilian political landscape, and black women politicians in particular, during the 2018 and 2020 elections. It also examines Franco’s positioning within overlapping crises of anti-black genocide, femicide, and anti-LGBT violence in Brazil.

Keywords:

• Benedita da Silva
• black feminism
• black women politicians
• Brazil
• Brazilian politics
• Marielle Franco
• violence

Acknowledgements

This article benefitted from my time as a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for the Arts and Humanities at UNC-Chapel Hill in the spring of 2019. I would like to especially thank Elizabeth Havice, Chad Bryant and Maggie Melo for their feedback and comments on earlier versions of this article. My ongoing conversations and work with Sharrelle Barber also shaped the analysis found here. An earlier version of this work was presented at the Watson Institute at Brown University in October 2019. I also greatly appreciate the valuable comments of the anonymous reviewers for Souls.

Notes

1 Lígia Mesquita, “‘Marielle tinha potencial de ser deputada, senadora, president da República,’ diz Benedita da Silva, 1a vereadora do Rio negra e da favela,” BBC News Brasil. March 18, 2018, https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-43420476. (Accessed June 10, 2019).

2 Geri Augusto has described Franco’s assassination as an epistemicidal practice or “the quashing of people as knowing subjects,” as conceptualized in black Brazilian feminist philosopher Sueli Carneiro’s interepretation of Boaventura de Sousa Santos’ work. See Geri Augusto, “For Marielle: Mulhere(s) da Maré – Danger, Seeds and Tides.” Transition 129 (2020), 247 and Aparecida Sueli Carneiro. A Construção do Outro como Não-ser como Fundamento do Ser. (São Paulo: FUESP, 2005).

3 The phrase “Say Her Name” and social media hashtag #sayhername have been used by the African-American Policy Forum to raise visibility and awareness of police violence against black women in the United States. Here, I draw parallels in gendered anti-black state violence in Brazil and the U.S. by invoking the notion of “saying her name.” See Kimberlé Crenshaw and Andrea J. Ritchie, Say Her Name: Resisting Police Violence against Black Women (African American Policy Forum and Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies, 2015), http://static1.squarespace.com/static/53f20d90e4b0b80451158d8c/t/560c068ee4b0af26f72741df/1443628686535/AAPF_SMN_Brief_Full_singles-min.pdf (Accessed January 10, 2019).

4 Sofia Perpétua, “Fight Like Marielle: A Slain Brazilian Councilwoman Inspired More Women to Enter Politics.” Ms. Magazine Fall (2018): 14–15.

5 José Roberto de Toledo and Kellen Moraes, “Marielle bate impeachment no Twitter,” Folha de São Paulo. March 17, 2018, https://piaui.folha.uol.com.br/marielle-bate-impeachment-em-alcance-no-twitter/. (Accessed August 1, 2019).

6 Kiratiana Freelon, “The assassination of a black human rights activist in Brazil has created a global icon,” Quartz. March 18, 2018, https://qz.com/1231910/brazils-marielle-franco-murder-has-made-her-a-global-human-rights-icon/. (Accessed August 1, 2019).

7 Shirley Chisholm, Unbought and Unbossed (Washington, D.C.: Take Root Media, 2010).

8 Otávio Raposo, “‘This Is Iraq. People Are Afraid’: Resistance and Mobilization in the Maré Favelas (Rio de Janeiro).” Vibrant: Virtual Brazilian Anthropology 11, no. 1 (2014): 11–49.

9 Simon Marijsse, “A Dive Into History: The Birth and Formation of the Complexo da Maré,” Rio on Watch. October 4, 2016, https://rioonwatch.org/?p+29572. (Accessed September 24, 2019); Otávio Raposo has noted that a 2012 census done by community organizations in Maré placed the population at 140,000 residents, “‘This Is Iraq. People Are Afraid’: Resistance and Mobilization in the Maré Favelas (Rio de Janeiro).”

10 João H. Costa Vargas, Never Meant to Survive: Genocide and Utopias in Black Diaspora Communities. (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2008).

11 Raposo, “‘This Is Iraq. People Are Afraid’: Resistance and Mobilization in the Maré Favelas (Rio de Janeiro).”

12 Christen Smith, “Lingering Trauma in Brazil: Police Violence Against Black Women.” NACLA, December 27, 2018. https://nacla.org/news/2019/01/02/lingering-trauma-brazil-police-violence-against-black-women

13 Ibid., 371.

14 Gary Reich and Pedro dos Santos, “The Rise (and Frequent Fall) of Evangelical Politicians: Organization, Theology, and Church Politics.” Latin American Politics and Society 55, n. 4 (2013): 1–22.

15 Chayenne Polimédio, “The Rise of the Brazilian Evangelicals,” The Atlantic. January 24, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/01/the-evangelical-takeover-of-brazilian-politics/551423/. (Accessed September 24, 2019).

16 Juliana Gragnani, “Marielle Era Uma das 32 Mulheres Negras Eleitas entre 811 Vereadores Eleitos Em Capitais Brasileiros,” BBC News Brasil. March 15, 2018. https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-43424088. (Accessed November 21, 2021).

17 Terrence McCoy, Marina Lopes and Teo Armus, “‘This will not stick’: Brazilian president lashes out over alleged links to left-wing politician’s killing,” The Washington Post. October 30, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/30/jairbolsonaro-marielle-franco-murder-link/. (Accessed October 30, 2019).

18 Christen Smith, “Lingering Trauma in Brazil.”

19 Madea Benjamin, Maisa Mendonça, and Benedita da Silva, An Afro-Brazilian Woman’s Story of Politics and Love (Oakland: Food First Books, 1997).

20 Cherríe Moraga, Loving in the War Years: Lo que nunca pasó por sus labios (Boston: South End Press, 1983); Paula Moya, “Postmodernism, ‘Realism,’ and the Politics of Identity: Cherríe Moraga and Chicana Feminism, “in Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures, eds. M. Jacqui Alexander and Chandra Talpade Mohanty (New York: Routledge, 1996), 125–150; Paula Moya, Learning from Experience: Minority Identities, Multicultural Struggles (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 125–150.

21 “Favelada” is commonly used as a pejorative and racially coded term that connotes blackness, poverty and presumed criminality in Brazil. Silva reappropriated the term and used it to express pride in being from the community she represented. Her use of it also called attention to often unspoken racialized class differences.

22 For an analysis of black women’s activism in urban Brazilian communities, see Keisha-Khan Perry, Black Women Against the Land Grab: The Fight for Racial Justice in Brazil (University of Minnesota Press, 2013).

23 Lígia Mesquita, “Marielle Tinha Potencial.”

24 Kia Lilly Caldwell, Negras in Brazil: Re-envisioning Black Women, Citizenship, and the Politics of Identity (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2007).

25 Benedita da Silva, Toque de Mulher Negra (Brasilia: Camara dos Deputados, Centro de Documentação e Informação, Coordenação e Publicações, 1991), 27.

26 Lígia Mesquita, “Marielle Tinha Potencial.”

27 Ibid.

28 Ibid.

29 Gladys Mitchell-Walthour, “Politicizing Blackness: Afro-Brazilian Color Identification and Candidate Preference,” in Brazil’s New Racial Politics, ed. Bernd Reiter and Gladys L. Mitchell (Boulder: Lynne Reinnner, 2010), 35–50; Gladys Mitchell-Walthour, The Politics of Blackness: Racial Identity and Political Behavior in Contemporary Brazil (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).

30 Kia Caldwell, “Sexism, Racism Drive More Black Women to Run for Office in Brazil and U.S.,” The Conversation. October 4, 2018. https://theconversation.com/sexism-racism-drive-more-black-women-to-run-for-office-in-both-brazil-and-us-104208; Gladys Mitchell-Walthour, The Politics of Blackness.

31 Kaiser, Anna Jean, “Brazil sees black female candidates surge after murder of rising star.” The Guardian, September 30, 2018.

32 Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, “Desigualdades por Cor Ou Raça No Brasil,” https://www.ibge.gov.br/estatisticas/sociais/populacao/25844-desigualdades-sociais-por-cor-ou-raca.html?=&t=resultados (accessed November 21, 2021).

33 Ibid.

34 Perpétua “Fight Like Marielle”; Luis F. Miguel, “Political Representation and Gender in Brazil: Quotas for Women and their Impact.” Bulletin of Latin American Research 29, no. 2 (2008): 197–214.

35 Macedo, Isabella. “Rio de Janeiro é o estado com mais mulheres negras concorrendo em 2018.” Congresso em Foco, September 27, 2018. https://congressoemfoco.uol.com.br/eleicoes/rio-de-janeiro-e-o-estado-com-mais-mulheres-negras-concorrendo-em-2018/

36 Ibid.

37 Perpetua, “Fight Like Marielle.”

38 Macedo, “Rio de Janeiro é o estado com mais mulheres negras concorrendo em 2018.”

39 Ibid.

40 See Luciane de Oliveira Rocha, “Black Mothers’ Experiences of Violence in Rio de Janeiro,” Cultural Dynamics 24, no. 1 (2012), 59–73 for an insightful analysis of activism by black mothers’ whose children have been killed by police in Rio de Janeiro. Parallels can be made between this political work and the work of black women who publicly mourned Marielle Franco.

41 Agenda Marielle Franco website, https://www.agendamariellefranco.com, last accessed March 31, 2021

42 Numerous Brazilian media outlets published articles documenting the “Marielle Effect” on black women in Brazilian politics, including the El País Brasil article, “Efeito Marielle: Mulheres Negras Entram na Política por Legado da Vereadora.” El País Brasil. May 30, 2018. https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2018/05/30/politica/1527707445_080444.html. Brazilian scholars Flavia Rios and Carlos Machado have also examined the “Marielle Effect” on Brazilian politics in their article, https://www.nexojornal.com.br/ensaio/2020/Qual-o-efeito-Marielle-para-a-pol%C3%ADtica-brasileira. The Brazilian documentary Sementes by Éthel Oliveira and Júlia Mariano follows the political campaigns of several black women who knew Franco and ran for office following her assassination, https://embaubafilmes.com.br/distribuicao/sementes/.

43 Gladys Mitchell-Walthour, “‘My Vote Will Be Black’ – A Wave of Afro-Brazilian Women Ran for Office in 2020 but Found Glass Ceiling Hard to Break,” The Conversation. November 24, 2020. https://theconversation.com/my-vote-will-be-black-a-wave-of-afro-brazilian-women-ran-for-office-in-2020-but-found-glass-ceiling-hard-to-break-150521. (Accessed November 21, 2021).

44 Sarah Teófilo. “Maioria de Candidatos a Vereadores É Preta e Parda; A Prefeitos, Branca,” Correio Braziliense. September 27, 2020. https://www.correiobraziliense.com.br/politica/2020/09/4878301-maioria-de-candidatos-a-vereadores-e-preta-e-parda-a-prefeitos-branca.html. (Accessed November 21, 2021).

45 Juliana Gragnani, “Marielle Era Uma Das 32 Mulheres Negras Eleitas Entre 811 Vereadores Eleitos Em Capitais Brasileiros.”

46 Gladys Mitchell-Walthour, “‘My Vote Will Be Black.’”

47 Audre Lorde, “On the Uses of Anger,” Women’s Studies Quarterly 9, no. 3 (Fall 1981), 10.

48 Personal communication with Sharrelle Barber on November 20, 2019.

49 Barber has written about this experience, as well as produced a documentary about it. See Barber, Sharrelle, “‘Marielle Presente!’ Becomes a Rallying Cry in the Global Fight against Racism.” Sojourners. March 22, 2018. https://sojo.net/articles/marielle-presente-becomes-rallying-cry-global-fight-against-racism. (Accessed November 22, 2019). Barber, Sharrelle and Amber Delgado, I, A Black Woman Resist/Eu, Uma Mulher Negra, Resiste, (Free Southern Media, 2018).

50 For analyses of Audre Lorde’s impact on black women in Germany and other European countries, see Jennifer Michaels, “The Impact of Audre Lorde’s Politics and Poetics on Afro-German Women Writers.” German Studies Review 29, no. 1(2006): 21–40; Stella Bolaki and Sabine Broeck, eds. Audre Lorde’s Transnational Legacies (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2015).

51 See, for example, Carneiro, Sueli. “Women in Movement,” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 14, no. 1 (2016): 30–49; Lélia González. “A Mulher Negra na Sociedade Brasileira,” in O Lugar da Mulher, ed. Madel T. Luz (Rio de Janeiro: Edições Graal, 1982), 87–104’ Lélia Gonzalez, “The Black Woman in Brazil,” in African Presence in the America, ed. Carlos Moore, Tanya R. Saunders, and Shawna Moore (Trenton: Africa World Press, 1985), 313–328; Jurema Werneck, “Of Ialodes and Feminists: Reflections on Black Women’s Political Action in Latin America and the Caribbean,” Cultural Dynamics, 19, no. 1 (2007): 99–113.

52 Sueli Carneiro, “Women in Movement,” 32–33.

53 Claudia Pons Cardoso, “Feminisms from the Perspective of Black Brazilian Women.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 14 no. 1 (2016): 1–28.

54 Black women in the United States and England published numerous essays and books critiquing white feminists and articulating a black feminist and womanist perspective in the 1970s and 1980s. Key texts written by black feminists in Britain during this time include, Valerie Amos and Pratibha Parmar, “Challenging Imperial Feminism,” Feminist Review, 17 (1984): 3–20; Brixton Black Women’s Group, “Black Women Organising,” Feminist Review, 17 (1984): 85–87; Beverly Bryan, Stella Dadzie, and Suzanne Scafe, The Heart of the Race (London: Virago, 1985); Hazel Carby, “White Women Listen!: Black Feminism and the Boundaries of Sisterhood,” in The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in 70s, ed. Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies. (London: Hutchinson, 1982), 212–235.

55 The concept of “bem viver” emerged out of Indigenous struggles in the Andean region and can also be loosely translated as “well-being” in English, though it goes beyond Western notions of physical and mental well-being.

56 Agustín Lao-Montes, “Afro-Latin American Feminisms at the Cutting Edge of Emerging Political-Epistemic Movements,” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 14, no. 2 (2016): 1–23.

57 Sonia Alvarez, “‘Vem Marchar Com a Gente,’ Come March with Us,” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 14, no. 1 (2016): 70–74.

58 Agustín Lao-Montes, “Afro-Latin American Feminisms at the Cutting Edge of Emerging Political-Epistemic Movements,” 9–10.

59 The Zumbi march commemorated the three-hundredth anniversary of the death of Zumbi, the renowned leader of the quilombo of Palmares, the largest maroon community in Brazil and in the Americas. Zumbi was killed on November 20, 1695, a date that is recognized as the National Day of Black Consciousness in Brazil. The Zumbi march took place in Brasília on November 20, 1996.

60 Sonia Alvarez, “‘Vem Marchar Com a Gente.’”

61 The March manifesto was printed in its entirety in English as “March against Racism and Violence and in Favor of Living Well (bem viver) Brasília 2015,” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 14 no. 1 (2016): 76–79.

62 Luiza Bairros and Sonia Alvarez (translated by Miriam Adelman), “Feminisms and Anti-Racism: Intersections and Challenges, An Interview with Luiza Bairros, Minister, Brazilian Secretariat for the Promotion of Racial Equality (SEPPIR), 2011–2014,” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 14, no. 1 (2016): 50–69.

63 The webpage for Geledés, a leading black women’s non-governmental organization in Brazil, frequently features news stories related to hair discrimination against black women.

64 “Manifesto da Marcha das Mulheres Negras,” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 14, no. 1 (2016), 76–79.

65 Marielle Franco, “UPP – A Redução da Favela a Três Letras: Uma Análise da Política de Segurança Pública do Estado do Rio de Janeiro,” Master’s Thesis, University Federal Fluminense, 2014, https://app.uff.br/riuff/handle/1/2166. (Accessed November 27, 2021). See also Geri Augusto, “For Marielle: Mulhere(s) da Maré – Danger, Seeds and Tides.”

66 Renata Souza, “El Feminicídio Político de Marielle Franco,” El País Brasil. March 14, 2019. https://agenciapatriciagalvao.org.br/destaques/o-feminicidio-politico-de-marielle-franco-por-renata-souza/. (Accessed November 21, 2021).

67 Marina Lang, “Miliciano Ligado a Escritório do Crime Planejou Ataque a Deputada no Rio,” Veja. November 11, 2020. https://veja.abril.com.br/politica/miliciano-ligado-a-escritorio-do-crime-planeja-ataque-a-deputada-no-rio/. (Accessed November 29, 2021).

68 Juliana Dias, “Mulheres Negras São o Principal Alvo da Violência Política nas Redes Sociais em Eleições na Bahia,” Instituto AzMina. November 12, 2020. https://azmina.com.br/reportagens/mulheres-negras-sao-o-principal-alvo-da-violencia-politica-nas-redes-sociais-em-eleicoes-na-bahia/. (Accessed November 21, 2021).

69 Christen Smith, “Lingering Trauma in Brazil.”

70 Smith, “Lingering Trauma in Brazil,” 371.

71 Atlas da Violência 2018. Instituto de Pesquisas Aplicadas and Forum Brasileira de Segurança Pública. https://www.ipea.gov.br/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33410&Itemid=432. (Accessed November 29, 2021).

72 Crenshaw and Ritchie, Say Her Name.

73 Human Rights Watch, “Brazil: Police Killings at Record High in Rio,” December 19, 2018. https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/12/19/brazil-police-killings-record-high-rio. (Accessed May 15, 2019).

74 Ibid.

75 Brian Mier, “SOS Rio: Military Police Kill 434 in 2019,” Brasil Wire. May 11, 2019, http://www.brasilwire.com/sos-rio-military-police-kill-134-in-2019/. (Accessed May 15, 2019).

76 Ibid.

77 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Liaison and Partnership Office in Brazil, https://www.unodc.org/lpo-brazil/en/frontpage/2017/12/black-lives-campaign–-ending-violence-against-black-youth-in-brazil.html. (Accessed May 1, 2020).

78 Christen Smith, Afro-Paradise: Blackness, Violence and Performance in Brazil (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2016); João H. Costa Vargas, “Genocide in the African Diaspora: United States, Brazil, and the Need for a Holistic Research and Political Method,” Cultural Dynamics 17, no. 2, (2005): 267–90.

79 Brian Mier, “RJ Governor orders helicopter snipers: Police kill 13,” Brasil Wire. May 7, 2019, http://wwww.brasilwire.com/rj-governor-orders-helicopter-snipers-police-kill-13/. (Accessed May 15, 2019).

80 Leonencio Nossa, “País tem pelo menos 194 assassinatos de políticos ou ativistas sociais em 5 anos,” Estadão. March 18, 2018, https://noticias.uol.com.br/ultimas-noticias/agencia-estado/2018/03/18/pais-tem-pelo-menos-194-assassinatos-de-politicos-ou-ativistas-sociais-em-5-anos.htm?utm_source=t.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=twt-noticias&utm_content=geral. (Accessed October 16, 2019). Also see Fernanda Mena, “Brasil está entre os quatro líderes globais em homicídios de ativistas,” Folha de São Paulo. March 18, 2018, https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/cotidiano/2018/03/brasil-esta-entre-os-quatro-lideres-globais-em-homicidios-de-ativistas.shtml. (Accessed November 14, 2019).

81 “Brazil: 420 Violent Deaths in 2018,” Telesur. February 15, 2018, https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Brazil-420-Violent-Deaths-Against-LGBTQ-in-2018-20190215-0008.html. (Accessed July 15, 2019).

82 Tyler Strobl, “Brazil as World LGBT Murder Capital and Rio’s Place in the Data,” Rio on Watch. July 10, 2017. https://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=37249. (Accessed July 15, 2019).

83 Jaimee Swift, “Marielle Franco, Queer Black Women, and Police Violence in Brazil,” Black Perspectives. March 18, 2018, https://www.aaihs.org/afro-brazilian-women-lgbt-rights-and-the-fight-against-police-violence/ (Accessed May 15, 2019).

84 See, for example, Crenshaw and Ritchie, Say Her Name; Swift, Marielle Franco, Queer Black Women, and Police Violence in Brazil’; and Rick Rojas and Vanessa Swales, “18 Transgender Killings This Year Raise Fears of an ‘Epidemic,” The New York Times. September 27, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/27/us/transgender-women-deaths.html. (Accessed November 19, 2019).

85 Dom Phillips, “New Generation of Political Exiles Leave Bolsonaro’s Brazil ‘to stay alive.’” The Guardian, July 11, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/11/brazil-political-exiles-bolsonaro. (Accessed July 11, 2019).

86 Ibid.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kia Lilly Caldwell

Kia Lilly Caldwell is a Professor of African and African American Studies and Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Diversity at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of Negras in Brazil and Health Equity in Brazil.