• Davis, Darién J., Afro-Brazilians: Time for Recognition, Minority Rights Group International, 1999 To order this publication contact:   minority.rights@mrgmail.org or click on www.minorityrights.org

  • •  Preface
    
    •  Introduction and background
    
    •  Afro-Brazilians and their contributions to Brazilian culture: the outsiders inside
    
    •  The evolution of civil rights
    
    9    . . .  Brazilians' desire to avoid discussion of slaves was demonstrated by Rui Barbosa's decree ordering the destruction of all records of slavery, to avoid any lingering stigma.  Not all records were destroyed, but census and other types of demographic information on Afro-Brazilians are difficult to come by.
    
    12    . . . Today there are more than 700 groups dedicated to the education, political, cultural and spiritual development of Afro-Brazilians . . .Yet Afro-Brazilians remain under-represented. . .
    
    •  Contemporary Afro-Brazilian organizations and NGOs
    
    •  Art, music and black consciousness
    
    •  Afro-Brazilians: contemporary demographics
    
    19    Afro-Brazilians represent a total of 47% of the population . . . (a plausible and credible minimum.)
    
    23    Afro-Brazilians have a 30 per cent higher infant mortality rate and are 50 per cent more likely to leave school without learning to read.  In the northeast, the infant mortality for Afro-Brazilians is as high as 96.3 per 1,000.
    
    •  Civil rights, ethnic rights, recognition and integration: Brazil and its record on human rights
    
    28    Most Brazilians have not really come to grips with Brazil's violent history and the continued violence that the legacy of slavery and racism has engendered. While Afro-Brazilians have systematically been victims of brutality and violence by people in authority, society only reacts with indignation when such practices affect victims from the middle class or the elite.  The massacre of Afro-Brazilians in prison or the killing of street children has engendered much debate because of its scale and international media coverage, but countless cases of violence against minorities, homosexuals and women continue unnoticed.
    
    •  Conclusion
    
    32    Today Afro-Brazilians are drastically under-represented in all top and middle management professions, on television and in the cinema, and in the media at large.  They are over-represented in poorly paid jobs, in the favelas and in prison. . . .Brazilian employers harbour prejudices and stereotypes about black people which allow them to deny opportunities to well-qualified Afro-Brazilians in many professions.
    
    •  Recommendations
    
    •  Notes
    
    •  Bibliography (includes) Dzidzienyo, Anani, and Casal, L, The position of Black People in Brazilian and Cuban Society, London, Minority Rights Group, 1979.
    

• Kathleen Bond writes on Racism: Black Movement Searches for Justice in Brazil
  • SEJUP (Servico Brasileiro de Justica e Paz)
    
    NEWS FROM BRAZIL
    
    November 12, 1999 (Number 374)
    
    Racism: Black Movement Searches for Justice in Brazil
    
    By Kathleen Bond, Maryknoll Mission Association of the Faithful
    
        During the elections of 1997, Margarida Pereira da Silva was the
    leading candidate for mayor in Pombal in the interior of the state of
    Paraiba, Northeastern Brazil. Margarida, beloved for her community work
    with youth, decided to run for office to offer an alternative to the
    corrupt, special interest politics that dominate the Northeastern region.
    With little money, she ran the campaign from her home. One week before
    Election Day, two strangers offered her a R$100,000 (US$60,000) donation
    for her youth program. There was just one condition -- Margarida had to
    drop out of the race. She politely but firmly refused, "I'm running for my
    people not for money."
    
        Within days of the refused bribe, all of her posters were painted
    over with the words "Negra Feia", Ugly Black Woman. Unable to discredit
    her honesty or merits, her opponents orchestrated a smear that focused
    solely on race. Long-time friends and even some relatives, most likely
    paid off, suddenly were working against her. Margarida lost by a
    landslide. When Margarida's nephew caught his girlfriend tearing down
    Margarida's posters, she responded, "I'm not going to waste my vote on
    that ugly, black thing."
    
        Margarida's story of racial discrimination is not isolated to the
    rural areas of the Northeast. Every day millions of Afro-Brazilians
    experience racism. From the family living room, where darker skinned
    children are often discriminated against, to Church pews, barbershops,
    classrooms, and the Halls of Congress, racism gnaws at the fabric of
    Brazilian society. The South American giant is often considered by
    foreigners and Brazilians as a "racial democracy" because of the high
    number of interracial marriages and seemingly easy banter between the
    races in every day life. Racial Democracy, coined by the Brazilian
    Sociologist Gilberto Freyre in early 20th century, is the theory that a
    history of extended miscegenation has created a cultural melange in which
    all races are equally valued. Nothing is farther from the truth in
    contemporary Brazil.
    
        Race in Brazil is complex and distinct. Most Brazilians claim a
    mixed African, European, and indigenous ancestry. In practice, however,
    the weight of racism causes people to continually "whiten" themselves.
    For example, many "morenos" straighen their hair, people search for
    lighter-skinned marriage partners, and people identify themselves and each
    other with nicknames indicating a lighter skin tone, such as moreninho
    (browny), cafe (coffee), mulato, bronzeado (tanned), and escurinho (darky)
    to name a few. Rarely will someone assume an identity as Negro (black).
    Even those who call themselves black often have a hard time convincing
    other Brazilians not to identify them as "moreno" or "mulatto". Calling
    someone black, for many, is still an insult.
    
        Skin color profoundly influences life chances. According to a 1992
    study by Carlos Hasenbalg and Nelson do Valle Silva, Brazilian nonwhites
    are three times more likely than whites to be illiterate. The numbers
    deteriorate in the high echelons of academic study. Whites are FIVE times
    more likely than people of mixed ancestry and NINE times more likely than
    Blacks to obtain university degrees. This pattern repeats itself in the
    work force where according to government statistics whites have access to
    the highest-paying jobs, earning up to 75% more than blacks and 50% more
    than people of mixed ancestry.(1) Brazil's prisons and youth detention
    centers are bursting at the seams. The vast majority of detainees and
    victims of police brutality are non-white Brazilians. Not surprisingly,
    health statistics paint a similar picture. For example, non-white
    Brazilian infants are almost twice as likely to die as their white
    counterparts.
    
        Not all of the consequences of racism can be neatly packaged into
    statistics and charts. Effects on self-esteem are not easily measured. At
    a recent reflection group of Afro-Brazilian Women in Joao Pessoa, Paraiba,
    Cida painfully recounted the termination of her relationship. For several
    years, she dated Chico, a lighter-skinned black, and their color
    difference never created difficulties. When they got engaged, Chico's
    family exploded with his mother leading the attack, "This little blackie
    is going to pollute our blood. Go and find someone who will purify our
    blood." Chico caved in and broke the engagement within days. Two years
    later Cida painfully asked in the group, "How can you tell me not to feel
    inferior because of my color?" Brazil's black movement struggles to
    address this question by introducing a positive black identity and
    fighting racism at all levels of society. According to anthropologist John
    Burdick, the movement exploded in the 1970s, when a whole generation of
    non-white students was caught in the contradiction between the promise of
    upward mobility and the reality of labor and educational barriers. Blacks
    on the world scene, including revolutionaries in the former Portuguese
    colonies of Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and Angola and militants in the
    North American black power movement offered encouraging symbols of power
    and self-confidence for the fledgling Afro-Brazilian movement.
    
        Over the past 25 years, the Black movement in Brazil has developed
    various facets. Some groups exclusively dedicate their energy to judicial
    and legislative arenas, such as the enforcement of the 1989 Cao law that
    makes racism a crime. Other organizations focus on cultural programs. The
    most famous example is the internationally acclaimed percussion band,
    Olodum. Various research institutes, primarily in Rio de Janeiro and Sao
    Paulo, focus on black identity and tend to cater to the middle class.
    Segments of the Catholic Church, most notably the Agentes de Pastoral
    Negro (Black Pastoral Church Workers), offer educational courses for the
    economically disadvantaged.
    
         The Black Movement here in the state of Paraiba is one example of
    this diversity. Participating organizations include: Caiana dos Crioulos,
    a black community of descendants of runaway slaves; Banda Yle Odara and
    other musical, martial arts and dance groups; Afro-Brazilian religious
    groups, including Candombl and Umbanda centers; women's reflection groups;
    coalition and organizing entities including the Agentes de Pastoral Negro;
    and education groups that focus on literacy programs, training and school
    curriculum development. During the annual, statewide Black Movement
    Conference in September 1999, more than 100 activists from these groups
    gathered for three days in the capital city. With Brazil approaching in
    April, 2000 the anniversary of the Portuguese colonization, this year's
    theme was "500 Years of Black Resistance."
    
        In addition to gaining new insights on cultural, religious, and
    political resistance, coming together in solidarity is an important aspect
    of the annual conference. In the rural regions, Blacks are often isolated.
    They suffer intense discrimination, especially in the school system. Paulo
    Cesar, a 26-year-old community activist in Sousa, shared a story that
    echoed the childhood experiences of many of the participants. In his
    junior high school there were only 3 or 4 black students in the class.
    When he was called "negao besta" (big, stupid black), his teacher refused
    to intervene. His mother, lacking formal education and self-confidence,
    also failed to react when he came home crying from school. "That
    experience left a profound mark," stated Cesar. "My involvement with the
    Black Movement reinforces in me that being a black is not horrible, it's
    being a human being like any other person." Cesar directs cultural groups,
    including capoeira (a combination of martial arts and dance that slaves
    practiced, training for escapes). He also gives workshops about racism in
    local schools. "I come to these gatherings to learn," commented Cesar,"
    but perhaps more importantly I carry back with me a renewed pride and
    self-confidence in being Afro-Brazilian."
    
        Other Black activists also work to the interior regions in the
    state. Tanzanian Maryknoll Sister Efu Nyaki and her Brazilian colleagues
    travel extensively throughout the drought-stricken, poor countryside to
    offer two-day formation courses focusing on identity, self-esteem, and
    empowerment. During the visits, Nyaki discovered an abysmally low
    educational level among most blacks in the interior. "We've been to
    all-black rural communities where only one or two people are literate,
    which has led us to seek funding to begin small literacy programs,"
    commented Nyaki. Lagoa Raca is one of those communities. Five years ago,
    when Nyaki's team first visited the community 10 hours from state capital,
    there was no school within walking distance and only one of the 200
    residents could read and write. With help from outside, that man, Chagas,
    was trained to offer adult literacy courses. Over time, a school was built
    to serve the community. "There are Lagoa Racas all over the Northeast,"
    lamented Nyaki. "The government has simply abandoned these people."
    
        Educational work is also occurring in the urban areas. Activists
    are giving workshops on racism and Afro-Brazilian identity in schools.
    Very few school children admit being black when the question is posed at
    the beginning of the sessions. For most Brazilians, regardless of color,
    being black is not a positive thing. In the schools, the complete lack of
    educational material about Afro-Brazilian history and culture reinforces
    negative images. Nyaki's team is working with black university professors
    to develop a primary school curriculum that includes the history and
    achievements of black Brazilians.
    
        Black Religious are coming together for reflection in various
    groups nationwide. GRENI (Group of Black and Indigenous Religious) in
    Paraiba is one such group. One of the goals of these small clusters of
    Catholic priests and sisters is to begin the process of reclaiming their
    identity as Blacks and Indigenous. Many participants find strength from
    the groups to face the racism in their own religious communities.
    
        Catholics are not just talking with each other about race issues.
    Over the last decade some Catholics have attempted to dialogue with
    Afro-Brazilian religious members who have suffered intense discrimination,
    often condoned by the Catholic Church over the years. Until the 1950s,
    acts of destruction against Candomble houses of worship by either the
    police or common citizens were never punished by law. Even after practice
    of Afro-Brazilian religion was legalized in the early 70s, participants
    were required to request permission from local authorities on the day of
    worship until the end of the decade. Persecution continues even today when
    Afro-Brazilian religious symbols such as drums and colorful vestments are
    considered by some as "coisas do diabo" (things of the devil).
    
        One of the first Catholics involved in this inter-religious effort
    was the late Combonian Fr. Hector Frissoti, who began his ministry by
    simply attending the terreiros (the sacred Afro-Brazilian place of
    worship). After educating himself, Frissoti began to write and publish his
    reflections. He carried these experiences first to his own Comboni
    community in Brazil and later to the larger Brazilian Catholic Church.
    The issue reached the agenda of the 9th Annual Inter-Ecclesial Base
    Community leaders meeting, a gathering of 8000 people, including 67
    Bishops, in 1997 in Sao Luiz, Maranhao. Frissoti and others involved in
    the effort have met resistance on both sides. The inclusion of
    Afro-Brazilian religions on the agenda caused conflict among the Bishops,
    who feared that including the Afro-Brazilian religions would tarnish the
    image of the Catholic Church. Others argued that inter-religious dialogue
    and celebrations would be more inclusive of the many Catholics who
    participate in terreiros.
    
        There is resistance from the practitioners of Afro-Brazilian
    religions as well. After suffering a century of persecution from the
    Catholic Church, many Afro-Brazilian religious leaders are cautious. Ana
    Rita Santiago, a Candomble priestess from Salvador Bahia, expressed a
    common concern, "I am wary of a process that is limited to taking some of
    our symbols and simply incorporating them into the Catholic mass."
    
        But Fr. Frissoti's spirit of reconciliation continues to touch
    many in Brazil, including some at high places. The National Conference of
    Brazilian Bishops (CNBB) announced recently that it plans to ask publicly
    for forgiveness from Indigenous and Black peoples for not speaking to
    injustices committed against them as Brazil approaches 500 years of
    European presence. For Sr. Nyaki, who has accompanied the emerging
    dialogue for the last six years, this is only the beginning. "Public
    statements from Church leaders is a step but, we also ask that Brazilian
    Catholics open their hearts and minds."
    
    End Note
    
    1 Blessed Anast cia Burdick, John Routledge 1998
    
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    The reproduction of this material is permitted as long as the source is
    cited. If you wish to contact us send a message to sejup1@ax.apc.org

   

• Frei Betto reports how Seven Churches judge Brazil
  • NEWS FROM BRAZIL supplied by SEJUP (Servico Brasileiro de Justica e Paz) sejup1@ax.apc.org
    Number 391, March 10, 2000. http://www.oneworld.org/sejup/
    
         Seven Churches judge Brazil by Frei Betto
    
        The Lenten campaign for the year 2000 will begin on Ash Wednesday, the
    8th of March. The slogan is "A New millennium without Exclusion" and the
    theme is "Human Dignity and Peace". For the first time ever the campaign is
    ecumenical. The Catholic Church began the Lenten Campaign (known as the CF,
    Campanha de Fraternidade) in 1964. This is the first year other churches
    have participated including the Anglican Church, Methodist, Lutheran,
    Christian Reform, Presbyterian United and Syrian Orthodox.  The seven
    churches form part of CONIC (National council of churches of Brazil) which
    was founded in 1982 The basic text of the CF, distributed through out the
    various churches and Basic Christian Communities, depicts and denounces the
    various  "Basements of Life".  The text tells the story of the 'slave
    worker's in Brazil at the end of the XX century. In 1998 in Perolandia the
    state of Goias, 39 men worked in the charcoal-pits on a farm in Campo Limpo
    as slaves. On estates in Colorado, Sapucaia, Santa Helena, Agua Azual do
    Norte areas in the state of Para, 60 workers lived as slaves. In the states
    of Para and Amapá, 70 estates were found guilty of having slave workers. In
    his first year of office, President FH Cardoso promised to put an end to
    slave working in Brazil. The CF 2000 text shows that up until now the
    President has not fulfilled his promise. Regarding child labor, the seven
    churches denounce that "invisible working hand and silence exercised on the
    7,5 million children and adolescents working as adults." These are the
    children who cut sugar cane in Pernambuco, work in the charcoal furnaces in
    Mato Grosso do Sul, make shoes in Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo. Fifty
    thousand children go through the garbage heaps daily in search of morsels
    to live on. Looking at the 500 years of colonization of Brazil caused the
    churches to denounce the indigenous genocide.  In the Amazon where 60% of
    the indigenous people of Brazil live, "there is freedom to exploit, kill,
    hunt or destroy the timber, minerals, wildlife and lands." They denounce
    also the pirating by missionary impostors who patent outside of Brazil the
    medical knowledge of the indigenous people.  In 1998 the Guarani-Kaiowá
    were expelled from their land by large land grabbers. In 13 years, 319
    cases of suicide have occurred among the Guarani of Mato Grosso do Sul as a
    result of having no land and no conditions to work.  The CF text speaks of
    the discrimination of blacks and women as well as the intent by the
    government to "promote trading of foreign products, forcing the nation to
    adopt the multinationals' criteria's for production."   In this country,
    the richest 20% control 64% of all income, while the poorest 20% survive on
    a 2.5% of the income.
    
        The CF does not limit itself to analyzing. It proposes involvement and
    participation: create groups and movements who are ready to take on the
    cause of abandoned children and the exploited, collaborate with unions,
    participate in counsels where there is partnership, promote co-operatives,
    support the struggle of the landless, support land reform, organize
    community work, demand political democracy and communication, make
    available means of communication of the churches for popular causes, and
    support and participate in social movements.
    
        The social situation in Brazil is so dreadful and made worse by President
    FH Cardoso that even his own political party are speaking about fighting
    against poverty. The IMF with its policy of genocide expressed its
    dissatisfaction through Lorenzo Perez, its representative in Brazil. They
    do not know one country in the world (where IMF acts) where the rich
    continue to stay a little richer and the poor poorer. We need to let the
    lucid, prophetic vision of the seven churches be our guide as we choose our
    candidates for the municipalities this year. Let's return to a Brazil without exclusion.

   

• Alexandra Puerto asks: The Brazilian Black Movement in the Twentieth Century: A Middle-Class Mulatto Monopoly?
  • Ex Post Facto
    
    Volume VI (1997)
    
    The Brazilian Black Movement in the Twentieth Century:
    A Middle-Class Mulatto Monopoly?
    
    by Alexandra Puerto
    http://www.sfsu.edu/~hsa/ex-post-facto/puerto.html
    
    The centennial celebration of the abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1988
    sparked a national controversy over one of Brazil's longstanding racial
    myths. In the words of historian George Reid Andrews:
    
    What was most striking about the centennial was the way in which it
    stimulated a frank, open, and at times painful revision of one of Brazil's
    most deeply held self-images: that of a racial democracy.[1]
    
    While the Ministry of Culture planned a nationwide program of events,
    state and municipal governments organized conferences, and the media
    printed and aired special articles and programs, many Afro-Brazilians
    prepared their own response to the centennial-protest. The Brotherhood
    Campaign of 1988, for example, mounted an outright opposition to the
    centennial celebration of the abolition of slavery. Led by the Association
    of Black Religious and Seminarians and progressive Catholic bishops, the
    Brotherhood Campaign aimed to bring about change in racial attitudes. The
    campaign's main objectives included urging those of mixed ancestry to call
    themselves negro rather than mulato or white; portraying abolition not as
    a result of white benevolence, the official interpretation, but rather as
    a way to better exploit black labor; and using the mythic black heroes of
    Brazilian history, such as Zumbi, in the dominant dialogue of the
    campaign.[2] The organization of the campaign culminated on 11 May 1988,
    when five thousand people marched through Rio de Janeiro, led by Frei
    Davi, the head of Rio de Janeiro's Commission of Black Religious,
    Seminarians, and Priests. The protesters chanted, "One hundred years
    without abolition! We are still enslaved! Racial democracy is a lie!"[3]
    Ironically, despite such a seemingly successful mobilization and the
    subsequent national debate over "racial democracy," the majority of negros
    in Brazil avoided campaign activity. This was due, in large part, to the
    core light-skinned leadership whom negros mistrusted and ideological
    shortcomings of the campaign that misinterpreted the everyday concerns of
    negros.[4]
    
    The Brotherhood Campaign of 1988 stands as just one example of the
    generally limited participation of negros in black political organization
    throughout the twentieth century. In fact, the black movement has
    struggled to achieve a mass social base. Recent statistics show that the
    number of negro organizers throughout Brazil barely reaches three
    thousand, with only about twenty-five thousand active followers.
    Considering the movement's estimate of the Afro-Brazilian population, 70
    million out of Brazil's 158,200,000, then the black movement has only
    gained a minority of the Afro-Brazilian population.[5] The key question
    then is why, despite some triumphs, has the black movement failed to
    mobilize a significant number of Afro-Brazilians? This essay will examine
    secondary sources available in English on the Brazilian black movement to
    analyze the composition and dynamics of organized black political
    movements as well as the nature of daily, unorganized black resistance and
    accommodation in twentieth-century Brazil.
    
    Specialists in Afro-Brazilian studies have produced a rich literature, but
    little of it directly analyzes the Brazilian black movement. Major topics
    examined by scholars include slavery in the colonial period, Brazilian
    racial thought in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, contemporary
    race relations, and Afro-Brazilian culture and religion.[6] It is only in
    the last decade that scholars have turned their attention to organized
    black movements. The works of historian George Reid Andrews and
    anthropologist John Burdick, in particular, have taken the first steps
    toward exploring this relatively neglected field; this essay draws heavily
    upon their research.[7] Andrews' book Blacks and Whites in Sao Paulo,
    Brazil, 1888-1988, provides a detailed historical context to explain how
    race relations have evolved throughout one hundred years in Brazil.
    Andrews includes the evolution of black organization within his analysis
    and successfully links the changing patterns of the movement to larger
    structural developments in Brazil. Burdick's article, "Brazil's Black
    Consciousness Movement," in the Report on the Americas, focuses more on
    the processes of resistance and accommodation within the Afro-Brazilian
    community in order to make connections between black consciousness and
    popular culture. Both works stress the concept of Afro-Brazilian agency
    without neglecting economic and racial constraints in Brazil. In addition,
    both authors avoid trite generalizations by emphasizing the heterogeneity
    of the Afro-Brazilian population. The observations made by Andrews and
    Burdick coupled with perspectives from other literature on race in Brazil
    reveal that the black movement has developed strategies primarily based on
    educated, middle-class, and mulato experiences.[8] Therefore, despite its
    admirable efforts, the black movement in the twentieth century has often
    neglected the foremost concerns of poor negros which constitute the
    majority of the Afro-Brazilian population. First, a brief consideration of
    black resistance prior to the contemporary black movement will provide a
    historical framework.
    
    Early colonial society, according to historian Stuart B. Schwartz, sowed
    the roots of black resistance in Brazil. Between 1500 and the late 1800s
    plantation agriculture and African slavery formed the foundations of
    Brazilian society. Slavery constituted the principal form of labor in the
    colony as early as 1580; in fact, the largest percentage of slave
    transports during the Atlantic slave trade, 1451-1870, went to Brazil.[9]
    This created a complex system of forced labor with inherent tensions and
    stresses in colonial Brazil. Andrews points out that perhaps the strongest
    tension in forced labor is "the unrelenting opposition and resistance of
    those subjected to it."[10] Slave resistance was not confined to heroic
    rebellions, such as the wave of slave revolts in the 1830s,[11] but rather
    manifested itself in diverse ways:
    
    Some sought to improve their lives by doing as little work as possible;
    others sought the same objective by working diligently and trying to
    attract their masters' favorable notice and approval. Some slaves sought
    to improve their diet by growing their own food on small subsistence
    plots; others concentrated their energies on earning money with which to
    buy food, freedom, or other goods; some stole, from either their masters
    or elsewhere; some did all three. Some tried to escape slavery by fleeing
    their master's home or plantation; others concentrated on winning their
    owner's good will, in hopes of someday obtaining a grant of freedom;
    others worked for money in their spare time and on holidays, and over the
    years accumulated enough to buy freedom for themselves or their children;
    the desperate ones sought freedom by killing either themselves or their
    masters.[12]
    
    Fundamentally, most slaves resented coerced servitude and devised ways to
    endure, from avoiding confrontation with a master, to escaping him
    entirely by fleeing to quilombos, en campments of runaway slaves. All
    methods, however, constituted resistance.
    
    By the 1850s, following the 1841 reform on local jurisprudence and
    administration, slaves increasingly relied upon the state to escape
    slavery. Some turned to the royal justice system in hopes of being
    sentenced to prison or gales (hard labor on a chain gang), which they
    evidently perceived as preferable to slavery on a plantation. Others held
    faith in royal justice to try their cases fairly so that they could
    receive legal protection from the cruelties of slavery. The exceptional
    abolitionist lawyer in Sao Paulo, Luis Gama, who acquired freedom for
    several hundred slave clients during the 1860s and 1870s, demonstrates a
    clear example of slaves using the court system for their release.[13] The
    struggle for emancipation in the courts marked the earliest organized
    efforts by free blacks and slaves to change not only their daily lives but
    also social and political structures.
    
    On 13 May 1888, the Golden Law abolished slavery in Brazil.[14] The
    movement for abolition, however, accented the tensions between mulatos and
    negros. Though some outstanding abolitionists, like Luis Gama, were
    mulatos, most mulato leaders, such as the Baron of Cotegipe, consistently
    abstained from taking a stand on abolition. In fact, a wide gap of
    interests existed between negros and mulatos not only over abolition, but
    also over general issues of race relations in colonial Brazil.
    Anthropologist John Burdick states that in Brazil, "free mulatos remained
    so demographically potent and economically vital throughout the slave era
    that the white ruling class had little choice to concede considerable
    social mobility to them."[15] This social mobility, then, allowed a
    spectrum of opportunity for mulatos.
    
    On colonial plantations, white planters used free mulatos as "overseers,
    slave-catchers, foot-soldiers and gunmen, cattle-hands and subsistence
    farmers." The labor shortage in Portugal did not permit enough whites to
    migrate to the colony, so slaveholders manumitted mulatos to such a degree
    that by the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, free mulatos
    made up in practically every province "at least half and as much as twice
    the size of the white population." Mulatos also worked in militias to
    protect white slaveholders' property or as small farmers. Up to
    seventy-seven percent of mulato farmers on small parcels even owned one or
    two slaves. Furthermore, mulato farmers were usually dependent on large
    white slaveholders for "land rights, credit, and protection."[16]
    Therefore, an alliance took form, however uneasy and unequal, between poor
    mulatos and the white elite.
    
    Mulatos also contrived advantageous positions in urban areas. By the
    eighteenth century, many had migrated to the growing cities of Salvador or
    Rio de Janeiro to work as self-employed artisans and petty merchants. By
    the late eighteenth century, mulatos outnumbered free blacks as artisans
    in urban areas by more than four to one. This relatively favorable
    position in the cities later allowed mulatos to move into the arts and
    letters, as well as professions such as medicine, law, engineering, and
    civil service, while slavery was still in force. At the peak of their
    careers, mulatos could even "buy a certificate of whiteness." For mulatos,
    the end of slavery could threaten their position both in rural and urban
    labor markets, which explains why they not only "sat out" the struggle for
    abolition, but also generally supported slavery.[17] This ethnic gap would
    later cause serious consequences for the black movements of the twentieth
    century.
    
    After 1888, in the post-emancipation period, Brazil's exslaves were
    primarily concerned with demanding fair and favorable working conditions.
    Organized political activity, however, did not emerge until the 1920s. By
    1925, the black newspaper, O Clarim da Alvorada (The Clarion of the Dawn),
    called for the creation of the Congress of Black Youth, "a big political
    party comprised exclusively of colored men."[18] This party never
    materialized, but Afro-Brazilian activist Abdias do Nascimento and five
    other Africans organized the first Afro-Brazilian youth meeting, the
    Afro-Campineiro Congress, in Campinas, Sao Paulo, in 1938. Although an
    Afro-Brazilian intellectual ferment began in Sao Paulo during the 1920s,
    it was not until the beginning of the 1930s that a black "movement" became
    institutionalized with the creation of the Brazilian Black Front (Frente
    Negra) in 1931. Founded by Arlindo Veiga dos Santos, Isaltino Veiga dos
    Santos, and Jose Correia Leite, the Frente Negra represented the most
    important organizational effort by negros since the struggle for abolition
    in the 1880s.[19] The Frente Negra published a newspaper, A Voz da Raca
    (The Voice of the Race) which called for the "social uplift and economic
    advancement for the black population as a whole."[20] In addition to its
    official publication, the Frente Negra organized large rallies and
    protests, sponsored literary and vocational courses for adults, started a
    free medical clinic, offered legal advising and mutual aid benefits, and
    founded a credit union.[21] An article in a mainstream white paper,
    commenting on the Frente's influence claimed, "One visibly feels the
    awakening of a national consciousness among the black Brazilians, driving
    them toward more direct participation in the social and political life of
    the country."[22] Indeed, the call for black uplift and advancement and
    the social programs generated by the Frente Negra did shape an
    unprecedented "black consciousness" in Brazil.
    
    On a material level, the Frente made some strides against racial
    discrimination. It fought for entry by blacks into the Civil Guard, the
    state militia.[23] After successful lobbying by the Frente, President
    Vargas ordered the Civil Guard to immediately enlist two hundred black
    volunteers. Subsequently, throughout the 1930s, about five hundred
    Afro-Brazilians entered the state militia and one made the rank of full
    colonel.[24] The Frente Negra also succeeded in ending whites-only
    admission policies in many public places such as roller skating rinks,
    hotels, bars, schools, barber shops, and clubs.[25] In addition, the
    Frente expanded throughout Sao Paulo state and into southern Minas Gerais
    and Espirito Santo, and it inspired independent fronts in Bahia and Rio
    Grande do Sul.[26]
    
    Despite these material achievements, membership remained limited. Andrews
    believes that the Sao Paulo organization's claim of one hundred thousand
    members throughout Brazil was exaggerated, and determination of membership
    remains difficult to assess. Most of the members seem to have been from
    poor and working-class backgrounds, but leadership was dominated by
    white-collar professionals. That leaders did not reflect the class of the
    majority of members, and of Afro-Brazilians in general, did not go
    unnoticed. A 1935 article in A Voz da Raca reported that negros opposed
    membership in the Frente because they felt that "more and more there
    exists in the Front a bloc of conceited black men and women who think that
    they're better than we are." The article went on to characterize the
    individuals quoted as "unsophisticated, uncultured, and sunk in
    ignorance." Not surprisingly, poor negros increasingly were offended by
    the class exclusivity and cultural elitism of the Frente Negra
    movement.[27]
    
    Many negros also hoped to improve chances for assimilation. Andrews notes
    that many saw "whitening" as "the most likely way to achieve that
    goal."[28] The "whitening" ideal first surfaced among Brazilian
    intellectuals at the turn of the century, but thinkers of the 1920s such
    as Joao Baptista de Lacerda and F. J. Oliveira Viana posited a systematic
    "whitening thesis."[29] They argued that white racial traits dominated in
    white and nonwhite miscegenation. With time, race mixture would eventually
    bleach out African and Indian racial attributes and spawn the "whitening"
    of Brazil. This idea actually countered the scientific racism of the time
    which interpreted race mixture as a regressive process in which white
    ancestry was weakened. Andrews points out that "faith in 'whitening' as a
    vehicle of social mobility" continues even today.[30] For poor negros in
    the 1920s, the "whitening" option increasingly appeared more feasible than
    allying with the Afro-Brazilian elite of the Frente Negra.
    
    By the late 1930s, the Frente had also alienated middle-class black
    moderates and leftists. Sprouting nativism of 1920s' Brazil erupted to
    extremes in the 1930s as a reaction against increasing European
    immigration. Andrews argues: "Given this deepening anger against the
    immigrants, and the xenophobic currents running strongly in Sao Paulo at
    the time, it was virtually inevitable that the Black Front would embrace
    nativism from the outset." Some negros accepted the suggestion that the
    Europeans displaced Afro-Brazilians in the workplace, while others claimed
    that Europeans not only reaped the benefits of racial discrimination in
    the workplace but developed it themselves. Ultimately, the Front enforced
    an anti-immigrant orientation, rejected liberal democracy, and admired
    European fascism. Eventually, the Frente Negra reflected the broader
    national political atmosphere when it too fell into right-wing chauvinism,
    authoritarianism, and xenophobic nationalism. The leaders' strident
    economic and cultural nationalism caused bitter internal divisions which
    led dissenters to create the competing Club of Social Culture and the
    Black Socialist Front.[31]
    
    By the late 1930s, the Frente Negra had fallen on hard times. The Frente's
    internal divisions and the onset of the Vargas dictatorship in 1937 cut
    short the nascent period of twentieth-century political mobilization in
    the Afro-Brazilian community. In 1937, President Vargas banned all
    political parties and ended electoral politics in Brazil. The Frente's
    growing weaknesses could not withstand the general atmosphere of
    intellectual and political repression implemented by the Vargas
    dictatorship, which lasted until 1945. Afro-Brazilians continued to create
    cultural and civic organizations such as dancing societies, social clubs,
    and samba schools, but the Vargas regime, which exerted authoritarian
    centralized power, squelched mass-based political organization among the
    black community and other opposition groups.[32] The fall of the Vargas
    dictatorship in 1945, however, did not restore the black political
    mobilization of the 1930s.
    
    Attempts were made to rekindle the black movement, but black organizations
    during the Second Republic, 1946-1964, refrained from direct political
    participation. Instead, black organizations in this era, according to
    Andrews, focused on "social and cultural activities and educational
    outreach." Among the most successful was the Black Cultural Association
    which worked in conjunction with the Black Experimental Theater and the
    Brazilian People's Theater. The Black Cultural Association supported
    "lectures, concerts, night courses, a youth division, and took a leading
    role in coordinating the city's commemoration of the seventieth
    anniversary of emancipation in 1958." The black organizations of the
    Second Republic espoused the principles of racial equality but suggested
    that it be reached through education and reclaiming an Afro-Brazilian
    cultural heritage. Blacks avoided a distinctly political program and
    organized political activity during this period, in part because of the
    painful experience of the Frente Negra in the 1930s. A combination of
    white reactionary hostility toward black movements, coupled with the
    beginning of black platform co-optation by Brazilian politicians, also
    effectively undermined black political organization. As labor unions
    included black workers in leadership positions by the 1950s, and populist
    parties incorporated blacks into the institutions of the Republic, black
    voters supported either the Social Progressive Party or the Brazilian
    Labor Party. The lack of independent black political action was reinforced
    by the military coup of 1964 and the destruction of the Second
    Republic.[33]
    
    Ironically, the military dictatorship's hostility to mass-based political
    activities forced the public to invent new forms of political action. The
    dictatorship destroyed the political parties of the Second Republic and
    implemented Operation Clean-Up-a campaign to eliminate leftists from all
    political institutions, the military, and the labor movement. The
    political repression that ensued escalated to episodes of torturing
    political "subversives." This official political cleansing lasted for a
    decade until 1974, when the military decided that order had sufficiently
    been restored. As a result of this judgment, the second phase of military
    rule allowed distensao, a period of relaxation, and abertura, a political
    openness that would eventually restore civil society.[34] The period of
    intense political repression, which made ineffective or eliminated
    altogether traditional sources of opposition, inadvertently spawned the
    new social movements-ecclesiastical base committees, human rights groups,
    indigenous and environmental groups, women's groups, and black
    movements-which then became influential political agents. The new social
    movements, in the words of sociologist Howard Winant, "recreated civil
    society by expanding the terrain of politics." For many people, especially
    those traditionally excluded from political processes, the new movements
    provided first political experiences. For the middle-class, dedicated to
    democratic and egalitarian goals, the new movements provided an
    alternative to the leftist and populist traditions of the past.[35]
    
    By the late 1970s, a new generation of black movement organizations had
    emerged during the abertura pursued by the government of President Ernesto
    Geisel from 1974 to 1979. The growth of the black movement over the last
    two decades, according to historian Thomas Skidmore, may come "to rival
    their most ambitious counterparts of the Frente Negra era in the 1930s."
    Indeed, abertura even permitted taboo topics, such as challenging the myth
    of "racial democracy," to surface in public debates. The first striking
    proof of this change appeared with the decision to include race in the
    1980 census, which previously had been an excluded category. This event
    finally allowed the collection of data crucial to any discussion about
    race relations.[36]
    
    A new black movement surfaced with the creation of the Movimento Negro
    Unificado (MNU, United Black Movement) in 1978.[37] The MNU is
    characterized by John Burdick as "the closest the black movement comes to
    having a national organization." The new black movement today consists of
    a loose variety of nearly six hundred organizations with participation in
    almost every state in the country.[38] Ideologically, the movement aims to
    repudiate whitening, still Brazil's mainstream ideology of race relations;
    to argue for the virtues of blackness; to teach younger generations of
    negros their history and culture; and above all, to provoke nonwhite
    Brazilians into racial consciousness.[39] Organizationally, the movement
    includes Catholic lay associations, university-associated researchers,
    state-sponsored agencies, and informal groups of activists.[40]
    
    These groups offer varying approaches to dealing with racial problems.
    Some organizations, such as the Afro-Brazilian Research Dance Company in
    Sao Paulo, interpret racism as mainly a cultural problem to be solved
    "through the development of black identity, based on the rediscovery of
    one's slave and African roots." For instance, Sao Paulo's Center of Negro
    Culture and Art has tried to foster black consciousness through classes in
    capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art. Other organizations, such as the
    previously mentioned MNU, Group Nzinga, Group of Unity and Black
    Consciousness, and Group of Black Women, stress that Afro-Brazilian
    liberation will come only with change in economic, social, and political
    structures.[41]
    
    The MNU and other explicitly political groups do not deny the value of
    reclaiming "roots," but they emphasize racial politics as their priority.
    The MNU has protested political violence, advocated black employee rights
    as well as the rights of prostitutes, battered women, and street children,
    and fought for better health care. Between 1986 and 1988, the MNU was a
    key player in securing a National Convention of Blacks for the
    Constitution which, along with black grassroots activity, successfully
    passed a constitutional amendment outlawing racial discrimination.[42] Two
    Afro-Brazilian representatives, Congressional representatives Benedita da
    Silva, the first and only black woman elected to national office, and
    Carlos Alberto de Oliveira, along with Edmilson Valentim and Paulo Paim,
    made up the Constituent Assembly. The Constituent Assembly evolved into
    the Palmares Foundation, an organization for Afro-Brazilian affairs linked
    to the Ministry of Culture in 1990.[43]
    
    The new black movement has obtained ambiguous results in its efforts to
    effect political change. Activists have pressured Brazilian political
    parties to adopt antiracist planks in their platforms, to form commissions
    on racial issues, and to nominate black candidates for office. By 1982,
    Sao Paulo's governor Franco Montoro of the Democratic Movement Party had
    created the Council for the Participation and Development of the Black
    Community. His successor, Orestes Quercia appointed negros to high posts
    and created an office to eliminate racist hiring practices. In 1986, the
    federal government created "Palmares National Park" in Alagoas to honor
    the seventeenth century quilombo. At the same time, however, only a
    handful of Afro-Brazilians served in Congress or were elected to office
    throughout the 1980s. The MNU and Abdias do Nascimento, a high profile
    black activist and scholar, responded to this lack of representation by
    formally rejecting alliances with white-dominated parties. Burdick, on the
    other hand, points out that black commissions offer the first (admittedly
    limited and tentative) state sanctioned acknowledgment that "racial
    democracy" is a myth. The new agencies also use their position inside the
    government to gain access to important resources. They have pressured the
    state census bureau in Sao Paulo to gather data on black employment,
    income, and education, to publicize racial issues, and to disseminate
    information about blacks in newspapers, booklets, and videotapes.[44]
    
    Some negro activists did continue to ally with progressive parties such as
    the Worker's Party led by Luis Ignacio da Silva (Lula) or the Democratic
    Worker's Party led by Leonel Brizola.[45]
    
    While Brazilian politicians may have co-opted the black platform, the new
    black movement has achieved unprecedented influence in national politics,
    despite its failure in electoral politics in 1982 and 1986. Ultimately,
    the new black movement made the issue of race part of the public agenda in
    the 1980s. This achievement made Afro-Brazilian concerns national ones and
    therefore achieved one of the movement's principal objectives-to force
    Brazil to reconsider the race question. The second major task for the
    black movement, gaining mass Afro-Brazilian support, remained an obstacle.
    
    New black movement groups are composed "primarily of professionals,
    intellectuals, and upwardly mobile students, a pattern that has
    characterized the movement from the start." Indeed, as mentioned earlier,
    class conflict also occurred in the Frente Negra. The leadership of the
    new black movement is not only middle-class, but also primarily mulato. A
    negro near Rio commented to John Burdick, "Mulattos have always tried to
    run away from us. How could they have our culture? They want to use what
    we have. . . . They don't know what they are." Another negro claimed,
    "They say they are negros, but they aren't. They haven't suffered. . . .
    Mulattos still think they are better than us. They think the black man
    still needs to look to them as masters."[46] This racial tension between
    mulatos and negros is historically rooted in the slave era and has evolved
    throughout the centuries as mulatos generally distanced themselves from a
    black identity through "whitening." And yet, although the mulato
    middle-class leadership in the new black movement does embrace black
    identity, poor negros mistrust their intentions because in the Brazilian
    social ladder, mulatos still occupy a position above negros. In addition,
    poor and working-class Afro-Brazilians face more imminent challenges than
    alienation by middle-class mulato leaders. Andrews argues, "their lives
    are afflicted by so many additional problems, and Brazilian racial
    ideology offers them such strong incentives to ignore a problem which
    rarely takes overt, physical form, that relatively few of them respond to
    the black activists' call for a movement to combat racism."[47] Poor
    negros are aware of racism, but because of their dire economic situation,
    they find issues of class politically more important than those of race.
    
    Engaging in black popular culture, unlike joining an organized political
    group, offers poor and working-class negros a flexible and creative
    adaptation of "black consciousness." Religion and music, in particular,
    provide alternative interpretations of Brazilian history and race
    relations and a welcome escape from everyday realities. The religions of
    umbanda and pentecostalism, according to Burdick, provide "powerful
    counterdiscourses to racism." These religions emphasize spiritual
    transformation and discontinuity with society, allowing negros to step out
    of their everyday social roles and create a new identity.[48] Music also
    challenges traditional concepts of race in Brazil. The music, lyrics, and
    dance of samba originated in slaves' calls to African gods. Today,
    thousands of favela dwellers join samba schools, which organize parades
    for Carnaval. Classic samba provides "the vehicle for subtle, ironic
    commentaries on race relations and society in general"[49] On a broader
    scale, the recordings of the musical group Olodum, based in Salvador, have
    gained national influence. The group's music is Afrocentric and addresses
    Afro-Brazilian history, links to Africa, black diaspora, and black
    collective racial identity. "Its deliberate evocation of the African
    diaspora," states Howard Winant, "refuses the official Brazilian racial
    ideology in all its forms, from Freyre's Lusotropicalism to racial
    democracy. Acting through popular music, Olodum attempts to reinterpret
    the question of race, and to valorize black identity, in a manner which
    addresses millions of Brazilians."[50] Olodum's reclaiming of black
    identity resembles the consciousness raising of black political groups,
    but with the advantage of exerting an immense appeal to the masses of
    negros, precisely what the black movement needs. While creative
    adaptations of "black consciousness" through popular culture offer escape
    from the everyday struggle for survival, they may also undermine the
    possibility of organizing an assault on exploitative structures. In
    effect, negros today, like slaves in the colonial era, have devised
    multiple ways to cope with and resist racial discrimination, from militant
    black protest to reliance on spirit mediums.
    
    The modern Brazilian black movement, most visible through the Frente Negra
    in the 1930s and the new black movement in the 1970s and 1980s, has
    changed over time, but two constants have remained: the dominance of a
    middle-class, mulato leadership, and the inability to mobilize the
    majority of the Afro-Brazilian population. The two are directly linked,
    since the leaders have neglected the primary political concerns of poor
    and working-class blacks-economic survival. If the movement continues to
    base its efforts on the primacy of race rather than taking into account
    other social factors affecting negros, then the Brazilian black movement
    stands virtually no chance of expanding. It is still too early to
    accurately assess the long-term consequences of the new black movement or
    to predict its future, but its success will only take place if it develops
    and identifies a pluralistic consciousness. Racial identity alone cannot
    provide a basis for collective organizing, for Brazilian black communities
    are as beset with divisions along class lines as any other community.
    
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Alexandra Puerto, a master's candidate in history at SFSU, studies the
    social and intellectual history of Latin America and Latin American/United
    States relations. She received a bachelor of arts from Parsons School of
    Design in New York in 1990. Puerto will complete her SFSU degree in Fall
    1997 and plans to apply to Ph.D. programs.
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    1. George Reid Andrews, Blacks and Whites in Sao Paulo Brazil, 1888-1988
    (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991), 224. The term "racial
    democracy" was first coined by Brazilian author Gilberto Freyre in the
    early 1960s. It assumes that widespread miscegenation in Brazil led to
    nonracist social relations. For this interpretation of Brazilian racial
    harmony see Gilberto Freyre, The Mansions and the Shanties: the Making of
    Modern Brazil (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963).
    
    2. For a discussion of the Brotherhood Campaign of 1988, see John Burdick,
    "Slaves and Wanderers: Negros in the Religious Arena," in Looking for God
    in Brazil (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993) 156-160.The
    Portuguese term negro translates to black. See George Reid Andrews, 249-58
    for a discussion of Brazilian racial terminology. Zumbi was one of the
    chiefs of Palmares, the maroon society of Alagoas, who supposedly
    demonstrated unyielding resistance to the Portuguese until his defeat and
    death. Today, Zumbi is the central figure in the negro version of umbanda.
    
    3. John Burdick, "Brazil's Black Consciousness Movement," Report on the
    Americas 25 (February 1992): 22.
    
    4. Burdick, "Slaves and Wanderers," 157-59.
    
    5. Burdick, "Brazil's Black Consciousness Movement," 25. Serious
    discrepancies exist in estimates of the Afro-Brazilian population.
    Brazil's census lists it as 5.84 percent, the Britannica Yearbook at 33
    percent, and the black movement at about 45 percent of the population. The
    number is hard to measure because those of mixed ancestry usually describe
    themselves as white or mulato rather than black.
    
    6. An exhaustive review of relevant literature is beyond the scope of this
    essay; however, a brief list of important works in English follows. On
    slavery see A. J. R. Russell-Wood, "Iberian Expansion and the Issue of
    Black Slavery," American Historical Review 83 (February 1978): 16-42;
    Stuart B. Schwartz, "Plantations and Peripheries, c. 1580-1750," in
    Colonial Brazil, ed. Leslie Bethell (Cambridge: Cambridge University
    Press, 1987), 67-144; Stuart B. Schwartz, "The Manumission of Slaves in
    Colonial Brazil: Bahia 1684-1745," Hispanic American Historical Review 54
    (1974): 603-65; Stuart B. Schwartz, "Recent Trends in the Study of Slavery
    in Brazil," Luso-Brazilian Review 25 (Summer 1988): 1-25. Thomas Skidmore,
    Black into White: Race and Nationality in Brazilian Racial Thought
    (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993), is a seminal work on Brazilian
    racial thought and provides an excellent bibliography on the topic.
    Gilberto Freyre and Florestan Fernandes are the two most influential
    Brazilian scholars on the study of race relations in Brazil. See Freyre,
    New World in the Tropics (New York: 1959); Freyre, The Mansions and the
    Shanties: The Making of Modern Brazil, (New York: 1963); Fernandes,
    "Beyond Poverty: The Negro and the Mulatto in Brazil," in Slavery and Race
    Relations in Latin America, ed. Robert Brent Toplin (New York: 1974);
    Fernandes, "Immigration and Race Relations in Sao Paulo," in Race and
    Class in Latin America, ed. Magnus Morner (New York: 1970); Fernandes, The
    Negro in Brazilian Society (New York: 1969); and Fernandes, "The Negro in
    Brazilian Society: Twenty-Five Years Later," in Brazil: Anthropological
    Perspectives, eds. Maxine L. Margolis and William E. Carter (New York:
    1979). The significant works on Afro-Brazilian culture produced by
    anthropologists are far too extensive to cite here.
    
    7. See Andrews; and Burdick, "Brazil's Black Consciousness Movement."
    
    8. In general, Brazilians determine three racial categories: branco,
    white, a person of more or less unmixed European ancestry; mulato, a
    person of mixed ancestry; and negro or preto, black; a person of unmixed
    African ancestry. The term negro, however, has become increasingly
    politicized by the black movement and now connotes a person with any
    visible African ancestry, mixed or unmixed. see Andrews, 263-64.
    
    9. Stuart B. Schwartz, "Plantations and Peripheries, c. 1580-1750," in
    Colonial Brazil, ed. Leslie Bethell (Cambridge: Cambridge University
    Press, 1987), 81.
    
    10. Andrews, 28.
    
    11. Andrews, 29-32.
    
    12. Andrews, 29.
    
    13. Andrews, 35.
    
    14. Andrews, 39.
    
    15. John Burdick, "The Myth of Racial Democracy," Report on the Americas
    25 (February 1992): 41.
    
    16. Burdick, "The Myth of Racial Democracy," 41, 42.
    
    17. Burdick, "The Myth of Racial Democracy," 42. Historian Carl Degler in
    his book Neither Black nor White: Slavery and Race Relations in Brazil and
    the Unites States (New York, 1971), formulated the "mulatto escape hatch"
    theory. It posits that those of mixed ancestry enjoy opportunities for
    upward mobility generally denied to those of pure African ancestry or dark
    skin.
    
    18. Andrews, 145.
    
    19. Abdias do Nascimento and Elisa Larkin Nascimento, Africans in Brazil:
    A Pan African Perspective (Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1992), 15.
    
    20. Andrews, 128.
    
    21. Nascimento, 15; Andrews, 149.
    
    22. Andrews, 148.
    
    23. The Palmares Civic Center in Sao Paulo, named after the
    seventeenth-century quilombo of Palmares, was founded as a community
    center for blacks in 1927. In 1928, it initially created a campaign to
    overrule the government decree banning blacks from enlisting in the state
    militia. For a description of Palmares Civic Center activity, see Andrews,
    145-46.
    
    24. Andrews, 151.
    
    25. Nascimento, 15.
    
    26. Andrews, 149.
    
    27. Andrews, 149, 150.
    
    28. Andrews, 136.
    
    29. See Thomas Skidmore, Black into White: Race and Nationality in
    Brazilian Thought (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993), 64-69, for an
    explanation of the "whitening thesis."
    
    30. Andrews, 136, 242.
    
    31. Andrews, 152-155.
    
    32. Andrews, 181.
    
    33. Andrews, 188, 186, 187-188. For a discussion of the Black Experimental
    Theater, see Nascimento, 24-29.
    
    34. Andrews, 189.
    
    35. Howard Winant, "Rethinking Race in Brazil," Journal of Latin American
    Studies 24 (February 1992): 185-86.
    
    36. Thomas Skidmore, "Race and Class in Brazil: Historical Perspectives,"
    Luso-Brazilian Review 20 (Summer 1983), 110.
    
    37. Winant, 187.
    
    38. Burdick, "Brazil's Black Consciousness Movement," 24, 23.
    
    39. Skidmore, "Race and Class in Brazil: Historical Perspectives," 111.
    
    40. Burdick, "Brazil's Black Consciousness Movement," 23.
    
    41. Burdick, "Brazil's Black Consciousness Movement," 24. For a discussion
    of black women in the MNU, the Black Women's Collective, and the CECF's
    Black Women's Commission, and their involvement in the feminist movement,
    see Sonia Alvarez, Engendering Democracy: Women's Movements in Transition
    Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), 232-34.
    
    42. Burdick, "Brazil's Black Consciousness Movement," 24.
    
    43. Nascimento, 182.
    
    44. Burdick, "Brazil's Black Consciousness Movement," 25.
    
    45. Burdick, "Brazil's Black Consciousness Movement," 25.
    
    46. Burdick, "Brazil's Black Consciousness Movement," 25, 26.
    
    47. Andrews, 199.
    
    48. Burdick, "Slaves and Wanderers," 147.
    
    49. Burdick, "Brazil's Black Consciousness Movement," 27.
    
    50. Winant, 190.
    
    Copyright (c) 1997 Alexandra Puerto. All Rights Reserved.
    
    
    [Articles on BRC-NEWS may be forwarded and posted on other mailing
    lists/discussion forums, as long as proper attribution is given to the
    author and originating publication, and the wording is not altered in
    any way. In particular, if there is a reference to a web site where an
    article was originally located, please do *not* remove that.
    
    Do *not* publish or post the entire text of any copyrighted articles on
    web sites (web-based discussion forums exempted) or in print, without
    getting *explicit* permission from the article author or copyright
    holder. Check the fair use provisions of the copyright law in your
    country for details on what you can and can't do.
    
    As a courtesy, we'd appreciate it if you let folks know how to subscribe
    to BRC-NEWS, by leaving in the first two lines of the signature below.]
    
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------
    BRC-NEWS: Black Radical Congress - General News/Alerts/Announcements
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Subscribe: Email "subscribe brc-news" to <majordomo@tao.ca>

• Peter Fry reviews Michael Hanchard's Orpheus and Power, The "Movimento Negro" of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1945 - 1988
  

  • Hanchard, Michael George, Orpheus and Power, The "Movimento Negro" of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1945 - 1988, 203pp. Princeton University Press
    
    Orpheus and Power is a carefully detailed description and analysis of the various black organizations that have emerged in Brazil over the past forty years, based on historical data, interviews with over 200 activists, and a useful overview of academic writing on race relations during the period. Unlike most previous authors on the Brazilian Black Movements, who have, in one way or another, been linked to them, and have tended to repeat the rhetoric of public meetings, Hanchard asks a most pertinent and difficult question: namely, why the movement has failed to expand beyond a small nucleus of activists. Putting this question in comparative perspective, he asks why Brazil has not generated a "sustained Afro-Brazilian social movement comparable to the civil rights movement in the United States or nationalist insurgencies in Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of the New World during the post-World War II period".
    
    His answer lies in what he calls a "process of racial hegemony", which neutralizes racial identification among non-whites. He argues that "racial hegemony" promotes racial discrimination while simultaneously denying its existence, thus "assisting the reproduction of social inequalities between whites and nonwhites while simultaneously promoting a false premise of racial inequality between them". In other words, the "myth of racial democracy" is seen constantly to defuse "consciousness" of racial discrimination and inequality.
    
    If the myth of racial democracy is the principal "impediment" to the success of the Black Movement, there are others, namely "resource and institutional deprivation", "culturalism" and a strong penchant for arcane ideological disputes. Hanchard argues that the Black Movement spends too much time worrying about black culture and the iniquities of the slave past and too little on the realities of contemporary discrimination. Like Orpheus, it is impelled to look back and lose its Eurydice. Having established his critique, Hanchard then suggests possible changes. He warns against consciousness-raising without political activity, and suggests that the Movement should concentrate on informing people of the extent of racial discrimination and organizing "at the community level, through the development and coordination of national and local groups to monitor cases of race-related violence and other forms of discrimination . . . . This would give the movement a much more grounded base than it currently has."  

  • 
    Peter Fry
    Times Literary Supplement December 08 1995
    Peter Fry is Professor Titular in the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

   

• Drum Beat focuses on outstanding communication interventions in Salvador, Brazil.
  • The Drum Beat - 10 - Salvador - Bahia, Brazil.
    January 4th, 1999
    http://www.oneworld.org/sejup/
    
    The email and web network from THE COMMUNICATION INITIATIVE partnership -
    The Rockefeller Foundation, UNICEF, USAID, WHO, BBC World Service, CIDA,
    Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs, Soul City, The
    Panos Institute, UNFPA. Information, ideas, linkages and dialogue on
    communication, development and change.
    
    Web Site: http://www.comminit.com
    Contact: wfeek@coastnet.com
    
    SALVADOR, BRAZIL - This Drum Beat focuses on one city in order to locate
    communication actions within a social and economic context.  These are just
    a few of the outstanding communication interventions in Salvador, Brazil.
    
    CONTEXT
    
    1. Once the capital of Colonial Brazil, Salvador is now the capital of the
    state of Bahia and the third largest city in Brazil. There are 3 million
    people [approx] in ten municipalities. The literacy rate is 81%. Of the
    population over 10 yrs old, 11% spent less than one year in school, 17%
    spent 1-3 yrs, 33% spent 4-7 yrs, 15% spent 8-10 yrs and 19% spent 11-14
    yrs. Unemployment was 24.1% March 1998, an increase of 15.3% over 1997. The
    average monthly income is R$ 537 (US$ 447). The 10% with the lowest income
    average R$ 100 (US$ 83). The 10% with highest income average R$ 1,200 (US$
    999). 90% of permanent households have water supply with 26% connected to
    the sewage system. Of the others 42% have a septic tank, 32% have none.
    93.6% of households have at least one radio and 91.5% have at least one TV.
    [nb all data from official sources]
    
    COMMUNICATION PROGRAMMES
    
    2. Projeto Axe (Axe  Project) - was founded in 1990 to provide education
    for children working the streets and to fight for their rights. It has
    extended its focus to involve the families of these children - in order to
    make possible their reintegration in the family sphere. Activities include:
    a) "street education": emphasizes establishing a relationship with the
    children - educators introduce concepts such as civil rights, duties,
    citizenship. Includes practical actions such as referral to health care. b)
    educational units:  creative and cultural activities (percussion, dance,
    circus, ballet and capoeira [an Afro-Brazilian fight-dance]) and c)
    advocacy: working with the municipal and state governments to influence
    public policy. The methodology is based on nurturing and acting upon
    children's wishes. Children exercise citizenship, deal with respecting
    differences, the abolition of privileges, and begin to trust their
    potential for changing their own lives. Contact - Cesare de La Rocca,
    President, axe@ongba.org.br
    
    Expanded summary on C.I. web site:
    http://www.comminit.com/power_point/pds_12-21-98/sld001.htm
    
    
    3. CRIA (Holistic Reference Centre for Adolescents) - An educational NGO
    founded in 1994 which uses drama and arts to address citizenship and
    self-growth issues among low-income youth who then share experiences with
    peers. Youth explore topics such as education, sexuality, ethnicity,
    violence, gender.  Activities include: a) training of educators, health
    professionals and students to carry out awareness raising activities b)
    theatre groups and productions of plays with and for youth which are
    presented in schools, health centres, community centres and theatres c)
    development of educational materials. Methodology is based on mobilising
    participants, other youth, educators, parents and communities to discuss
    social issues.  Youth learn crucial life and political skills through the
    practice of active participation.  Contact - Maria Eugenia Milet, General
    Coordinator, coordcria@allways.com.br
    
    Expanded summary on C.I. web site:
    http://www.comminit.com/power_point/pds_12-21-98/sld002.htm
    
    
    4. Lyceum of Arts and Crafts - Founded in 1872 to educate ex-slaves and
    their children through art, it is now a self-sustained social programme to
    educate youths through work apprenticeships.  Activities include: a) daily
    4-hour classes in technical skills, citizenship and participation, and
    creative skills (photography, capoeira, reading workshops and paper
    recycling workshops) b) presentations (talks, exhibitions, theatre, cinema
    and video).  Apprentices are regarded as training professionals, with
    duties and responsibilities throughout the learning process.  Web site:
    http://www.liceu.org.br  Contact - Nelson Issa Lino, Superintendent,
    liceu@itp.com.br
    
    Expanded summary on C.I. web site:
    http://www.comminit.com/power_point/pds_12-21-98/sld003.htm
    
    
    5. Baguncaco - In Alagados, a marginalised swampland community, residents
    reacted negatively to children's street "music", viewing it as noise, until
    a youth officer organised the musical mess (bagunca).  The central strategy
    is to direct creative energy into music and other cultural and educational
    activities.  Activities include: a) a percussion band of children and youth
    using instruments built out of recycled containers b) theatre and recycling
    workshops, and community work including a school, day-care centre, and
    health centre. Living in extreme poverty, excluded from society's rights
    and benefits, youth transform their reality by using their creative energy,
    and giving lessons in environmental education and life education.  Web
    site: http://www.ongba.org.br/welcome/bagun/ Contact - Joselito Assis
    bagun@zumbi.ongba.org.br
    
    Expanded summary on C.I. web site:
    http://www.comminit.com/power_point/pds_12-21-98/sld005.htm
    
    
    6. Canabrava Social Educational Project (CSEP) - In Canabrava, a low-income
    neighborhood, garbage dumps provided income for deprived children.  In
    1997, the municipal garbage collecting company set up this
    social-educational project as an alternative.  To help families keep their
    children in CSEP, it supplies food and a financial allowance.  Activities
    include: a) workshops on culture and arts activities, curricular subjects,
    and practical skills (repair of electrical appliances and gardening)  b)
    basic education, health care and recreation. Methodology is based on
    strengthening citizenship and self-esteem.  Results have shown a reduction
    in school dropout rates, and children have better physical and social
    development and are more participative.  Contact - Rilda Bloisi
    rilda@pms.ba.gov.br
    
    Expanded summary on C.I. web site:
    http://www.comminit.com/power_point/pds_12-21-98/sld006.htm
    
    7. Fundacao Cidade Mae (Mother City Foundation) - was created in 1993 to
    offer educational and artistic activities to children at social risk and
    night shelters to children living in the street.  Participants live in a
    situation of poverty, unemployment, loose family bonds, drug abuse and
    violation of their most basic rights.  Activities include: a) Job skill
    training in computing, industrial sewing, basic electricity, fabric
    printing, car mechanics, photography, video b) cultural, sports and
    artistic activities, and supplementary education to fight dropout c)
    "education for citizenship": discussions of rights and duties, sexuality,
    health education d) shelter for street children. Through recreational
    activities, children build self-esteem, reconstruct family bonds and are
    encouraged to establish long term plans and projects. Methodology is
    participative. Contact - Patricia Portela, pportela@unicef.org
    
    Expanded summary on C.I. web site:
    http://www.comminit.com/power_point/pds_12-21-98/sld004.htm
    
    PEOPLE
    
    8.  Eugenio first heard about CRIA in 1994. After a year of training, he
    joined the Theatre Tribe. Today, he looks back and can see how much he has
    changed. He makes plans and knows he will fight to achieve his goals.
    Above all, he said, his thoughts and actions are no longer confined by his
    individual worries and concerns, but he thinks and acts collectively.
    Currently a monitor in CRIA's external projects, he has helped create a
    theatre group in his neighborhood.
    
    9.  Tatiane, 17, has been a Lyceum apprentice since April 1998. For her,
    the most positive aspect of her experience is the fact that she is
    regarded as a professional. She is not patronised, but rather empowered,
    and thus her achievements are recognised. Tatiane also gives great
    importance to the community aspects of Lyceum's work, which is something
    she wants to integrate into her future.
    
    SUPPORT
    
    10. The Government of the State of Bahia, through the Programa Acao Crianca
    (Child Action Programme), funds many programmes providing services to
    children and youth in Bahia. The majority of the funds come from the state,
    and part comes from the Federal Ministry of Social Welfare. Proposals which
    supplement or expand services already offered by the state are prioritised.
    
    11. Odebrecht Foundation is a non-profit private institution created in
    1995. It engages in programmes that value and improve policies and promote
    education of youth for life. "Education for life" prepares people to be
    agents of their destinies and active participants in their community's
    history. This includes a basic education, individual and social
    development, and job training.  Work is mainly in partnership with
    non-profit institutions which have compatible aims, principles and
    priorities.  Contact -  Ana Penido anna@odb.com.br
    
    12. UNICEF provides technical and financial assistance to governmental
    bodies and NGOs which fight against violence threatening children, youth,
    and women, particularly those living in poverty. Their strategy includes:
    collection, processing and publishing of information about the needs of
    Brazilian children, youth and mothers;  feasible and effective policies and
    programmes to meet those needs;  social mobilisation and building of
    alliances to make children a priority and demanding the respect of their
    rights.
    
    ***
    Many thanks to translator Ines Alfano i.alfano@svn.com.br and UNICEF Brazil
    Communication Officers - Manuel Manrique mmanrique@unicef.org.br and
    Patricia Portela pportela@unicef.org.br - for their huge contribution to
    this special issue.
    
    We are interested in future feature issues on geographic areas or
    particular themes. If you would like to work with us to develop a thematic
    issue for The Drum Beat, please contact wfeek@coastnet.com.
    
    Editor - Deborah Heimann debh@coastnet.com

   

• World Conference on Racism and Racial Discrimination in Brazil by Efu Nyaki

  •  "Instead of Allowing diversity of race and culture to become a limiting factor in human exchange and development, we must refocus our understanding, discern in such diversity the potential for mutual enrichment, and realize that it is the interchange between great traditions of human spirituality that offers the best prospect for the persistence of the human spirit itself." (Vision Declaration: "Tolerance and Diversity   A Vision for the 21st Century")
    
    In 1998 the UN General Assembly decided to declare 2001 as a special year to fight against racism and racial discrimination. For this reason, many nations throughout the world are preparing for the "World Conference Against Racism, Racial discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance" that will take place in Durban, South Africa from August 31st to September 7th, 2001.   This conference will give an opportunity for Brazil to objectively confront the gigantic problem of racism and racial discrimination, which exists and is in so prevalent in society. "Brazil is often described as a "racial democracy" because of the high number of interracial marriages and easy banter between the races in everyday life. Nothing could be farther from the truth," says Kathleen Bond in her article in the Magazine of Americas HEMISPHERE (volume 9 number 3 winter 2001). "Racial Democracy," a term coined by Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre in the early twentieth century, is the theory that Brazil s history of extended miscegenation had resulted in a cultural mélange in which all races are equally valued. In reality however, race in Brazil is a complex and difficult issue. Although most of Brazilians claim a mixed African, European and Indigenous ancestry, the weight of racism causes many to "whiten" themselves. Many "morenos" straighten their hair and search for lighter-skinned marriage partners. They often identify themselves and each other with terms that indicate a lighter skin tone, such as: moreninho, café, mulatto, bronziado, chocolate, jambu, moreno claro, moreno escuro, etc. Rarely do they describe themselves as "negro" (black). Even those who call themselves black often have a hard time convincing other Brazilians not to identify them as "moreno" or "mulatto". For many people, to be black is still an insult. Skin color profoundly influences life's chances. According to a 1992 study by Carlos Hasenbalg and Nelson do Valle Silva, non-white Brazilians are three times more likely than whites to be illiterate. The numbers deteriorate even further at higher educational level: whites are five times more likely than people of mixed ancestry and nine times more likely than blacks to obtain university degrees. The patterns repeats itself in the work force, where, according to the government statistics, whites have access to the highest-paying jobs, earning up to 75% more that blacks and 50% more that people of mixed ancestry. Other socio-economic indicators are no less grim. Infant mortality statistics are almost twice as high for non-white children, and the vast majority of detainees in the country s crowded prison system are non-whites. Not all of the consequences of racism can be neatly packed into statistics and charts. Effects on self-esteem are not so easily measured. At a recent reflection group of Afro-Brazilian women in João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba, a woman named Cida painfully recounted the end of her relationship with Chico, a lighter-skinned black. The two had dated for several years without their color difference seeming to create any difficulties. When they got engaged however, Chico s family exploded; "This little blackie is going to pollute our blood. Go and find someone who will purify it," Chico s mother raged. Chico caved in and broke off the engagement within days. Two years latter, Cida painfully asked the group, "How can you tell me not to feel inferior because of my color?" There are many examples and stories like Cida s. We could go on and on to show just how complex the question of racism is in Brazil.
    
    There are many groups and movements trying to work in raising awareness and reclaiming identities throughout Brazil, but the main objective of bringing a higher awareness to the whole Brazilian society that racism and racial discrimination is a "justice issue" has still not been achieved. It s my hope that during this time of preparation and following the conference, Brazil will have various opportunities to face and combat the realities of racism and racial discrimination which are still so prevalent yet today.
    
    The Brazilian government created a national committee, which is run by the National Secretary of Human Rights, with fourteen people representing the government and fourteen representing the civil associations. Apart from the preparations of various meetings throughout the country, the committee represented Brazil in the pre- conference that took place in Santiago, Chile with 1500 participants, the majority being Brazilians. In the civil society, the majority of the participants are from Black movements, especially black women's organizations, who are articulating more and more as NGOs. "The truth is we don't feel well represented by the civil society members, as we know that they were elected by the government. We are still looking for an opportunity to discuss with the government members and the civil society members the common agenda," says Jurema Weneck, the Coordinator of "Crioula," a women s organization in Rio de Janeiro. She is very critical of the Brazilian government's progressive rhetoric, which is still very far away from understanding the reality of racism and its results on the black and indigenous peoples.  "This is an important time to reflect about the racial situation and the diversity in Brazil," says the São Paulo Regional secretary of Human rights, Gilberto Sabóia. He believes that the work of bringing awareness that has begun here in Brazil will not depend on what will be decided in South Africa. Before August, the committee that is working on the preparation of the conference should give the report of the work done to the Brazilian president. This report should show the concerns of the political issues based upon improving education, health, work and culture that will guarantee equality and opportunities for all.
    
    Efu Nyaki is a Maryknoll sister who works with the Black Movement in Joao Pessoa, Paraiba  The reproduction of this material is permitted as long as the source is cited.  If you wish to contact us or receive NEWS FROM BRAZIL free of charge by e-mail send a message to sejup1@ ax.apc.org From: SEJUP [mailto:sejup1@alternex.com.br] Sent: 20 July 2001 10:20 NEWS FROM BRAZIL supplied by SEJUP (Servico Brasileiro de Justica e Paz). Number 442, July 20, 2001. Visit our home page: http://www.oneworld.org/sejup/
    
    

LINKS

LANIC directory (Latin American Network Information Center) has a section devoted to the African Diaspora (http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/region/african/).

Movimento Negro Unificado http://www.africana.com/Articles/tt_1097.htm

Aidi, Hisham,  Facing up to the Failure of "Racial Democracy" in Brazil, Africana, November 28, 2001 http://www.africana.com/DailyArticles/index_20011128.htm