Next Sunday, November 20th, is the Black conscience day. The date was created in reference to the death of Zombie, leader of Quilombo dos Palmares. He became known for his performance in resistance à slavery in Brazil and was killed in 1695.
You social movements who act in favor of racial equality, who form the black movement, played a fundamental role in the consolidation of that day.
The debate raised by the actions carried out on Black Consciousness Day involves the appreciation of Afro-descendant cultures and the struggle and resistance movement of the black population against racial violence.
Throughout the month of November, it is common for educational spaces to develop different types of actions and activities to share relevant information on the subject.
To understand the relationship between education and the mobilization of Black Consciousness Day, Brasil Escola talked to historians about the subject.
Know more:General aspects of racism, causes, structural racism and legislation
Black conscience day
Black Consciousness Day, for historian Dr. Francisca Raquel da Costa, representsfight It is resistance. For her, the date reinforces the resistance of the black population that persists in the daily lives of black women and men.
"It's the possibility of re-signifying the history of Brazil from a black perspective", says historian, archaeologist and quilombola Dr. Rosinalda Olasèni C. da Silva Simoni.
Rosinalda says that on November 20, 1995 there was a demonstration by unions, popular organizations and black movements. They came together to demand concrete public policy actions to combat racism and all forms of discrimination.
Brazilian Association of Black Researchers (ABPN).
That was the first Zumbi March against Racism, for Citizenship and Life. Around 30,000 people participated in the movement in Brasília, which commemorated the 300th anniversary of the death of Zumbi dos Palmares.
Since then, Black Consciousness Day has been held annually on November 20. The official date took place in 2011, from Law No. 12,519.
For historian Rosinalda, this movement has been strengthened over time. She cites the increased participation of black women in spaces of power as is the case of policy.
Rosinalda considers it worrying that actions on black awareness are concentrated only in the month of November, and not extended assiduously throughout the year.
"The guidelines on structural racism and all its consequences gain strength due to a lack of continuity of anti-racist research and extension actions that only occur in these sporadic moments" - Rosinalda Olasèni
Professor Francisca reinforces the importance of mobilizing black consciousness in higher education. According to her, these discussions at this level of education contribute to the training of future professionals, essentially those who are training to be educators.
"If we have an education that thinks about all groups, and that manages to represent these groups in a positive way. This will contribute to training that reinforces the fight against racism, and that in addition to fighting, these people may not reproduce racism", she adds.
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anti-racist education
Professor Dr. Francisca Raquel understands the anti-racist education while an education thinks about the diversity of possibilities and contributions that were passed on to society Brazilian by the various ethnic-racial groups.
From the perspective of the historian, this model of education does not intend to extinguish the Eurocentric reference (productions from European countries), but to include other forms of knowledge, such as references afrocentric and indigenous.
Credit: Rosinea Costa
Francisca reinforces that an anti-racist education should not focus only on the disciplines of the Human Sciences. It involves an anti-racist curriculum, a pedagogical project.
For Rosinalda Olasèni, this educational model goes far beyond the legislation that includes the teaching of history about African, Afro-descendant and indigenous cultures (Law nº 11.645/2008).
The historian considers the existence of the law to be essential, but it is necessary to recognize that structural racism exists, including in the school environment.
Pedagogical strategies can be used as a mechanism to raise awareness about respect for the black population.
Professor Francisca emphasizes the importance of fostering debate on the subject of black consciousness. Taking literary and cinema works, for example, that were produced, directed, written and starred by black people, she suggests.
Historian Rosinalda reinforces the importance of art, orality and cultural experiences as teaching strategies.
I believe in art education, in the power of orality and cultural experiences as tools in this process [...] Understanding that culture, religion, politics and society for the African black is something that is not separates. Think of these bodies in motion and think of them from their origin on their continent. We need to know our kings and queens, their philosophies. Only then will we understand their strategies in the context of slavery and we will know how important the community is. - Dr. Rosinalda Olasèni
Do not stop now... There's more after the publicity ;)
Another pedagogy
In the City of Goiás, interior of Goiás, the Odé Kayodê Pluricultural School is an initiative that aims to enable learning that recognizes the Brazilian plural identity.
The starting point for the educational proposal there are African, Afro-Brazilian and indigenous cultures, says space coordinator Adriana Rebouças.
Odé Kayodê is a name of ancestral origin and from the Yoruba language, its meaning is the hunter who brings joy. This is the name of a black woman named Ialorixá from Terreiro de Candomblé Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá from Salvador. She was a nurse and fought for recognition of the richness of Afro-Brazilian culture, explains Adriana.
The creation of the school took place in the early 1990s. It is managed by Espaço Cultural Vila Esperança and serves children in kindergarten and the first phase of elementary school.
Credit: Archive / Odé Kayodê Pluricultural School
According to Adriana Rebouças, the school is located in a city that was built by colonialism. On the other hand, the educational model adopts references from African and indigenous cultures. In the main room of the school, called Passaredo, there is an atabaque among other instruments of African origin.
O child protagonism is evidenced in the school's teaching and learning process. The curricular matrix contemplates "an anti-racist, transformative, decolonial, intercultural, creative, transdisciplinary and integral education", points out Adriana.
"Working on Afro-indigenous epistemological issues is to enable the change in the dominator-dominated paradigm. A multicultural education works on the paradigm of exchange and circularity. Cultural elements are present in everyday life, on the concrete floor of the School, in the drum, in the maraca, in the sound, in the color, in the taste, and also in the way of organizing the spaces. There is a permanent effort to neutralize the imprint of invisibility and silence on the immense wealth of indigenous cultures and African matrices, as our legacy, existing in the world and in us." - Adriana Rebouças
The perception of the body is something worked on in school activities. The coordinator reports that self-knowledge is reinforced in the learning routine. "Every child should know their history, the history of their people, the places where their body walks and the places that can be reached", she says.
"Bodies move, squirm, lie down, roll and sway through sounds and vibrations. It's the berimbau, it's the atabaque, it's the maraca, it's the song of the cicada and the chickens of Angola... All in a great ciranda that makes it possible to get to know yourself and others, your limits, your potential and your challenges." - Adriana Rebouças
Credit: Collection / Odé Kayodê Pluricultural School
According to the school coordinator, learning there takes into account the child's entirety. Students are active subjects in the processes of interpretation and learning of concepts, attitudes, values and knowledge.
History Teaching
History for many years was told and written from the perspective of colonizers and reduced Africa to a country and Africans to objects, however it also brought richness and diversity, says Rosinalda Olasèni.
O history teaching, according to the researcher, enables "rewrite, reframe, rethink the presence of Africans and Afro-descendants in the Brazilian nation". Rosinalda points out that all disciplines of Human Sciences also have this function.
By Lucas Afonso
Journalist
