Celebrated on November 20, the National Zombie and Black Consciousness Day was instituted through a 2011 law. This day recalls an important character in the history of the resistance of the enslaved blacks in the country: Zumbi dos Palmares. This character was the last leader of the Quilombo dos Palmares, being killed by explorers, in 1695.
The Black Consciousness Day is also an important date in our country, as it makes room for a very important reflection on the racism in Brazil. This date allows us to reflect on the prejudice that blacks suffer in our country and the erasure of Afro-Brazilian culture.
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How did Black Consciousness Day come about?
Black Consciousness Day is an achievement made by black movement, a social movement that has its origins in Brazil, located in the late nineteenth century with the abolitionist movement. The black movement regained its strength here during the opening phase in the Military dictatorship, that is, in the second half of the 1970s.
Within that context, one of the groups with the most relevant performance was the Unified Black Movement against Racism (MNU). This group, during a congress that took place in São Paulo, in 1978, chose Zumbi dos Palmares as a symbol of black resistance against slavery and oppression, in a broad sense, in Brazil.
The current black movement fights for conquest of rights for the black population of Brazil and against the erasure of Afro-Brazilian culture; it is seen as the heir of past slavery resistance movements. With the choice of Zumbi as a symbol of this fight, his death date, November 20th, became symbolic and very important.
With the relative importance of November 20th, another important date for the black movement in Brazil ended up losing strength. That date was the May 13th, day that was marked by abolition of slavery in Brazil, in 1888. The MNU argued that May 13 represents a false freedom, due to the lack of State policies to improve the lives of blacks after the Lei Áurea.
The black movement, in general, gained a lot of strength with the redemocratization of Brazil and played a prominent role with the elaboration of the 1988 Constitution. The performance of the black movement within the 1987 Constituent opened space for the inclusion of measures that promoted, in part, a historic reparation against the inequality, O racism it's the erasure of blacks in Brazil.
Thus, in the following decades, a series of laws were passed to benefit the black population in Brazil. Three of those that stand out in this context are:
Law No. 7716/1989: made racism a crime;
Law No. 10639/2003: made the teaching of Afro-Brazilian history mandatory in Brazilian schools;
Law No. 12,711/2012: determined racial quotas for blacks and browns in universities and federal institutions.
Black Consciousness Day was created through Law No. 12,519, which was enacted on November 10, 2011. Thus, the 20th of November was made official as the date to celebrate the Black Consciousness Day. at the moment more than 1000 municipalities in Brazil made this day a holiday, although the law has not determined it that way.
Accessalso: How was the life of ex-slaves after the abolition of slavery?
Who was Zumbi dos Palmares?
Zumbi dos Palmares it's the historical character that was chosen for symbolize the importance of Black Consciousness Day, and, therefore, it is important that we know some details about your life. Zumbi is currently a symbol of struggle for the black movement in Brazil, and this derives from his role in Quilombo dos Palmares, the largest and most enduring quilombo that ever lived here.
When studying what historians say about Zumbi, the starting point is: not much is known about your life. These professionals do not have many records about him, and what little is known was written down by the colonists. Furthermore, some of what has been written about Zumbi in the recent past is considered by historians to be inaccurate.
One of the most symbolic cases involves what was written by journalist Décio de Freitas. Through his work, the idea that Zumbi had been kidnapped in childhood during an attack on Palmares and raised by a priest until he was 15 years old, when he fled, returned to Palmares and became leader of the quilombo, years later.
the historians reject much of Freitas' work under the allegation that there is no evidence to support what was said by the journalist. THE great controversy around Décio's work he mentions letters on which he said he based his work, but which were never disclosed to other historians.
What we know about Zumbi is that he was probably born in Quilombo dos Palmares and that, after the disagreement with Ganga Zumba, he became leader of Palmares and led the resistance against the Portuguese. After this important quilombo was destroyed, in theory, Zumbi and other inhabitants hid in the forest, but the leader was found and dead on November 20, 1695.
Recent historiography works on Zumbi point to the political uses that Zumbi's image and memory suffered throughout the 20th century, and that they still suffer in the 21st century. Journalist Laurentino Gomes states that the current image of Zumbi is still under construction and that it was born in the late nineteenth century with the abolitionist movement|1|.
Accessalso: Abolitionist laws passed in Brazil at the end of the 19th century
What is Black Consciousness Day for?
Black Consciousness Day is a commemorative date used for aware the population about the racism present in our country and which is a direct result of more than 300 years of slavery. This day is also a day of struggle for all who fight racism and aim to build a fairer society.
Racism is currently one of the great problems existing in our country, and it reinforces the social inequality, a violence against black people it's the erasure of Afro-Brazilian culture. The Black Consciousness Day is an important date precisely for the population to reflect on these problems. Currently, for example, blacks are the group in our country that suffers most from violence, has the lowest average salary and has the least valued original culture.
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All this was built in Brazil over three centuries of slavery and the erasure of blacks and their culture after the abolition of slavery. It is important to consider that effective measures to combat racism and the marginalization of blacks only began to take place in the late 1980s. Thus, there is still a long way to go in the fight against racism, and November 20 is an invitation for us to take it.
Fighting racism is, however, a daily appointment of all of us as Brazilian citizens and should not only be held on November 20th, but every day of the year. The construction of a better and fairer Brazil necessarily involves combating racism.
Grades
|1| GOMES, Laurentino. Slavery: from the first auction of captives in Portugal to the death of Zumbi dos Palmares – Volume 1. Rio de Janeiro: Globo Livros, 2019, p. 427.
Image credit
[1] hades00 and Shutterstock
