#Quilombola community

[bumblebeeappletree]

#ad Brazil has a long and violent history of producing racial inequalities. As the last country to abolish slavery in the Americas, this relatively recent colonial history of slavery still impacts Brazil’s Black, Indigenous, and Quilombola communities. The SETA Project aims to advance racial equity by transforming Brazil’s education system to be anti-racist. SETA in Portuguese means “arrow,” which represents a symbol of justice that this program aims to take back, with the hopes of spearheading change and agility.

ActionAid Brazil works with Ação Educativa, the National Campaign for the Right to Education in Brazil, the National Coordination for the Articulation of Black Quilombola Rural Communities (CONAQ), Geledés – Black Woman Institute, and UNEfro Brasil to achieve this.

Listen as SETA Program Director Ana Paula Brandão shares how they are harnessing youth, education, and Black movements to trigger this national healing process and transform Brazil’s public schools by 2030.

Learn more: wkkf.org/RE2030

#News #NowThis

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

The murder of priestess Mãe Bernadete and the rise of the ‘holy war’ against African religions in Brazil

Over the past two years, there has been a 45% increase in attacks fueled by religious intolerance. According to specialists, this is related to the surge of evangelical fundamentalism

Maria Bernadete Pacífico, 72, was an institution in Salvador de Bahía, in northeastern Brazil, where she was known simply as Mãe Bernadete. She was a respected quilombola leader (a community formed by the descendants of slaves who fled their masters) and ialorixá — a priestess of Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé.

For years, Bernadete had been fighting for the territorial integrity of her quilombo, located on the outskirts of Salvador and coveted by loggers and land speculators. A few weeks ago, two gunmen invaded her terreiro — the sacred place where ceremonies are held — and shot her dead. Six years earlier, her son was killed. Investigators have pointed to the agrarian conflict as the main cause of the murder, but haven’t ruled out religious motives.

Crimes due to religious intolerance have grown in Brazil in recent years. According to the most recent data from the Ministry of Human Rights, cases have increased by 45% in the last two years. Last year, 113 complaints were filed, although the government acknowledges that this number may be higher, as many of these crimes are still considered to be fights between neighbors. The incumbent government also accuses the previous administration of Jair Bolsonaro (2018-2022) of dismantling the system that facilitated these types of complaints.

The crime of religious intolerance ranges from extreme cases — such as murder or daily assaults — to insults, threats and other types of discrimination for religious reasons. The latter offenses can result in sentences ranging from two to five years in jail. In Brazil, those who suffer the most from religious intolerance are the practitioners of African-based religions, such as Candomblé, Umbanda and Quimbanda.

Continue reading.

[olowan-waphiya]

The Afro-Brazilian community of Quilombo de Bombas in São Paulo state has welcomed a court ruling ordering the state to issue it with a land title to its ancestral territory located inside a state park.

The ruling is historic because it’s the first time this kind of traditional community whose ancestral territory overlaps with a state protected area will receive a title.

Government agencies involved in the process have acknowledged that quilombo inhabitants, known as quilombolas, have historically tended to be among the best environmental stewards in the country.

Despite the win, most of the nearly 500 quilombos throughout Brazil remain officially unrecognized, with only one in eight quilombolas living in formally titled territories.

[fireheartwraith]

I feel like I should explain ENEM, aka why the brazilians have been grieving since the date of the november 4th event was announced

ENEM stands for Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (National High School Exam). It happens once a year since 1998, and, although at first it was just to gage how the education was on a national level, it soon became a gateway to university.

The test takes place on two days (that are now two consecutive sundays), from 13:30 to 19:00, and each day the student has to answer 90 questions. The first day is always human sciences and languages (Portuguese language and literature, foreign language (English or Spanish), history, geography, sociology, and philosophy) plus an essay. Nobody knows what the essay is about until the moment of the exam, so there’s always a lot of speculation. The theme is always about a social issue: last year's, for exemple, was "the challenges for the appreciation/respect of the traditional communities and peoples of Brazil", like the quilombolas and natives. The second day tests the students' knowledge on maths and exact sciences (biology, physics, and chemistry).

ENEM is famously a very "read-y" test. Every question requires a lot of reading comprehension, interpretation, and interdisciplinarity. Maybe the internet has done americans wrong, but the SAT's look so easy in comparison. We always make fun of them by saying Harvard it's not actually hard, it's just expensive.

Which brings me to my next point: college! The grade you get on the ENEM can get you into a university using three different programs

SISU: gets you into a public (and free) university (the best university in the country is public btw, University of São Paulo - USP)

PROUNI: gets you a scholarship in a private university (it can get you a 100% scholarship but you need a VERY good grade)

FIES: student loans

And, obviously, the better your grades, the better your chances. You are graded from 0 to 1000 in every subject and also get a general grade. So if you want to study physics, you don’t need to do great in literature, but you should still try to get a decent grade. The more competitive courses, like medicine (there's no such thing was pre-med), can get down to the decimals, especially in prestigious schools.

ENEM isn't the only test you can do to get into a university, though! Some schools have their own test. USP, for exemple, has the FUVEST, so you can get in through either test, but FUVEST is always paid and you can only do it in, like, three cities in São Paulo, while the ENEM happens countrywide, which is why it's so important. The tests are called "vestibular" and the people taking them are "vestibulando".

Therefore, most 3rd year high school students take the test. It's basically a rule to do it if you want to get into a university, but if you are not on your last year of high school, you have to pay to take it (my case). Some people have to go to another city to take the test, it's a whole thing.

This year, the first day of ENEM is happening on Sunday, November 5th. And QSMP's most important event so far is happening on Saturday night, November 4th. May the Lord have mercy on our souls

You can check out the "atrasados do enem" for some giggles though. It's the "event" that happens because some people always arrive after the gates close at 13:00 and then break down crying in the middle of the street. It got so famous people started hiring actors to pose as vestibulandos just to go viral.

Now you know a bit more about brazilian culture!

Here's a link to download last year's exam if you want: first day | second day

[stele3]

[natileesblog]

Malala Yousafzai Posted On Instagram About Her Fight For Girls’ Education.

By: Natileesblog

Date: June 7th,2023 around 9:43pm

Image of Malala Yousafzai joining International Development Sercretary Justine Greening in London talking about girls education/credit to Simon Davis/DFID'.

Activist Malala Yousafzai posted on instagram a few hours ago about her recent trip to Brazil a month ago for encouraging improvements for school education and experiences.

With the following:

“ I am often asked how I stay motivated in my fight for girls’ education. Last month’s trip to Brazil is the perfect answer. I spent nearly a week travelling throughout this beautiful country, hearing from girls who are determined to learn and the education advocates who are helping them realise their dreams.

In Recife, Black, Indigenous and quilombola girls told me about their efforts to improve learning in their communities, like Gabrielle whose Facebook post about how her school wasn’t providing meals or water caught the eye of the local education secretary, who was able to fix the issue.

At a school in Cabo de Santo Agostinho, girls shared stories of overcoming harassment and abuse and how participating in training programs from @MalalaFund partners helped them to find confidence to speak out about the problems they faced.Deyvilla told me how she learned how policy works: “We made demands about how to improve things in our communities”.

She also thank other organisations promoting increase in girls education,inclusivity,safety, and funds in Brazil and how much more they will be able to achieve.Like the Centro de Cultura Luiz Freire, Anaí, Blogueiras Negras, Centro das Mulheres do Cabo, Coletivo Mangueiras, and Grupo Curumim.

She ended her post with:

“ I left Brazil feeling energised. These meetings remind me that there are so many people in every corner of this world with the same mission: to create a world where every girl can learn and lead. When we are united in our fight, we will accomplish amazing things for girls everywhere. Until next time, obrigada por tudo🇧🇷”.

Matter of fact this isn’t also the first time Malala visited Brazil as she visited five years ago on her birthday.

Malala Yousafzai was one of the youngest person to win a noble peace prize in 2014 for her accomplish ments in supporting child rights.

She wrote a blog under a false name “Gul Makai” to BBC called “Diary of a Pakistanian Schoolgirl” about the harsh realities living in Taliban.

She act encouraged girls rights in education from the taliban forcing girls to quit school.

Yousafzai experienced being shot near her temple at the age of 15 and miraculous survived after.

Representing her fight for rights.

She has realeased books throughout the years:

I Am Malala:The Girl Who Stood Up For Education And Was Shot By The Taliban (2013)

I Am Malala:How OneGirl Stood Up For Education And Changed The World (2014)

Malala’s Magic Pencil (2017)

We Are Displaced (2019)

My Name Is Malala (2022)

Malala Speaks Out (2023)

Follow her on insta and twitter:

Insta/Twitter:@malala

Resources:

Thanks for supporting,much ❤️

[itsamebutnotmario]

I was taking a shower and thought about the outlines of a story that I'd really like to see if already exists. It starts with the whole Climate Catastrophe That Leaves The Earth In Shambles And Then The Super Rich Get On Spaceships And Fuck Off To Mantain Their Systems Of Exploitation Somewhere Else thing, cause sometimes I like classics ok? But the thing is (!!) the people who stay, instead of falling into a lawless hobbesian state, organise in communities and share knowledge and learn to survive together in a way that's actually very nice, given the shit hand they were dealt. After all, indigenous peoples and quilombola peoples, and ballroom houses, and worker's unions and cooperatives, and small farmers who know how to respect the land, and scientists who actually fucking care about people, and librarians, and militant collectives of all kinds DO exist and that knowledge IS alive and not so well, admitedly, but still out there nonetheless.

Of course, there would be some individualistic people who'd turn to violence and torment those more vulnerable than them, because like. we do internalize oppression, but I think with time, those who aren't actively assholes would start to see that there's another way of living, a better way.

Then someday, maybe because of an accident involving a spaceship full of inconsequent teenagers, maybe as a way to try and prove a point, or even in an asshole anthropologist way, one of the riches who fucked off somewhere else would comeback and be flabbergasted by the fact that no, the people didn't really need them and are very much better without them. Like, it could be told from their POV in a character develompment-y way in which at first they are super arrogant and don't want to get mixed with "those people", but for some reason - probably in order to survive - are forced to ask for help and from there they start to unlearn all their shit to the point that they no longer want to return to space.

[culturesofresistancefilms]

Brazil - Meet our latest Cultures of Resistance Awards recipient Ana Gomide! With the support of her Kalunga community in Goias, Brazil, Ana has developed swimming projects aimed at rural and Quilombola communities. Ana provides swimming lessons in local rivers and ponds, plus snorkeling lessons that help kids learn about the local ecosystem. These activities not only provide therapeutic benefits but also help the children connect with the natural surroundings! One of her projects focuses on children with neurological disorders or those suffering from psychological trauma.

Follow Ana’s instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/mergulhenachapada/

Learn more about our award here: https://culturesofresistancefilms.com/creative-activism-awards/ana-gomide/

[seimsisk]

apparently my uncle also pisses on the poor

see, the Ministry for Racial Equality has asked that Romani camps and Quilombos have priority in receiving aid after the disastrous floods this weekend

he read this headline and immediately assumed that the government is asking volunteers to drop what they are doing and go help Romani and quilombolas

when obviously what the ministry is doing is requesting that government aid be focused on these isolated and vulnerable communities because volunteers are already helping big city folk

I can't even

the idea that when a ministry asks for something it is asking the public is so surreal. almost always it's asking the government. that's how it works. the government is always in conversation with itself. the government very rarely asks anything of the public, and when it does, it's usually via large speeches from like, the president or such. and more often than not, the government doesn't ask, it tells. the government asking the people to do something is pathetic and weak whenever it happens. which is why it rarely happens.

this fundamental misunderstanding of how the state works is really messing me up

[realjaysumlin]

Descendants of enslaved Africans seek land rights in the Amazon | Context

Most of these people are not slaves from Africa they are the Indigenous People of Brazil, we know this to be true due to the irrefutable truth that all of the first nations people were not eliminated as the Europeans thought and the same can be said about all Indigenous people worldwide where colonization took place.

The question you have to ask yourself, how did the people get to Australia and other locations around the world before slavery ever occurred? Where did these Black people come from? How did they get to these lands? People just don't pop up out of nowhere without sex between a life giver which means woman and the seed planter which is a man.

Religions makes people stupid.

[nedsecondline]

Son of slain Quilombola leader will still strive for community's rights

Environmental science and conservation news — Read on news.mongabay.com/2023/09/son-of-slain-quilombola-leader-will-still-push-for-communitys-rights/

[mark-matos]

🌎🦜Saving the Amazon with AI: Can the Power of Technology Save the Lungs of the Earth? 🤖💚

Environmental nonprofit Imazon has developed PrevisIA, an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that can predict where deforestation is likely to happen next in the Brazilian Amazon. The tool's ability to pinpoint where logging is set to occur could be a gamechanger in the fight to save the rainforest. Home to endangered species like the white-cheeked spider monkey and the hyacinth macaw, the Brazilian Amazon is one of the largest conservation areas in the world. However, the area is under threat due to illegal activities such as logging, mining, and land-grabbing.

PrevisIA uses AI to predict deforestation rates in short-term periods, allowing conservationists to act before the damage is done. By identifying trends and areas of the forest most at risk, the tool could help prevent deforestation before it occurs. The AI model also considers variables such as Indigenous and quilombola (descendent of rebel slaves) communities, bodies of water, and areas that don't lend themselves to agricultural expansion.

With the help of Microsoft and Fundo Vale, Imazon has the cloud computing power necessary to run the AI algorithm for mapping roads. And while technology is crucial for PrevisIA to work, it's up to governments, investors, and consumers to use the information provided to make better decisions.

PrevisIA's accuracy rate is at an impressive 85%, with 49% of alerts occurring in high-risk areas. By using AI to predict deforestation, PrevisIA could help prevent illegal activities from taking place and ultimately protect the biodiversity and future of the Amazon rainforest.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Five years after the Brazil oil spill, fishing workers deal with losses and hopelessness

The state's failure to take measures, climate change and real estate speculation are exacerbating the situation

Five years on from the oil spill that devastated 11 of Brazil's coastal states, especially parts of the northeastern area of the country, the consequences of the disaster continue to affect fisherpeople, shellfish gatherers and other workers who depend on coastal fauna. The impacts can be seen in the income and hearts of coastal populations. That is what artisanal fisherman Erivan Bezerra de Medeiros, who has spent almost 50 years fishing and five years frustrated by Brazil’s lack of measures, says.

“This is the fifth year we've come here to Brasilia to demand our rights [in the face of] this absurd crime that happened in the country – one of the worst in Latin America so far. There has still been no reparation, either for the fisherpeople who were affected or for the riverside communities, traditional communities, Indigenous peoples and quilombolas,” laments the fisherman, who lives in a community on the southern coast of the state of Rio Grande do Norte where around 200 workers were left out of the aid announced by the then Bolsonaro government. Medeiros says it is no longer possible to measure the personal and professional damage caused by oil.

The fisherman's statement tallies with the figures: at the time of the oil spill, the Bolsonaro administration promised financial aid for 300,000 coastal workers, but the benefit only covered an average of 60,000 to 80,000 people, according to the Fishing Workers's Pastoral Council (CPP, in Portuguese). In northeastern Brazil, from the state of Bahia to Maranhão, the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture counts 460,000 fisherpeople. Formally, the category of artisanal fisherpeople includes shellfish gatherers, rafters, riverside dwellers, quilombola fisherpeople, Indigenous people and other workers.

The spill, which began on August 30, 2019, and lasted until March 2020, affected all nine states of northeastern Brazil and also extended to the states of Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro. More than 3,000 square kilometers were affected, according to projections by the federal executive branch's environmental technical staff. Today, Erivan Medeiros is involved in the “Sea of Struggle” campaign, which seeks compensation for the population affected by the spill. He says the lack of justice in the case has caused a series of problems for the sector. “Many people have fallen ill because of oil. Some are getting blind, others have committed suicide because they haven't been compensated, and so on. This is our fight,” he says.

Continue reading.

[sciencespies]

Land tenure drives deforestation rates in Brazil, study finds

https://sciencespies.com/nature/land-tenure-drives-deforestation-rates-in-brazil-study-finds/

Land tenure drives deforestation rates in Brazil, study finds

Tropical deforestation causes widespread degradation of biodiversity and carbon stocks. Researchers from the German Center of Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Leipzig University were now able to test the relationship between land tenure and deforestation rates in Brazil. Their research, which was published in Nature Communications, shows that poorly defined land rights go hand in hand with increased deforestation rates. Privatising these lands, as is often promoted in the tropics, can only mitigate this effect if combined with strict environmental policies.

Forestlands in Brazil harbor the world’s largest biodiversity and carbon stores. However, increasing pressure from ambitious agroeconomic development leads to widespread deforestation. Land-tenure governs how and by whom land can be used. Therefore, specific land-tenure changes such as privatizing lands or placing them under environmental protection can both have implications for forests.

Researchers from iDiv and Leipzig University have now analysed 33 years (1985-2018) of agriculture-driven deforestation across Brazilian forestlands. With the help of property-level data, they were able to compare six land-tenure regimes (undesignated/untitled, private, strictly protected and sustainable-use protected areas, indigenous, and “quilombola” lands held by Afro-Brazilian communities) and to draw conclusions on how these regimes affect deforestation.

Lands with poorly defined tenure rights increase deforestation

Publicly owned lands with poorly defined tenure rights clearly and consistently increased deforestation compared to all other alternatives. These lands that are neither titled nor designated to any use, but may be inhabited by rural settlers with little-to-no guaranteed property rights, account for almost one hundred million hectares in Brazil.

“High deforestation rates in these lands may have many reasons,” explains first author Andrea Pacheco, former researcher at iDiv and now working at the University of Bonn. “For example, the government may simply not have the capacity to effectively monitor on-the-ground deforestation in these lands, resulting in limited enforcement of illegal deforestation here. This, in turn, can attract speculators who clear forest to later claim use rights. Alternatively, poor landless settlers may feel forced to illegally clear these lands for agriculture, if prices on legal land markets are too high for them.”

“This is why land-tenure interventions on these lands are so important. Our study shows that whatever alternative tenure regime with well-defined rights and regulations is implemented, it would likely help reduce this deforestation,” adds last author Dr Carsten Meyer from iDiv and UL.

advertisement

Private regimes can be effective if associated with strict environmental policy

“Privatizing undesignated and untitled lands can be highly effective as a means to reduce deforestation, but only under certain conditions and if associated with strict environmental policies. If this is not the case, deforestation may actually increase,” warns Carsten Meyer. One example for such environmental policies is the Forest Code in the Amazon, which requires landowners to maintain 80% of their land under native vegetation.

However, across very different contexts, private regimes tend to decrease deforestation less effectively and less reliably than alternative well-defined regimes. The researchers showed that both strictly protected areas and sustainable-use protected areas most reliably reduced deforestation rates across Brazil.

They also showed that the effects of tenure held by indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) were dependent on the context. Nonetheless, privatizing IPLC lands would likely increase the risk of deforestation across Brazil. “As much of the world’s remaining forestlands are in IPLC lands, taking local contexts into account will be essential for designing policies with synergies for both biodiversity conservation and IPLCs,” says Andrea Pacheco.

The imperative need for policies that tackle undefined and private lands

Against the backdrop of the ongoing political debate in Brazil around land privatisation and protection in tropical landscapes, this study can be used to envisage policy aligned with sustainable development goals. The results show that, first and foremost, interventions in undesignated/untitled lands should be at the forefront of land-related policies in Brazil. In addition, coupling private lands with strict environmental policies has the potential to protect biodiversity in places like the Cerrado or Pantanal, where most of Brazil’s remaining forestlands are private.

#Nature

[everykatakuri]

[fatehbaz]

Slavery was an essential part of the colonization in the Americas between the 16th and 19th century. During this time, it is estimated that nearly four million slaves were brought to Brazil [...]. [E]nslaved people resisted the oppression in different ways and some escaped and succeeded to form runaway-slave communities, known in Brazil as quilombos and mocambos [...]. Among these diverse communities, a typical characteristic of their economy was (and still is) the cultivation and processing of cassava [...]. Cassava (Manihot esculenta), unlike the sugarcane the slaves were forced to produce, is an indigenous crop in Brazil. [...] [P]aleoethnobotanic evidence indicate[s] an origin in the Amazon basin and widespread cultivation of the crop throughout the neotropics already 6,500 years ago [...]. In Brazil, cassava is among the most widely cultivated crops, being consumed mainly as flour. The northern region traditionally stands out in its per capita consumption of cassava flour, which stems from small-scale agriculture and family-owned casas de farinha. In the South, cassava is mostly produced in relation to large-scale cultivation and processing industries [...].

Cassava has had a complex history in the country, particularly in relation to the colonization project. João Brígido dos Santos, a Brazilian historian from the 19th century, goes as far as to suggest that colonization would not have been possible had it not been for the cassava. Indeed, it was the primary food source in the country, mainly for African and indigenous slaves, being considered the ‘Brazilian bread’ [...]. The importance of this crop also extended into the political and economic realm: the production of flour was used as a criterion for people to be allowed to vote or get voted according to the short-lived first constitutional project in the independent country in 1823, which is popularly known as Constituição da Mandioca (Cassava Constitution) [...]. Cassava was also used as an exchange currency (Aguiar, 1982) and to barter for slaves [...].

-------

This role of cassava in the colonial project was later turned on its head as the crop took part in the resistance to it among the quilombo runaway slave communities. As Gomes (2015) explains: “[a] typical element of the quilombola economy was cassava flour. They planted and harvested cassava, transforming it - through grinding, sieve and oven - into flour and other derivatives.” (p. 21, our translation). Cassava also figures prominently in Bezerra Neto and Macêdo’s study of the eating practices among slaves in the Northern region in the 19th century, who identify that quilombola communities “[…] had their own crops, including cassava for the production of not only the different types of flour, but also of the tucupi“ [...].

By the 19th century, cassava’s role in the Brazilian plantation agriculture started to gradually decline. This process was further intensified by the growth of coffee exportation in the country, supported by the 1850′s Land Laws [...]. Among the quilombolas, who were excluded from property ownership in this document (Leite, 2000), cassava retained its importance. Even though slavery had been officially abolished in 1888, the following century was marked in these communities by a constant struggle over land, legal and political exclusion, and stigmatization [...].

-------

Many of these contemporary communities still have cassava cultivation and processing as an important economic activity [...]. The historical importance of cassava for the quilombola communities is well established in the literature and serves as a ‘paradigmatic example’ of James Scott’s concept ‘escape agriculture’ [...]. Such cassava traits had political importance; they characterized quilombola agriculture as an ‘escape agriculture’, consisting of: “[…] forms of cultivation designed to thwart state appropriation.” (p. 23). Thus, the fact that cassava is unobtrusive and can be stored in the ground played a central role for the quilombolas to flee oppression from the state. Scott’s lens of escape agriculture underscores the historical meaningfulness of the quilombola-cassava relation, but how does this relationality play out today? Is it still marked by resistance and autonomy? [...]

The practices of cassava production and processing are marked by a strong sense of collectivity and subjectivity, shaped by the materiality of the crop [...]. The cassava/flour performed through these traditional relations resists abstractions and standardizations, requiring specific measuring practices in order to be bought and sold in the market [...]. Through these measuring operations, the cassava comes into being in an ambivalent and oscillatory way, allowing for it to travel between the community and the capitalist market. [...] The relational ambivalence of these entities allows for a partial connection to be built between the market and the community practices, while at the same time preventing a co-option of this space by a capitalist logic. We suggest, then, that the social life of the cassava and its measuring practices are a relevant part of the multiple negotiations that contribute to the survival of the community’s traditional practices and sociality, constituting a type of distributed resistance. It seems that this root continues to be central to the freedom and autonomy of the quilombola communities [...].

-------

Text published by: Gabriel Graton Roman and Ola T. Westengen. “Taking measure of an escape crop: Cassava relationality in a contemporary quilombo-remnant community.” Geoforum Volume 130. March 2022.