Antiracism and black memory in the archives: a project to preserve black organization collections at the University of Campinas (Brazil)

ABSTRACT

This article describes the anti-racist project developed by the Arquivo Edgard Leuenroth (AEL — Edgard Leuenroth Archive) at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil that involves assembling collections pertaining to black social organizations in the state of São Paulo for preservation and dissemination. The project understands the relation between archives and anti-racism in two dimensions. One considers the very gesture of incorporating materials into the archival apparatus and the other involves the search for a new participatory paradigm for archival practices and decision-making. The collections enable us to reimagine the role of black organizations in the history of the country and its future, thus preserving and ensuring access to them is part of a broader initiative to redefine the place of the archival institution in policies aiming to dismantle racism.

KEYWORDS:

• Black memory
• archive
• Brazil
• racism

Notes

1. https://www.ael.ifch.unicamp.br/

2. Part of the work done by Paulo Ramos was supported by the Marginalized Population Studies Program under direction of Michael Hanchard, Director of the Center of Africana Studies, at the University of Pennsylvania. Access to the collections was facilitated by the previous research that Hanchard had carried out with activists from black organizations in São Paulo.

3. Silva, ‘Fazer história, fazer sentido’; Silva, ‘Outra ponte sobre o Atlântico Sul’; Domingues, ‘Em defesa da Humanidade.’

4. Alberti and Pereira, Histórias do movimento negro no Brasil; Pereira, O mundo negro.

5. Rios, ‘Elite política negra no Brasil.’

6. Santos, ‘A voz e a palavra do movimento negro’; Zambrano, ‘Mulheres negras em movimento.’

7. Hanchard, ‘Black Memory versus State Memory,’ 46.

8. Fernandes, A integração do negro na sociedade de classes.

9. Domingues, Petrônio. ‘Movimento Negro brasileiro.’

10. Hasenbalg, Discriminação e desigualdades raciais no Brasil.

11. Hanchard, Orfeu e o poder.

12. https://www.slavevoyages.org; Eltis and Richardson, Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

13. Data on educational inequality (NGO Todos pela Educação, 2020) shows that the Brazilian illiteracy rate is 11.2% among blacks; 11.1% among browns (pardos); and, 5% among whites. Overall, 70.7% of white adolescents aged 15 to 17 years attend high school; among blacks, this rate drops to 55.5%. IPEA (Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada), 2019.

14. Silva, ‘Preservar a memória negra e lutar contra a dupla morte.’

15. Schomburg, ‘The Negro Digs Up His Past,’ 670.

16. Holton, ‘Decolonizing History.’

17. Holton, ‘Decolonizing History,’ 228.

18. Holton, ‘Decolonizing History,’ 229; Hughes-Watkins, ‘Moving Toward a Reparative Archive.’

19. Holton, ‘Decolonizing History,’ 219.

20. Ishmael, ‘Reclaiming history,’ 269.

21. Poole, ‘The Strange Career of Jim Crow Archives.’

22. Bergin and Rupprecht, ‘History, Agency and the Representation of ‘Race,’ 5. The historical debate on slavery reparation policies in Brazil and worldwide is beyond the scope of this article. A comprehensive and detailed analysis of this issue can be found at: Araújo, Reparations for Slavery and the Slave Trade.

23. Prescod, ‘Archives, Race, Class and Rage,’ 83.

24. Gilliland, ‘The Role of Participatory Archives in Furthering Human Rights,’ 81–84.

25. Gilliland, ‘The Role of Participatory Archives in Furthering Human Rights,’ 79–80.

26. Huvila, ‘Participatory Archive,’ 33.

27. Huvila, ‘Participatory Archive,’ 27.

28. The holders’ visit to the archive is funded by Cebrap/Afro or Unicamp and the itinerary for the guided tour is prepared by employees of the dissemination team, Marina Rebelo and Maria Dutra.

29. Flinn, ‘Archival Activism,’ 17.

30. Flinn, ‘Archival Activism,’ 17. See also: Grimm, ‘Documenting Regional Latino Arts and Culture.’

31. Black associations have existed in São Paulo since the end of the 19th century, starting in the post-abolition period and some remain in operation to this day, maintained by family members descended from the founders. The oldest in activity today are Sociedade Beneficente CulturaL 28 de Setembro from Jundiaí (founded in 1897), Sociedade Beneficente Recreativa Treze de Maio from Piracicaba (1901) and Grêmio Recreativo Familiar Flor de Maio from São Carlos (1927). To learn more about the project, see: https://bv.fapesp.br/pt/auxilios/97703/as-cores-da-cidadania-os-clubes-negros-do-estado-de-sao-paulo-1897-1952/

32. Wexelbaum, Queers online.

33. As explained by the Institutional Memory of Geledés, ‘SOS Racismo — Legal Advice in Racial Discrimination Cases — originated as the Brazilian Section of SOS Racisme in France as part of the Geledés Human Rights Program.’ Cf. https://www.geledes.org.br/sos-racismo-de-geledes-memoria-institucional/

34. Barbosa, ‘A importância do direito à privacidade digital’; Buttarelli, ‘Privacy Matters.’

35. Burdick, A short guide to the digital humanities, 83.

36. Mcpherson, ‘Why Are the Digital Humanities So White?’; Gallon, ‘Making a case for the Black Digital Humanities.’

37. Pollak, and Heinich, ‘Le Temoignage’; Pollak, ‘Memória, esquecimento, silêncio.’

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aldair Rodrigues

Aldair Rodrigues holds a Ph.D in History from University of São Paulo (USP). Since 2016 he has been assistant professor in the department of History at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil, teaching graduate and undergraduate courses about Colonial Brazil and the African diaspora. He was a postdoctoral fellow in Latin American Studies at Yale University (2014-2015) and visiting scholar at the program of African Studies at Northwestern University (2019). He is the director of the Arquivo Edgard Leuenroth.

Mário Medeiros da Silva

Mário Medeiros da Silva holds a PhD in Sociology from University of São Paulo and currently he is professor in the department of Sociology at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP). He published Os escritores da guerrilha urbana: literatura de testemunho, ambivalência e transição política (1977-1984) [2008]; A descoberta do Insólito: literatura negra e literatura marginal no Brasil (1960-2000) [2013]. His research focuses social thought, black intellectuals and social memory. He is the deputy director of the Arquivo Edgard Leuenroth

Paulo César Ramos

Paulo César Ramos holds a Ph.D in Sociology from University of São Paulo (USP). He is researcher in the Nucleo Afro of Research of Race, Gender and Racial Justice (Afro) of the Brazilian Center of Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP), where he is coordinator of Memory and Identity of Afro Brazilian Archives, in partnership with University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and University of Campinas (UNICAMP). In 2019 he was visiting scholar at the Center of Africana Studies at UPenn.