Quilombismo: An Afro-Brazilian Political Alternative Abdias Do Nascimento Journal of Black Studies, Volume 11, Issue 2, Afro-Brazilian Experience and Proposals for Social Change (Dec., 1980), 141-178. Your use of the ISTOR database indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use. A copy of JSTOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use is available at hup://www,jstor.ac-ul/aboutterms.huml, by contacting JSTOR at jstor@mimas.ac.uk, or by calling JSTOR at 0161 275 7919 or (FAX) 0161 275 6040. 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For more information on JSTOR contact jstor@mimas.ac.uk (©2001 JSTOR bup:/hvww jstor.ac.ukl ‘Thu Feb 117:56:12 2001QUILOMBISMO An Afro-Brazilian Political Alternative ABDIAS DO NASCIMENTO. State University of New York MEMORY: THE ANTIQUITY OF BLACK AFRICAN KNOWLEDGE I want to begin this text emphasizing the urgent need of the Brazilian Black people to win back their memory, which has been systematically assaulted by Brazilian Western-inspired structures of domination for almost 500 years. A similar pro- cess holds true with the history of Africans on the Continent and their descendants scattered through all the Americas. The memory of Afro-Brazilians, very much to the contrary of what is said by conventional historians of limited vision and superficial understanding, does not begin with the slave traffic or the dawn of chattel slavery of Africans in the fifteenth century. In my country, the ruling class always, and particu- larly after the so-called abolition of slavery (1888), has developed and refined myriad techniques of preventing Black EDITOR'S NOTE: We are proud to have the internationally known scholar Abdias do Nascimento as editor of this special issue. JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES, Vol 11 No.2, Dssember 1980 141-178 1 1980 Sage Publications, In ma142 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES | DECEMBER 1980 Brazilians from being able to identify and actively assume their ethnic, historical and cultural roots, thus cutting them off from the trunk of their African family tree, Except in terms of recent expansionist interests of the industrial elite, Brazil as a traditional norm has always ignored the African continent. It turned its back on Africa as soon as the slaver elite found itself no longer able to scorn the prohibition of commerce in African flesh imposed by Britain around 1850. A massive immigration of Europeans occurred a few years later, and the ruling elite emphasized its intentions and its actions in the sense of ‘wrenching out of the mind and heart of slaves’ descendants any image of Africa asa positive memory of nation, of motherland, of native home. Never in our educational system was there taught a discipline revealing any appreciation or respect for the cultures, arts, languages, political or economic systems, or religions of Africa, And physical contact of Afro-Brazilians with their brothers in the continent and the diaspora was always prevented or made difficult, among other methods, by the denial of economic means permitting Black people to move and travel outside the country. But none of these hindrances had the power of obliterating completely, from our spirit and ‘memory, the living presence of Mother Africa. And even in the existential hell we are subjected to now, this rejection of Africa on the part of the dominant classes has functioned as a notably positive factor, helping to maintain the Black nation as a community above and beyond difficulties in time and space. Diversified as are the strategies and devices arrayed against Black people’s memory, they have recently undergone serious erosion and irreparable discrediting. This is due largely to the dedication and competence of a few Africans preoccupied with the secular destitution the Black race has suffered at the hands of European and Euro-American! capitalist civilization. This group of Africans, simultaneously scholars, scientists, philos- ophers, and creators of literature and art, includes persons from the African continent and diaspora. To mention only a few of their names: Cheikh Anta Diop, of Senegal; ChancellorNascimento / AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 143 Williams, Shawna Maglangbayan Moore, Haki Madhubuti, Molefi K. Asante and Maulana Ron Karenga of the United States; George G.M. James and Ivan Van Sertima of Guyana; Yosef Ben-Jochannan of Ethiopia; Theophile Obenga, of Congo Brazzaville; Wole Soyinka Ola Balogun and Wande Abimbola of Nigeria; these figure among the many who are actively producing works fundamental to the contemporary and coming development of Africa. In different fields, with diverse perspectives, the energies of these eminent Africans channel themselves toward the exorcism of the falsities, distortions and negations that Europeans for so long have been weaving around Africa, with the purpose of obscuring or erasing our memory of the wisdom, scientific and philosoph- ical knowledge and realizations of the peoples of Black African origin, Black Brazilian memory is only a part and particle in this gigantic project of reconstruction of a larger past to which all Afro-Brazilians are connected. To redeem this past is to have a consequent responsibility in the destinies and futures of the Black African nation worldwide, still preserving our quality as edifiers and genuine citizens of Brazil Itis appropriate here to refer briefly to certain basic texts of, Cheikh Anta Diop, principally his book The African Origin of Civilization (1974; version in English of selections from Nation Negre et Culture and Anteriorité des Civilisations Negres, originally published in French). Let it be said from the outset that the volume presents us with a radical confrontation and unanswerable challenge to the Western academic world, its intellectual arrogance, scientific dishonesty and ethical vac- uum in dealing with the peoples, civilizations and cultures produced by Africa. Using Western Europe's own scientific resources—Diop is a chemist, director of the radiocarbon laboratory of IFAN, in Dakar, as well as Egyptologist, historian and linguist—this sage is reconstructing the signifi- cance and value of the ancient Black African civilizations, far too long obscured by manipulations, lies, distortions and thefts. They include the civilization of ancient Egypt, created144 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / DECEMBER 1980 by our ancestors. The Egyptians were Black and not a people of any Aryan (white) or so-called dark-red race, as Western scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries proclaim them to be, with an emphasis as deceitful asitis self-interested. Let us see how Diop characterizes this situation: ‘The ancient Egyptians were Negroes. The moral fruit of their civilization is to be counted among the assets of the Black world, Instead of presenting itself to history as an insolvent debtor, that Black world is the very initiator of the “Western” civilization flaunted before our eyes today. Pythagorean math- cematics, the theory of the four elements of Thales of Miletus, Epicurean materialism, Platonic idealism, Judaism, Islam and ‘modern science are rooted in Egyptian cosmogony and science, One needs only to meditate on Osiris, the redeemer-god, who sacrifices himself, dies and is resurrected to save mankind, a figure essentially identifiable with Christ (1974: xiv]. Diop’s statements are based on rigorous research, examina- tions and conclusions, leaving no margin for doubt or argument, yet far from taking on that dogmatism that always characterizes the “scientific” certainties of the Western world. What Diop did was simply to demolish the supposedly definitive structures of “universal” knowledge with respect to Egyptian and Greek antiquity. Like it or not, white Westerners, have to swallow truths like this one: four centuries before the publication of La Mentalité Primitive [Primitive Mentality] by Levy-Brubl, Black Muslim Africa was commenting on Aristotle's formal logic (which he plagiarized from the Black Egyptians) and was already expert in dialectics (1963: 212}. And let us not forget that this was going on almost five centuries before Hegel or Marx were born, Diop turns around the entire process of mystification of a Black Egypt turned white by the magical arts of European Egyptologists. He notes how, after the military campaign of Bonaparte in Egypt, in 1799, and after the hieroglyphs of theNascimento | AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 145 Rosetta stone were deciphered by Champollion, in 1822, the Egyptologists fell into a state of dumbfoundedness before the grandiosity of the revealed discoveries: They gradually recognized it as the most ancient civilization, that had engendered all others. But, imperialism being what it is, it became increasingly “inadmissible” to continue to accept the theory —evident until then—of a Negro Egypt. The birth of Egyptology was thus marked by the need to destroy the memory of a Negro Egypt at any cost and in all minds. Henceforth, the common denominators of all the theses of the Egyptologists, their close relationship and profound affinity, can be characterized as a desperate attempt to refute that opinion. Almost all Egyptologists stressits falsity as a matter of| ‘course [1974: 45} ‘The Eurocentric pretentiousness of this episode is exposed in all its nakedness: The Egyptologists continued obstinately in their vain efforts to prove “scientifically” that this great civilization of Black Egypt had a white origin. Precarious as, their theories were in fact, they were accepted by the “civilized” world as a cornerstone of white supremacy. ‘As for Diop, compassionate and humane before the fero- cious dogmatism of the white Egyptologists, he reveals much patience and generosity, explaining what should be obvious to anyone approaching the subject in good faith: that he does not allege racial superiority or any specific Black genius in this, purely scientific confirmation that the civilization of ancient Egypt was built and governed by Black people. The event, explains Diop, for their benefit, resulted from a series of historical factors, climatic conditions, natural resources, and so on, added to other nonracial elements. So much so that even after having expanded through all of Black Africa, to the central and western parts of the continent, the Egyptian civilization, under the impact of other influences and historical situations, later entered into a process of frankly retrocessive disintegration. What is important here is to note some of the factors that contributed to the construction of Egyptian146 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / DECEMBER 1980 civilization, among which Diop enumerates these: geograph- ical conditioning of the sociopolitical development of the peoples that lived on the banks of the river Nile, such as floods and other natural disasters that forced collective measures of defense and survival; a situation that favored unity and discouraged individual or personal egotism. In this context arose the need for a central coordinating authority over common life and activities. The invention of geometry was born of the imperatives of geographical division, and other advances were attained in the effort to attend to the exigencies of building a viable society. One detail is particularly important to the memory of Brazilian Blacks: Diop mentions ancient Egypt's relationship to Black Africa, specifically the Yoruba people, who constitute an important element of Afro-Brazilian demographic and cultural heritage. It seems that these Egyptian-Yoruba rela- tionships were so intimate that one can “consider a historical fact the common possession of the same primitive habitat by the Yorubas and the Egyptians.” Diop raises the hypothesis that the Latinization of the name of Horus, son of Osiris and Isis, resulted in the appellative Orisha. Following this line of comparative study, in the field of linguistics and other disciplines, Diop cites J. Olumide Lucas, of Nigeria, who in his, book The Religion of the Yorubas (1948) traces Egyptian links with his people, concluding that all paths lead to the verifica- tion of: (1) a similarity or identity of language; (2) a similarity or identity of religious beliefs; (3) a similarity or identity of religious ideas and practices; (4) a survival of customs, names of places and persons, objects, and so on (Diop 1974: 184 et seq.; Lucas 1978: 18). My objective here is simply to call attention to this significant dimension of the antiquity of Afro-Brazilian mem- ory. It is for the Afro-Brazilian and African researchers of the present and future to flesh out the details of such a fundamen- tal aspect of our history, a task too vast to touch upon here.[Nascimento | AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 147 PRE-COLUMBIAN AFRO-AMERICA It is not only in ancient Egypt or West Africa that we find the historical antecedents of Afro-Brazilian peoples and culture. Another dimension of our memory lies in the presence of Africans in various parts of ancient America, long before the arrival of Columbus. And this is not a superficial or passing phenomenon but, on the contrary, a presence so deep that it left indelible marks on the faces of pre-Columbian civiliza- tions. Various historians and researchers have left evidence of this phenomenon. Among others, we can cite the Mexican colonial historian Orozco y Berra, who by 1862 had already mentioned the intimate relations which ancient Mexicans must have cultivated with African visitors and immigrants (1880: 109). The most important recent contribution in this sense has, been that of Ivan Van Sertima, whose book They Came Before Columbus (1976) registers in unanswerable and definitive form the African contribution to the pre-Columbian cultures of the Americas, particularly those of Mexico. Nevertheless, other authors of various epochs and origins have also confirmed the same result: Nicholas Leon (in Sertima, 1976), J. A.Jairazbhoy (1974), Lopes de Gomara (1554), Alexander von Wuthenau (1975), Leo Weiner (1922), and others, each in his own specialty, has added to the reconstitution of the African presence in America before Columbus. Elisa Larkin Nasci- mento has noted linkages with Egyptian and West African symbols and artistic techniques, manifested in the funeral urns and other art of San Agustin and Tierradentro in Colombia, sites of indigenous civilizations dated from more or less a century before Christ. Similar types of comparisons also can be documented with respect to the Taina culture of Puerto Rico (Nascimento, 1980) and the Olmec, Toltec, Aztec and Maya of Mexico, as well as the Inca of Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru (Sertima, 1976). Remarkable portraiture of African faces and figures in ceramics and sculpture, shared mummification techniques, funereal traditions, mythical and artistic themes,148 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES | DECEMBER 1980 symbols such as the feathered serpent, as well as countless linguistic identities, are among the visible witnesses to the active interchange between ancient American and African civilizations (Sertima, 1976). Perhaps most intriguing is the obvious connection among engineering techniques of pyramid construction in Nubia, Egypt and the Americas (Sertima, 1976: 155). ‘AL this point it is well to note, along with Elisa Larkin Nascimento, that the pre-Columbian presence of African civilization in the Americas . in no way underestimates or detracts from the enormous design and engincering capacities of the original American peoples that were the authors and builders of the formidable pre-Columbian urban civilizations [1980: 139}. This African-American interchange, among the original peoples of the respective continents, establishes an extensive and legitimate relationship between Africans and American indigenous peoples that long predates European chattel slavery of Africans. The true historical basis for solidarity among these peoples is thus much deeper and more authentic than has generally been recognized. As Quilombismo searches for the best world for Africans in the Americas, it knows that such a struggle cannot be separated from the mutual liberation of the indigenous peoples of these lands, who are also vietims of the racism and wanton destructiveness introduced and enforced by the European colonialists and their heirs BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS AND. (QUILOMBIST SENTIMENT From a narrower perspective, Brazilian Black memory reaches a crucial historical stage in the slavist period, beginning around 1500, just after the territory’s “discovery” by the Portuguese and their inaugural acts toward its colonization.[Nascimento | AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 149 ‘Along with the briefly enslaved and then progressively exter- minated Indians, the African was the first and only worker, throughout three and a half centuries, who built the structures of this country called Brazil. I think it dispensable to evoke ‘once more the vast lands Africans sowed with their sweat, or to remember again the cane fields, cotton fields, coffee fields, gold, diamond and silver mines, and the many other phases or elements in the formation of Brazil, nourished with the martyred blood of slaves. The Black, far from being an upstart or a stranger, is the very body and soul of this country. Yet despite this undeniable historical fact, Africans and their descendants were never treated as equals by the minority white segments that complement the national demographic tableau, nor are they today. This minority has maintained an exclusive grip on all power, welfare, health, education and national income. It is scandalous to note that significant portions of the Euro- Brazilian population began to arrive in Brazil at the end of the nineteenth century as poor and needy immigrants. Immedi- ately they bought into the enjoyment of privileges, which the conventional white society conceded them as partners in race and Eurocentric supremacy. These poor immigrants demon- strated neither scruples nor difficulties in assuming the racist mythologies in force in Brazil and Europe, endorsing the consequent contempt, humiliation and discrimination en- forced against Blacks, and benefitting from these practices, filling the places in the labor market denied to ex-slaves and their descendants. Blacks were literally expelled from the system of production as the country approached the “aboli- tionist” date of May 13, 1888. ‘The contemporary condition of Black people has not changed since then, except for the worse. At the margins of employment or left in situations of semiemployment and underemploy- ment, Black people remain largely excluded from the econo- my. Residential segregation is imposed on the Black com- munity by the double factor of race and poverty, marking off,150 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES DECEMBER 1980, as Black living areas, ghettoes of various denominations: favelas, alagados, pordes, mocambos, invasdes, conjuntos populares or “residenciais.” Permanent police brutality and arbitrary arrests motivated by race contribute to the reign of terror under which Blacks live daily. In such conditions, one comprehends why no conscious Black person has the slightest hope that a progressive change can occur spontaneously in white society to the benefit of the Afro-Brazilian community. ‘Slums swarm in all the large cities: Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Bahia, Recife, Brasilia, Sao Luis de Maranhao, Porto Alegre, are a few examples. Statistics on these favelados (residents of the slums) express expanding misery in themselves alone. According to the Department of Social Services in Sao Paulo, in data published by the prominent newspaper O Estado de ‘Sao Paulo on August 16, 1970, more than 60% of that city’s enormous population lives in extremely precarious conditions. To be favelado means starvation or malnutrition, no health care, no lighting, water lines, public services, or houses—only makeshift shanties of cardboard or sheet metal, perched precariously on steep, muddy hills or swamps. Yet So Paulo is, Brazil's best-served city in terms of water and sewer lines; with this in mind we can get an idea of the impossible living and hygienic conditions in which the Afro-Brazilian vegetates all over this country. In Brasilia, according to the magazine Veja (October 8, 1969), 80,000 of 510,000 inhabitants of the federal capital were favelados. In Rio de Janeiro, the percentage oscillates between 40% and 50% of the population. The vast majority of Brazilian favelados, 95% or more, are of African origin, Such a situation characterizes irrefutable racial segre- gation in fact; the converse also holds true, the vast majority of Black people in Brazil being favelados. Up to now we have dealt with the urban Black population. It is necessary to emphasize that the great majority of African descendants still live in the countryside, slaves in fact: slaves of a feudal seignorial landholding and social system, in asituation of total destitution, as peasants, sharecroppers or migrantNascimento | AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 15! workers, One could say that these people do not live a life of human beings. The urban segment of the Afro-Brazilian population makes up a category which the Annual Statistical Report of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics denominates “service employees.” A strange euphemism for the severe underemployment and semiemployment which marks the lives of almost 4.5 million Brazilians (Quartim, 1971: 152). Such a euphemism is ironic, since this classification picks up masses of people “employed” without fixed pay, that is, odd-jobsmen living the small daily adventure of trying to shine shoes, wash cars, deliver packages or messages, sell fruit or candy on the street, and so on, all at the miserable and unreliable salary of pennies. This is an imperfect sketch of a much graver situation which has been the reality of Afro-Brazilians through the entire course of our history. From this reality is born the urgent necessity of Black people to defend their survival and assure their very existence as human beings. Quilombos were the result of this vital exigency for enslaved Africans, to recover their liberty and human dignity through escape from captivity, organizing viable free societies in Brazilian territory. The multiplicity in space and time of the Quilombos made them an authentic, broad and permanent sociopolitical movement. Apparently a sporadic phenomenon in the beginning, Quilom- bos were rapidly transformed from the improvization of emergency into the methodical and constant life form of the African masses who refused to submit to the exploitation and violence of the slave system. Quilombismo was structured in associative forms that could be found in whole independent communities in the depths of forests or in jungles of difficult access, facilitating their defense and protecting their economic, social and political organization. They could also follow models of organization permitted or tolerated by the authori- ties, frequently with ostensibly religious (Catholic), recre- ational, charity, athletic, cultural or mutual assistance objec152. JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES | DECEMBER 1980 tives. Whatever their appearances and declared objectives, all of them fulfilled an important social function for the Black community, performing a relevant and central role in sustain- ing African continuity—genuine focal points of physical as well as cultural resistance. Objectively, this web of associa- tions, brotherhoods, clubs, terreiros (houses of worship of Afro-Brazilian religion), tendas, afochés, samba schools, ga- {fieiras, gremios, confrarias, were and are Quilombos legalized by ruling society; on the other side of the law are the underground, secretive quilombos we know of. Nevertheless, the “legalized” and the “illegal” form a unity, a unique human, ethnic and cultural affirmation, at once integrating a practice of liberation and assuming command of their own history. This entire complex of African social phenomena, of Afro-Brazilian praxis, | denominate Quilombismo. It is important to note that this tradition of Quilombist struggle existed and exists throughout the Americas. From the carliest decades of the 1500s, free Africans, refusing to subrait to the horrors of European chattel slavery, formed huge communities which waged a continuous and largely victorious armed struggle against the colonialists and slavers, throughout centuries. In Mexico, these societies were called cimarrones;in Venezuela, cumbes; in Cuba and Colombia, palenques; in Jamaica and the United States, maroon societies (Price, 1973; Moura, 1977). They proliferated throughout the Caribbean and South and Central America. Researching and building upon the history of these free African societies in the Americas, and their cultural, economic, political, and social bases, Afro- Americans throughout the entire hemisphere can consolidate their true heritage of solidarity and struggle. Quilombismo and its various equivalents throughout the Americas, expressed in the legacy of cumbes, palenques, cimarrones and maroons, constitute an international alternative for popular Black political organization. Easy confirmation of the enormous number of Black Brazilian organizations that have taken the title—in the past[Nascimento | AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 153, and the present, of Quilombo, or the name of Palmares (evoking the Republic of Palmares, a huge community of quilombos which resisted the armed aggression of the Portu- guese and the Dutch for a full century, from 1595 to 1695)— testifies to the significance of the Quilombist example as a dynamic value in the tactics and strategies of survival, resistance and progress of African communities in contem- porary Brazil. In effect, Quilombismo has already revealed itself as a factor capable of mobilizing the Black masses in a disciplined manner, because of its deep psychosocial appeal, rooted in the history, culture and experience of Afro-Brazi lians, The Unified Black Movement Against Racism and Racial Discrimination registers its quilombist concept in the following definition of Black Consciousness Day, published in a 1978 manifesto: We, Brazilian Blacks, proud of descending from Zumbi, leader of the Black Republic of Palmares, which existed in the state of Alagoas from 1595 to 1696, defying Portuguese and Dutch dominion, come together, after 283 years, to declare to the Brazilian people our true and effective date: November 20, National Black Consciousness Day ‘The day of the death of the great Black national leader Zumbi, responsible for the first and only Brazilian attempt to create a democratic society, free, in which all people—Blacks, Indians and whites—achieved a great political, economic and social advance, An attempt which was always present in all quilom- bos. ‘A continuity of this consciousness of political-social struggle extends through all Brazilian states with a significant popula- tion of African origin. The Quilombist model has remained active as an idea-force, a source of energy inspiring models of dynamic organization, since the fifteenth century. In this dynamic, almost always heroic process, Quilombismo is in a constant process of revitalization and remodernization, at- tending to the needs of the various historical times and geographical environments. A circumstance which imposed54 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / DECEMBER 1980 upon the quilombos certain differences in their organizational forms. But essentially they were alike. They were (and are), in the words of Afro-Brazilian historian Beatriz Nascimento, “a place where liberty was practiced, where ethnic and ancestral ties were reinvigorated.” Nascimento shows in her scholarly work that the quilombo exercised a “fundamental role in the historical consciousness of the Black people” (1979: 17; 18). ‘One perceives the Quilombist ideal, diffuse but consistent, permeating all levels of Black life, in the most recondite wanderings and folds of Afro-Brazilian personality. A strong, and dense ideal that remains, asa rule, repressed by the systems of domination; other times it is sublimated through various defense mechanisms furnished by the individual or collective unconscious. It also happens, at times, that Black people appropriate certain mechanisms the dominant society con- cedes to their protagonism, intending them as instruments of control. In this reversal of ends, Black people utilize such unconfessed propositions of domestication like an offensive boomerang. Such is the example left us by Candeia, composer of sambas and a Black man intelligently dedicated to the rehabilitation of his people. He organized the Quilombo Samba School, in the poor outlying areas of Rio de Janeiro, with a deep sense of the political/social value of the samba for the collective progress of the Black community. (Samba schools are generally a means of diversionary control, rele- gating Black creative energies to white-controlled commercial channels in the context of Carnaval, the great tourist attrac- tion.) This important member of the Quilombist family, Candeia, recently passed away, but up to the instant of his death he sustained a lucid vision of the objectives of the entity he founded and presided over, Quilombo Samba School, in the spirit of the most legitimate interests of the Afro-Brazilian people. To illustrate, it is enough to lead through the book he authored, along with Isnard, and to read passages like this one:Nascimento | AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 155, Quilombo Recreational Group for Black Art (Samba School) =. Was born of the necessity to preserve all the influence of the ‘Afro in Brazilian culture, We intended to call the Brazilian people’s attention to the roots of Brazilian Black art... . The position of “Quilombo” is, principally, aganst the importation of readymade cultural products produced abroad [1978: 87; 88) In this passage the authors touch upon an important point in the Quilombist tradition: the nationalist character of the movement. Nationalism here must not be translated as xeno- phobia. Quilombismo being an antiimperialist struggle, it articulates itself with Pan-Africanism and sustains a radical solidarity with all peoples of the world who struggle against exploitation, oppression and poverty, as well as inequalities motivated by race, color, religion or ideology. Black nation- alism is universalist and internationalist in itself, in that it sees the national liberation of all peoples respecting their unique cultural and political integrity, as an imperative for world liberation. Faceless uniformity in the name of a “unity” or “solidarity” conditioned upon conformity to the dictates of any Western social model is not in the interests of oppressed non- Western peoples. Quilombismo, as a nationalist movement, teaches us that every people’s struggle for liberation must be rooted in their own cultural identity and historical experience. Ina pamphlet entitled 90 Years of Abolition, published by the Quilombo Samba School, Candeia registers the fact that It was through the Quilombo, and not the abolitionist move- ‘ment, that the struggle of the Black people against slavery was developed [1978a: 7}. And the Quilombist movement is far from having exhausted its, historical role. Itisas alive today asin the past, forthe situation of the Black community remains the same, with small altera- tions of a superficial character. Candeia goes on to say:156 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES | DECEMBER 1980 ‘The Quilombos were violently repressed, not only by the forces of the government, but also by individuals interested in the profits they would obtain by returning escapees to their owners, ‘These specialists in hunting escaped slaves earned aname of sad recall: bush captains [1978a: 5] Citation of the bush captains is important. As a rule they were mulattoes, that is, light-skinned Blacks assimilated by the white ruling classes and pitted against their African brothers and sisters. We must not allow ourselves today to be divided into adverse categories of “Blacks” and “mulattoes,” weak- ening our fundamental identity as Afto-Brazilians, Afro- Americans of all the continent, that is, Africans in the Diaspora. Our Brazil is so vast, so much still unknown and un- “discovered,” that we can suppose, without a large margin of error, that there must exist many rural Black communities, isolated, without ostensive connection to the small cities and villages in the interior of the country. These are tiny localities, unlinked to the mainstream of the country’s life, maintaining African or quasi-African lifestyles and habits, under a collec tive agricultural regimen of subistence or survival. Many might continue to use their original language brought from Africa, clumsy or transformed, it may be true, but still the same African language, conserved in the species of Quilombismo in which they live. At times they may even carn special and extensive attention in the press, as has occurred with the community of Cafundé, situated in the area of Salto de Pirapora, in So Paulo state. The members of this African community inherited a plantation from their colonial master; recently their lands have been invaded by surrounding land- owners. Obviously white, these latifiundidrios (giant land- holders), with their slaver mentality, cannot accept the idea that a group of African descendants can possess real property. ‘They are bent on destroying Cafundd. This is not a unique mn, but itis one which has received publicity, mobilizing situ:Nascimento | AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 157 Blacks of the city of Sao Paulo in their defense. The foremost organization of this nature is Eco (Experiéncia Comunitaria), a group that works under the able leadership of Hugo Ferreira da Silva. In 1975, the first time I visited the town of Conceigao do Mato Dentro, in Minas Gerais state, I had the opportunity of meeting one of the villagers of a Black community in that area, similar to Cafundd, These Africans had also inherited their property, according to this villager, a Black man 104 years old, mentally and physically active and agile. Every day, he would walk a distance of nearly 10 kilometers, on foot, and so maintained the contact of his people with the town of Conceigio do Mato Dentro ‘The advance of big landowners and real estate speculators onto the lands of Black people calls for a broad and intensive investigation. This is happening in the cities as well as in rural areas, It was noted in the magainze Veja, for instance (Urban Section, December 10, 1975: 52): Since their long-ago appearance in Salvador, almost two centuries ago, the Candomblé terreiros (houses of worship) have always been harassed by severe police restrictions. And, at least in the last twenty years, the police siege has been considerably strengthened by 2 powerful ally: real estate expansion, which has extended to areas distant from the center of the city, where drums resounded. Worse yet, at no time has the Mayor's office sketched legal boundaries to protect these strongholds of Afro-Brazilian culture—even though the capital of Bahia extracts fat dividends from exploitation of the tourism fomented by the magic of the Orishas. . . . And never have sanctions been known to be applied to the unscrupulous landlords of plots neighboring the houses of worship, who take over areas of the ‘erreiros with impunity. This was how, a few years back, the Saint George of the Old Mill Beneficent Society, ‘or White House Terreiro, ended up losing half of its former ‘area, 7,700 meters square. Even more unlucky, the Saint Bartholemew of the Old Mill Society of the Federation, or Bogum Candomblé, impotently watches the rapid reduction of the sacred space where stands the mythical “tree of Azaudo-158 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES | DECEMBER 1980 nor"—brought from Africa 150 years ago and periodically attacked by a neighbor who insists upon lopping off its most leafy branches. With all reason, cinematographer Rubem Confete recently denounced, in a round-table discussion sponsored by the newsmagazine Pasquim (September 14, 1979: 4): How much was robbed from the Black people! I know five families who lost all of their land to the government and to the Catholic Church, Jurandir Santos Melo was the owner of land that stretched from the current airport of Salvador to the city Today he is a simple taxi driver, living on small savings. The family of Ofélia Pittman owned all the area that today is the MacKensie (University in Sao Paulo). This is more serious than is generally thought, because there was a time when Black people had representation and economic strength. Here we see how ruling society closed in the circle of destitution, hunger and genocide against African descendants. Even those few individuals, the rare exceptions that by some miracle manage to surpass the implacable frontiers of poverty, or religious institutions occupying a certain space over cen- turies, from one minute to another find their estates invaded and their families usurped from their lands. QUILOMBISMO: A SCIENTIFIC HISTORICAL-CULTURAL CONCEPT Conscious of the extensiveness and depth of the problems they confront, Black people know that their opposition cannot bbe exhausted in the attainment of small gains in employment or civil rights, in the context of the dominant capitalist white society and its organized middle class. Black people under- stand that they will have to defeat all components of the system in force, including its intelligentsia. This segment was and is, responsible for the ideological cover-up of oppression by wayNascimento / AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 159 of “scientific” theories of the biosocial inferiority of Blacks, and by academic elaboration of the ideology of whitening (socially compulsory miscegenation) or the myth of “racial democracy.” This Euro-Brazilian “intelligentsia,” along with its European and North-American mentors, fabricated a et of historical or human “sciences” that assisted in the dehumaniza~ tion of Africans and their descendants, serving the interests of the Eurocentric oppressors. Therefore, European and Euro- Brazilian science is not appropriate to Black people’s needs. A historical science which does no service to the history of the people it deals with is negating itself. How can Western human and historical sciences—ethnol- ogy, economics, history, anthropology, sociology, and so on— born, cultivated and defined by other peoples, in an alien socioeconomic context, offer useful and effective service to African people worldwide, their existential realization, their problems, aspirations and projects? Can the social sciences elaborated in Europe or in the United States be so universal in their application? Black people know in their very flesh the fallaciousness of the “universalism” and “objectivity” of this Eurocentric “science.” Indeed, the idea of a historical science that is pure and universal is now passé, even in European circles Black people require ascientific knowledge that allows them to formulate theoretically—in systematic and consistent form— their experience of almost five centuries of oppression, re- sistance and creative struggle. There will be inevitable errors, perhaps, in our search for systematization of our social values, in our efforts toward self-definition and self-determination of ourselves and our future paths, No matter. For centuries we have carried the burden of the crimes and falsities of “scientif- ic” Eurocentrism, its dogmas imposed upon our being as the brands of a definitive, “universal” truth. Now we return to the obstinate “white” segment of Brazilian society its lies, its ideology of European supremacy, the brainwashing with which it intended to rob us of our humanity, our national160 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES | DECEMBER 1980 identity, our dignity, our liberty. By proclaiming the demise of Eurocentric mental colonization, we celebrate the advent of Quilombist liberation. Black people have a collective project: the erection of a society founded on justice, equality and respect for all human beings; on freedom; a society whose intrinsic nature makes economic or racial exploitation impossible. An authentic democracy, founded by the destitute and disinherited of the country. We have no interest in the simple restoration of obsolete types and forms of political, social and economic institutions; this would serve only to procrastinate the advent of our total and definitive emancipation, which can come only with radical transformation of existing socioeconomic and political structures. We have no interest in proposing an adaptation or reformation of the models of capitalist class society. Such a solution is not to be accepted as an ineluctible mandate. We trust in the mental integrity of the Black people, and we believe in the reinvention of ourselves and our history A reinvention of Afro-Brazilians whose life is founded on our ‘own historical experience, built by utilizing critical and inventive knowledge of our own social and economic institu- tions, battered as they have been by colonialism and racism. In sum, to reconstruct in the present a society directed toward the future, but taking into account what is still useful and positive in the stores of our past. An operative conceptual tool must be developed, then, within the guidelines of the immediate needs of the Black Brazilian people. Which too! must not and cannot be the fruit of arbitrary or abstract cerebral machinations. Nor can it be a set of imported principles, elaborated from the starting point of other historical contexts and realities. The crystallization of our concepts, definitions and principles must express Black collective experience, in culture and in praxis, reincorporating our integrity as a people in our historic time, enriching and expanding our capacity for struggle[Nascimento | AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 61 Where do we find such experience? In the Quilombos Quilombo does not mean escaped slave, as the conventional definitions say. It means fraternal and free reunion, or encounter; solidarity, living together, existential communion. Quilombist society represents an advanced stage in sociopolit- ical and human progress in terms of economic egalitarianism. Known historical precedents confirm this position, As an economic system, Quilombismo has meant the adaptation of African traditions of communitarianism and/or Ujamaa to the Brazilian environment. In such a system, relations of produc tion differ basically from those that prevail in the capitalist economy, based on the exploitation and social degradation of work, founded on the concept of profit at any human cost, particularly the cost of the lives of enslaved Africans. Qui lombismo articulates the diverse levels of collective life whose dialectic interaction proposes complete fulfillment and reali tion of the creative capacities of the human being. All basic factors and elements of the economy are of collective owner- ship and use. Work is not defined as a form of punishment, oppression or exploitation; work is first a form of human liberation, which the citizen enjoys as a right and a social obligation. The Quilombos of the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries left us a patrimony of Quilombist practice. It is for the Black people of today to sustain and amplify the Afro-Brazilian culture of resistance and affirmation of our truth. A method of social analysis, comprehension and definition of a concrete experience, Quilombismo expresses scientific theory: a scien- tific theory inextricably welded to our historical practice, that can effectively contribute to Black people's liberation from centuries of inexorable extermination. Condemned to survive surrounded and permeated by hostility, Afro-Brazilian society has nevertheless persisted throughout almost 590 years, under the sign of permanent tension. It is this tension, the tension of struggle—repression162 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / DECEMBER 1980 and resistance—that embodies the essence and process of Quilombismo, To assure the fullest human condition of the Afro-Brazilian masses is the ethical grounding of Quilombismo, and its most basic concept. Quilombismo is a scientific historical philoso- phy whose pivotal focal point is the humban being, as actor and subject (not merely as passive object, as in the Western scientific tradition), within a worldview and a conception of life in which science constitutes one among many other paths of knowledge. ABC OF QUILOMBISMO In the historical trajectory we have sketched in these pages, Quilombismo has furnished us with various lessons. Here we will attempt to summarize them in a basic alphabet, which teaches us that: (a) Almost 500 years of Authoritarianism is enough. We cannot, must not and will not tolerate it anymore. One of the basic practices of this authoritarianism is the brutal contempt of the police for the Black family. Every kind of arbitrariness is fixed indelibly in the routine police raids conducted to keep the Afro-Brazilian community terrorized and demoralized. With these raids, beatings, murders and torture the impotence and “inferiority” of Black people is confirmed to them daily, since they are incapable of defending themselves or of protecting their family and members of the community. This constitutesa situation of perpetual humuliation. (b) Bantu was the name of one of the first peoples of enslaved Africans who came to Brazil from countries today called Angola, Congo, Zaire, Mozambique and others. The Bantus were the first quilombists to confront the military power of the white slavers in Brazilian lands. (©) Caution in organizing our struggle by and for ourselves is an imperative of our survival as a people. We must be veryNascimento | AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 163, careful in making alliances with other political forces, be they so-called revolutionary, reformist, radical, or liberal prom- isers. Each and every alliance must obey a tactical or strategic imperative, and Black people must be in positions of power and decision making, so as not to allow the Black masses to be manipulated on behalf of causes alien to their own. (d) We have a Duty to always broaden our field of struggle, having in mind: (1) long-term objectives—radical Quilombist transformation of the socioeconomic and cultural structures of Brazilian society (2) immediate tactical interests. In this category we include, for ‘example, voting rights of illiterates and amnesty for Black political prisoners. Even since the proclamation of the Brazi- lian Republic in 1889, denial of franchise tothe illiterate has meant the exclusion of the Black masses from the country's Political process. Black political prisoners are those Black people who are maliciously reported in police files as loiterers, ‘bums, rogues, vagrants, tramps or hustlers, and whose homes are frequently invaded by the police; once recorded in the police files, these people are subject at anytime to arbitrary arrest and imprisonment. Recent projects of so-called cau- tionary arrest procedures intensify the reign of terror over the Black community. (©) Bwe, or Gege, African people of the areas now including parts of Ghana, Togo and Dahomey (Benin); millions of Ewes were slaves in Brazil. They are part of our people, and of our Afro-Brazilian heritage. Eject white supremacism from our midst is a duty of every democratic thinker. We must always remember that racism— that is, white supremacism, color prejudice and racial dis- crimination along with cultural chauvinism and educational bias—compose the race factor, primary social contradiction for the masses of African origin in Brazilian society. (I advise the backbiters, intriguers, malicious and quick to judge: the word race, in the sense used here, is defined in terms of history and culture, and not of biological purity.)164 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES | DECEMBER 1980 (®) Forming the ranks of Quilombismo is fundamental, meaning the mobilization and organization of the Black masses, (g) Guaranteeing to the masses their place in the hierarchy of power and decision making, retaining intact their ethno- cultural integrity, is the basic goal of Quilombismo. (h) Humiliated we were and are as Black Africans; we must maintain intimate contact with all of our Black and African family, and with independent progressive African organiza- tions, in the Diaspora as well as the continent, developing ‘weapons of alliance and solidarity in resistance. Infallible as a natural phenomenon will be white power’s persecution of Quilombismo. It is the inflexible logic of Brazilian racism never to allow the existence of any liberation movement of the Black majority. () Jamais (absolutely never) can Afro-Brazilian political organization allow non-Quilombist whites access to positions of power or authority in order to obstruct our action or influence the theoretical and practical positions taken in the course of our struggle. (k) Kimbundu, the language of the Bantu people, came to Brazil with the slaves from Angola, Congo and Zaire, princi- pally. This language exercised a pronounced influence on the Portuguese spoken in our country. () Liberate Brazil from artificial campaigns of industri- alization, on the order of “economic miracles,” is one of the goals of Quilombismo. In such schemes of industrialization the Black people are exploited by both the industrial capitalist and the skilled working class. We must understand that Blacks, as “unskilled” laborers or unclassified laborers, are double vic- tims: of race (white) and of class (the skilled or qualified worker and/or bourgeoisie of any race) Quilombismo advocates for Brazil a scientific and techno- logical knowledge that makes possible a true industrialization, representing an advance and not a retrogression in terms of national autonomy. Quilombismo does not hand over ourNascimento | AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 168 mineral reserves and our economy to international monopo- listic corporations, but neither does it defend the interests of a national elite. The Black African was the first and the principal pillar of the economic formation of this country and the national wealth belongs to him and all the Brazilian people who produce it. (m) Mancha means stain: A white stain is what the misce- genizing imposition of the white ruling class signifies to us. Itis implicit in the ideology of whitening, the politics of immigra- tion, and the myth of “racial democracy.” This is all no more than a rationalization of white supremacy and of the historical rape that was and is practiced against the Black woman. (n) No more confusion instigated by the conventional Eurocentric opponents of Quilombismo: if in Brazil there were really equality of treatment, of opportunity, of respect, of political and economic power; if the meeting of different peoples and races occurred spontaneously and free of the pressures of the socioeconomic status of whiteness; if there did not exist many other repressive conditioning systems acting on the moral, aesthetic and religious levels, then miscegenation could be a positive process, capable of enriching Brazilian society, culture and humanity. (0) Obstructing the genocidal teachings and practices of white supremacy is a substantive factor of Quilombismo. (p) Quilombist Power means: the Black race in Power. African descendants make up the majority of our population. Thus, Black Power will be democratic power. (I reiterate here the warning to the backbiters and intriguers, the malicious and ignorant: in this text the concept of race has historicocultaral content, Biologically pure races do not exist and never existed.) (q) Quebrar is to break the efficacy of certain slogans that ‘move through the history of our struggle against racism, such as the one that says the only legitimate struggle is the workers’ struggle, of all the proletariat or ali the oppressed. The racial privileges of whites constitute the fruit and expression of an ideology that has been developing since antiquity. Those who166 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES | DECEMBER 1980, preach “united” struggle, under the banner of the “only” struggle of the proletariat, merely display a form of contempt, for us, since they do not respect our identity nor the specificity of our history and problems as victims of racism, nor our struggle to overcome that specific oppression. (=) Race: We believe that all human beings belong to the same species. For Quilombismo, race signifies a human group that possesses, relatively, the same somatic characteristics, resultant from a complex of bio-historical and environmental factors. Physical appearance, as well as psychological, per- sonality, character and emotive traits, undergo the influence of that complex of factors including society, culture, genetics, geographic environment, and history. The mixing of different racial groups or persons of diverse racial identities is in the most legitimate interests of the survival of the human species. Racism: the belief in the inherent superiority of one race over another. Such superiority is conceived in biological terms, but also in the psychosocial and cultural dimension. This aspect is generally neglected or omitted from traditional definitions focusing on skin criteria. The theoretical scientific elaborations of white European culture justifying the chattel slavery, dehumanization and inferiorization of the African people, constitute a level of racist viciousness never before known in human history. Racism is the first social contradic- tion in the path of Black people in modern industrial multi- ethnic society. To it are added others, such as the contradic~ tions of class and sex. (6) Swahili is a language of Bantu origin, influenced by other languages, especially Arabic. Today itis spoken by more than 20 million Africans in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Bu- rundi, Zaire, and other countries. It has been chosen by countless international gatherings of African teachers and writers as the international lingua franca of Africans, to surpass colonial barriers created by the use of French, English and Portuguese or Spanish among African peoples. Afro- Brazilians urgently need to learnNascimento / AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 167 (t). Todo (each and every) Black or mulatto (Afro-Brazilian) who accepts “racial democracy” as a reality, and miscegenation in the form it takes today asa positive phenomenon, isa traitor to himself and considers himself inferior. (u) Unanimity is impossible in the social and political field. ‘We must not waste our time and energy with criticisms that will come from outside the Quilombist movement. We need to develop constructive self-criticism, within our own organiza- tions, in the sense of widening our Black and Quilombist consciousness toward the final objective—ascension of the Afro-Brazilian masses to the levels of power. (¥) Venia (permission) is what we do not need to ask from the ruling classes in order to reconquer the fruits of our labor and that of our African ancestors in Brazil. Nor can we accept certain definitions, “scientific” or not, that try to define African communialism and Ujamaa as simply archaic and obsolete forms of economic and social organization. This is one more type of Eurocentric arrogance, denying the institutions born of the historical reality of Africa their intrinsic capacity of autonomous relative development. It denies their possibilities of modernization and progress, endorsing the idea that European colonialist occupation of Africa determines the concomitant disappearance of our values, principles and institutions, marking the starting point of “development”— that is, Westernization. African life forms are seen as non- dynamic, immobilized and silenced before history. This petri fied vision of Africa and her cultures is purely a cerebral fiction. Quilombismo intends to redeem from this negativist definition our sense of socioeconomic protagonism and orga- nization, conceived to enrich and serve human existence; organization that existed in Africa and was practiced by Africans in Brazil. Contemporary Brazilian society can benefit from the Quilombist model, a national alternative that offers itself as a substitute for the inhuman systems of capitalism. (x)_Xingar (to curse) is not enough. We must mobilize and organize the Black people, and wage an energetic struggle,168 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / DECEMBER 1980 without pause and without rest, against the destitution im- posed upon us, How long are we to stand by and watch powerlessly as our Afro-Brazilian brothers and sisters, espe- cially the Black children of the country, are progressively exterminated through starvation, disease and poverty, (y)_ Yorubas (Nago) are we also in our Brazilian Africanity. ‘The Yorubas are an integral part of our people, our culture, our religion, our struggle and our future. (2) Zumbi: founder of Quilombismo. Zumbi: zenith of this historical hour, zenith of this Black Afro-Brazilian people, SOME PRINCIPLES AND PROPOSALS OF QUILOMBISMO. 1. Quilombismo is a political movement of Brazilian Blacks, with the goal of implanting in the country a Quilombist National State, inspired in the model of the Republic of Palmares, founded in the sixteenth century, and other quilom- bos that existed and exist in the country. 2. The National Quilombist State is a free, just, egalitarian and sovereign state. Quilombist democratic egalitarianism extends to the factors of race, economics, sex, society, religion, politics, justice, education, culture and all expressions of life in society. The same egalitarianism applies at all levels of power and of public and private institutions. 3. The basic goal of the National Quilombist State is to promote the happiness of the human being. To realize tl goal, Quilombismo believes in an economy of communitarian- cooperativist basis in the sectors of production, distribution and division of the natural wealth and the fruits of collective work. 4, Quilombismo considers land a national asset of collective use. Factories and other industrial installations, all assets and. means of production, in the same way as the land, are collective property for the collective use of society. Rural workers orNascimento | AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 169 peasants, who work the land, are the owners and managers of agricultural and cattle-raising institutions. Industrial workers and workers in general, the producers of industrial goods, are solely responsible for the directorship and management of their respective units of production. 5. In Quilombismo work isa right and a social duty, and the workers, creators of the agricultural and industrial wealth of Quilombist society, are the sole owners of the product of their labor. 6. Black children are and have always been the primary and defenseless victims of the material and moral destitution imposed upon the Afro-Brazilian community for centuries. ‘They are therefore the most urgent preoccupation and priority of Quilombismo, Prenatal and maternity care, day-care ser- vices, adequate nutrition, hygienic and humane housing are some of the items related to the Black child that figure prominently in the Quilombist movement's program of action. 7. Education and instruction or training on all levels— elementary, secondary and university—are completely free and open without distinction to all members of Quilombist society. African history, culture, political and economic sys- tems, arts and civilization have an eminent place in scholastic curricula, To create an Afro-Brazilian University is a necessity within the Quilombist program, 8. Seeking to build a creative society, Quilombismo strives to stimulate the full potential of human beings and its realization. To combat the sluggishness and enforced apathy imposed by habit, poverty, mechanization of existence and bureaucratization of human and social relations, is a central goal. The arts in general occupy a basic space in the educa- tional system and in the social context and activities of Quilombist collectivity. 9. In Quilombismo there will not be “religions” and “popu- lar religions”—that is, religions of the elite, endorsed and legitimized as “true religion,” and religions of the people. All religions deserve equal treatment, respect and guarantees of worship.170, JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / DECEMBER 1980 10. The Quilombist state prohibits the existence of a state bureaucratic apparatus that impedes or interferes with the vertical mobility of the masses in their direct relation and communication with political leaders. In the dialectical rela- tionship of the members of society with their institutions lies the progressive and dynamic content of Quilombismo. 11. The Quilombist Revolution is basically antiracist, anti- capitalist, antilatifundist, antiimperialist and antineocolo- nialist. 12, In all organs of Power in the Quilombist State— Legislative, Executive and Judiciary—half of the officials, elective posts, and nominated positions must, by constitu- tional imperative, be occupied by women. The same applies to all sectors and institutions of public and private service. 13. Quilombismo considers the transformation of relations of production, and of society in general, by nonviolent and democratic means, a possible alternative. 14, It is urgent for Quilombismo to organize a cooperative economic-financial institution, capable of assuring the main- tenance and expansion of Quilombist struggle, free from the controlling influences of paternalism and the pressures of economic power. 15. Quilombismo is essentially a defender of human exis- tence and, as such, is against ecological pollution and favors all forms of environmental improvement than can assure a healthy life for men, women and children. 16, Brazil isa signatory of the International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1965. In the spirit of cooperating in the realization of its objectives, and having in mind Article 9, paragraphs | and 2of the Convention, Quilombismo will contribute to the research and preparation of a biannual report on Brazilian racism, including all data and facts relative to racial discrimination occurring in the country, with the goal of assisting the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination of the United Nations, in its work.[Nascimento | AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 171 AFRO-BRAZILIAN MEMORY WEEK This Week is being proposed in view of Black people’s need to recover their memory. During this Week we will focus and shed light on the past events in which 300 million Africans were protagonists, wrenched violently from their lands and brought in chains to the continent of the Americas. This annual celebration not only will honor our ancestors, but reinforce the Black community's cohesion and identity. And transmit to future generations the example of love of the history of the race, giving them a clearer and truer vision of the pivotal role played by African slaves in the construction of this country. Memory Week will infuse in our youth, present and future, their deserved national pride and selfhood instead of the shame and debasement that dominant society has attempted to infiltrate into the consciousness of Blacks, as the only inheri- tance left them by their ancestors. Memory Week will link celebrational aspects with constant research, critique and reflection on the past and present life conditions of the masses of African origin in Brazil. This will contribute to the broadening and strengthening of Quilom- bismo in its philosophy, theory and practice of liberation. Memory Week also implies stimulation and support of existing Black organizations, not discriminating any of them because of their declared objectives. Those that have recreational or beneficent orientations, as well as others of cultural, social or political nature, come together around their basic interest in the improvement of the destiny and situations of the Afro- Brazilian family. They are all part of the same Quilombist perspective that we are attempting to systematize. Basically, this Memory Week is conceived as an operative tool in the field of action (mobilization and organization), combined with the sectors of theory, formulation of principles, analyses, definitions, and so on, In other words, it should be an exercise in emancipation and never a conventional commem- oration, static and rhetorical, proposing only the evocation of172 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / DECEMBER 1980 events, names and dates from the past. To study, to remember the accomplishments of our ancestors must constitute a euphoric exercise that stimulates action to transform the present. It is an event turned toward the future, opposed to ‘mere nostalgic contemplation, empty glorification of the past, or stimulation of scenes of self-flagellation. To rescue our memory means to rescue ourselves from oblivion, from the traps of nothingness and negation; to reaffirm our active presence in Pan-African history and in universal human reality. ‘As a procedural norm, the Week should be promoted by Black or Afro-Brazilian organizations. However, it canalso be realized by public or private schools interested in the civic progress of the Afro-Brazilian community. Since generally such schools are not run by Black men or women, Afro- Brazilians should be alert, in order to prevent the historical and current dimensions of Afro-Brazilian life from being mani- pulated or distorted, be it through ignorance, negligence or bad faith. Where there exists no Afro-Brazilian organization or public or private school interested in Black life, Black families, should be the organizers of Black Memory Week. We reiterate that Memory Week should never be divested of its intrinsic content of Biack African values of history, culture and art, nor cut off from the sociopolitical and economic context in which the masses of African origin move, produce, struggle and make history—a history that up to now has not figured, in all its extension and importance, in conventional or official histories of Brazil. This proposed Memory Week that I offer for the considera- tion of my Black brothers and sisters would close on the 20th of, November of each year, anniversary of the death of Zumbi;, National Black Consciousness Day, as instituted by the Unified Black Movement Against Racism and Racial Dis- crimination. Thus, the Week would begin on November 14and obey the following calendar:[Nascimento | AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 173, November 14 (Ist day): Africa—its ancient civilizations (Nubia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan). The more recent empires (Songhai, Ashanti, Yoruba, and so on). In this celebration are included references to African forms of family organization (e.g., matriarchy), society, economy and State. African arts, sciences, technology: the Egyptian pyramids, Zimbabwe ru- pestrian wall paintings and architecture, Nok, Ife and Benin metalworking, and so on. Pre-Columbian presence in Amer- ica, and legitimate linkages between African and Native American peoples. November 15 2nd day): The first Portuguese incursions into Africa in the fifteenth century. Subsequent invasion by France, Portugal, Spain, England, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Enslavement of Africans: the techniques of capture and decimation utilized by the European bandits. Long treks through the bush to the Atlantic coast. The enormous rate of deaths throughout. Slave deposits in the coastal areas. Com- pulsory baptism. The historical uniqueness of European chattel slavery under the ideology of racism and dehumaniza- tion, unprecedented in human history. November 16 (3rd day): Embarkation of Africans in slave ships, the horrors on board: hunger, thirst, epidemics, corporal stagnation, lack of air; high rates of disease and mortality; Africans thrown alive into the sea; other forms of torture and murder. Brazilian ports of disembarkation. November 17 (4th day): Slave markets: the mannerin which ces” were offered to the buying public, techniques the whites used to examine Africans as if they were animals. Commerce in slaves attending the focal points of economic concentration: sugar, cotton, mining, coffee, cocoa, cattle, tobacco production, and so on. November 18 (Sth day): Slave life, rural and urban. Pun- ishments, revolts and instruments of torture. Rape of African women as a tool and expression of domination. Catholic religious imposition as a further tool of domination, Persis-174 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / DECEMBER 1980 tence of the dances, songs, musical instruments and leisure activities brought from Africa by the slaves. Forms of rebellion against slavery: suicide, banzo (sullenness and withdrawal), escape, execution of masters, and others. November 19 (6th day): The revolts of the Quilombos. The role of African culture in this resistance: politics, economic organization, religion, art, folklore, technical knowledge of agriculture and metalworking. The importance of religious institutions in Black resistance, exemplified in Casa das Minas (Maranhio), Revolts of the Malé, current examples like Axé do Opo Afonjé (Bahia). Role of secular institutions after Abolition: Brazilian Black Front, Black Experimental The- ater, Union of Men of Color, Cultural Association of Blacks, Floresta Aurora, Research Institute on Black Culture (IPCN), Quilombo Samba School, and many others. November 20 (7th day): National Black Consciousness Day. A summation of all that has gone forward on the previous days. Emphasis on the figure of Zumbi, first militant leader of Pan-Africanism and the struggle for liberty in Brazilian lands, Zambi, consolidator of Palmares resistance, sealing with his death in armed struggle the unending determination of en- slaved Black African people to win their liberty; founder, in practice, of the scientific historicocultural concept of Qui- lombismo. Quilombismo continued by other heroes of Black history: Luisa Mahin and her son Luis Gama, Chico-Rei, the hhanged leaders of the Tailors’ Revolt, the Malés, the Balaio, the Sea Dragon (Faustino Nascimento), Karocango, Joao Candido, and the millions of Quilombists assassinated in every part of our territory where the infamous captivity existed. In the closing celebration of Black Memory Week all emphasis should be given to the programs and projects of the Black community and its organizations, toward a better future for Afro-Brazilians. The last event of Memory Week should, preferably, take place in the open air, in a massive demonstra- tion of Black people and persons of any origin interested in our activities in a positive way. Throughout the Week, academic thetoric and posturing should be radically prohibited,Nascimento | AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 175 CONCLUSION Having in mind the need of all Afro-Americans to recover their self-determination, liberating themselves from political ideologies or currents the historically have appropriated Black energies, struggles and votes to the benefit of the dominating elite; Considering that the rescue of our ethnic and cultural identity from suppression and distortion is our own, non- transferable responsibility; Considering that only the radical transformation of current socioeconomic structures can open the way fora true opportu- nity for Black political power in a just, democratic and egalitarian society, I propose That this Congress recommend to the African descendants of the New World the formation of sociopolitical movements and/or organizations, and corresponding theoretical/ideo- logical systems, inspired by the examples of the cimarrones, palenques, cumbes, maroon societies, quilombos, and all African free and militant social entities, as an alternative form of political action in their respective countries, PROPOSAL Submitted to the Second Congress of Black Culture in the Americas Panama, March 1980 PROJECT: HISTORY OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA OF THE NEW WORLD Considering that the ruling elites’ continuing efforts to abolish the memory of the Black peoples of the Americas have been perpetuated since the earliest age of slavery and constitute ‘a major source of the continued social inferiorization of the Black communities of the Americas, contributing to their oppression, spiritual destitution and demoralization;176 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES | DECEMBER 1980, Considering that, in conventional Western academic atti- tudes toward African and Afro-American history, serious distortions have prevailed, flowing from a Eurocentric orienta- tion minimizing the African and Afro-American contribution and Africa's place of primacy in the development of human civilization; Considering that, in the official histories of the various countries of the Americas, the Eurocentric viewpoint has predominated along with its consequent distortions, a fact pointed out in Final Plenary Propositions 2 and 3.as well as the Recommendations of the Working Groups of the FIRST CONGRESS OF BLACK CULTURE IN THE AMERICAS, (Cali, August 1977), namely: The majority of texts of social, economic, political and ideological history of the American countries omits, mutilates and deforms the authentic participation of the Black in the development of the different countries of which he forms a fundamental part That the history of the Black in America cannot continue to be divulged, written and interiorized from the starting point of the chronicles of slavery [Conclusions e Proposiciones, Grupo D, 1) and (b): 45] Considering that the recent project sponsored by UNESCO, on the Preparation of a General History of Africa, is a noble and commendable effort which demands a corresponding ‘commitment to the history of the dispersed African peoples in order for it to be authentically complete in itself, ‘The SECOND CONGRESS OF BLACK CULTURE IN ‘THE AMERICAS Proposes and Embarks upon the organiza~ tion, by its members and on behalf of its constituents, of a Project on the Social, Political, Economic and Cultural History of the African Diaspora of the New World, to be carried out under the supervision and direction of the Com- mittee here appointed by democratic method.Nascimento | AFRO-BRAZILIAN POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE 177 This Project, a long-term commitment to quality research for ultimate publication, will divulge the Black perspective on our history and cultural development in the Americas, a perspective developed from an Afro-American viewpoint not controlled by the dictates of European academicism, but oriented toward the needs and aspirations of our peoples. There will necessarily be central reference to the African sources and parallels replete in this history. Research Com- missions from each participating country, and from others which might wish to join, will be chosen by and from within their respective Black community, and not from the ranks of official or officially sanctioned academicians adhering to Eurocentric viewpoints on the Black. In order to make possible the realization of the Project, the Congress will appeal to UNESCO and to the Department of Cultural Affairs of the OBA, by reason of their support of the First Congress of Black Culture in the Americas, and to other sources, on the condition that no such source of financial support shall compromise the fundamental philosophical and academic independence of the Project, whose ultimate direc- tion will be determined by the Congress Committee. NOTE |. The terms “America,” “Afro-American,” “Euro-American,” and so oa i this antl refer to all the Americas and not the United States exclusively REFERENCES, (CANDEIA (19783) 90 Alos of Aboligio. Rio de Janciro: GRAN Escola de Samba Quilombo, — & ISNARD (1978) Escola de Samba—Arvore que esqueseu a rai. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Lidador/SEEC-RI, DIOP, C.A. (1974) The African Origin of Civilization: Mythor Reality, Mercer Cok (trans). Westport, CT: Lawrence Hil178 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / DECEMBER 1980 (1963) The Cultural Unity of Black Afi Published by Thied World Press, Chicago, 197% GOMARA, L. de (1558) Historia de Mexico, Anvers in I. V. Sertima (1976) They ‘Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Amerea. New York: Random House IAIRAZBHOY, R. A. (1974) Ancient Egyptians and Chinese in America, Totowa, Ni: Rowman and Littlefield LUCAS, J. 0. (I948) The Religion of the Yorubas. Lagos: C.M.S. Bookshop. MOURA, C. (1977) 0 Negro: de Bom Escravo a Mau Cidadio? Rio de Janciro:Eai- tora Conauista NASCIMENTO, B, (1979) “0 Quilombo do Jabaguara.* Revista de Cultura Vores, Petropolis: Ao 73, abril no. 3. NASCIMENTO, E. L_ (1980) Pan-Afrcanismo e Sul-America: Emergéncia de uma Rebelito Negra. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Vozes OROZCO, y BERRA, M. (1880) Historia Antigua y dela Conguista de Mexico, ‘Mexico in. V. Setima (1976) They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in America, New York: Random House, PRICE, R. (64, (1973) Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Ame= rica. Gatden City, NY: Anchor Books. ‘QUARTIM, J. (1971) Dictatorship and Aemed Struggle in Brazil, David Fernbach (rang). New York: Monthly Review Pres, SERTIMA, LV. (1976) They Came Before Columbus: The Aftican Presencein Amer- fea, New York: Random House WEINER, L. (1922) Aria and the Discovery of America, Chicago: Innes & Sons. WUTHENAL, A. von (1978) Unexpected Faces in Ancient America, New York Crown Publishers, Présence Africene (rans). Re- Abia do Nascimento is Professor and Director ofthe Puerto Rican Studies land Research Comer. State University of New York at Bufal. He is abo coordinator of the Third Congres of Black Culture inthe Americas (Bra ‘August 1982)