{Learning} Letting Freedom Ring: How Enslaved Africans Sought Liberation in Brazil
{Learning}
Going forward, I will be tagging my posts with qualifiers such as {Journaling}, {Learning}, etc. to indicate the type of post. A “learning” post simply indicates that I am sharing a topic I am interested in learning more about. I don’t claim to be the authority, I just want to share what I am learning and how it relates to liberation (for Black women).
I think it is critically important to learn about past and present movements for liberation to understand what a roadmap for liberation could look like for Black women who want to be free of the mental and emotional chains of white supremacy, settler colonialism, and misogynoir — who want to do so outside of the confines of these ideas. I take immense interest in Brazil and the fight for justice and liberation waged by Afro-Brazilians who are the descendants of those who were once enslaved.
In the U.S. in the 1950’s and 1960’s U.S, we had what we’ve coined, “the civil rights movement” a fight for justice and freedom (things which one should never have to fight for). In the 70’s, we had the Black Power movement, and today, an accepted term for the (continued) fight for justice would be the Black Lives Matter movement.
We need to start asking ourselves why is it we are in a constant struggle for the same thing? For something that is our right as people, freedom and justice are not negotiable. But here we are, negotiating. Anyway — the fact that we’ve been fighting for the same thing for centuries should be a huge indicator that our systems and structures will always revert to the principles on which they were founded (patriarchy, racism, sexism, colonialism, etc.). Even when we make progress the system still finds other ways to continue to oppress.
Let me get back on track. In Brazil, the movement for liberation has been coined the “Resistência” (“resistance” in English).
An early form of resistência in Brazil are quilombos (also known as kilombos). Quilombos are settlements of escaped men, women and children who were enslaved — these settlements largely consisted of Blacks but also of included others (such as indigenous peoples) who resisted and fought against captivity. Communities of escaped Blacks who were enslaved formed communities in the forests and other areas of Brazil where the terrain was difficult in an effort to shelter and hide from their captors.
While quilombos formed all over Brazil in opposition to slavery, the largest and most popular quilombo we know about today is a quilombo called Palmares in the state of Pernambuco. It is said Palmares, led by it’s legendary leader Zumbi dos Palmares housed over 20,000 residents.
There is so much to the story of quilombos, and the articles here, here and here do the topic of quilombos more justice than I can in this post. One thing I will note is that quilombos are not just past relics, they exist today and thousands of people call them home. Today, quilombos live on as communities (regardless of proximity).
My lay research of quilombos simply asks, what can I learn? Quilombos were a powerful resistance to slavery, by those who took to the forests and jungles of Brazil to live freely (or in some cases, to negotiate better terms of their enslavement) because living in the dense and often, dangerous, jungles of Brazil was a better life than one of slavery. Sometimes I think if Black Americans today even know what it really means to take our freedom and lives into our own hands? I fear, at times, we are so satiated with celebrity drama, big houses, big screen tv’s, entertainment, a cushy paycheck that we think those trappings equal progress or liberation. Meanwhile, we are targets for slaughter because of the color of our skin anywhere we go in the U.S., and we know if our killer is a cop, the chances we will get justice is next to none. Our rights dangle at the whims of those who are committed to stripping them from us. Meanwhile, we find ourselves rehashing and fighting for rights “won” years ago. The constant assault on our personhood is consistent and deep. None of these things are freedom or justice to me. I am dismayed by the idea that we should keep fighting where there is little discourse around the fact that this country is fundamentally flawed. Flawed at the root. In the words of Toni Morrison, “there will always be one more thing…” to fight for. I think the idea that we need to struggle and fight and be resilient is so embedded into our psyche, that we don’t understand that we shouldn’t have to. I think we need a shift towards liberation and not immersion in constant struggle. We need a liberation mindset, not a struggle mindset. We are constantly on defense, which is a reactionary mode. But, I’m wondering what does offense look like, what does being proactive look like? I’m much more interested in working and living outside of the <struggle/fight/small win/big loss> rinse and repeat cycle. Surely, there is more to life than that.
On my next visit to Brazil, I hope to visit quilombos and talk with those who are involved to understand better how quilombos have and still serve as a symbol of strength, resistance and path towards a liberated future. I hope to continue to study movements that serve to liberate. My work is worldbuilding, that is, figuring out how we create new pathways for community care, spaces that allow people to expand into the wholeness of who they are without the weight of oppression.
