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Root and Resistance
Traditional Communities and Living Territories
Credits
Production
Comissão Pastoral da Terra (Land Pastoral Commission) – Minas Gerais, Bahia and Regional Nordeste 2 Funding
Horizont3000 – Welthaus – DKA Áustria Graphic Design and Layout
Isabela Freire Revision
Giselda Vilaça Texts
Eduardo Fernandes de Araújo Gilmar Santos Printing
Gráfica 8 de Março Organization
Lauana Sento Sé Renata Albuquerque Cover photo
Vanessa Acioly
Summary
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Presentation 15
Introduction 17
Rights and achievements 21
TESTIMONIES 42
Popular Verses, or Cordéis 47
Registered communities
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Children in the quilombola territory Águas do Velho Chico, Orocó/PE, 2016. Photo: Vanessa Acioly.
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“We are sons and daughters of resistance; forged in the struggle for maintaining our rights. We are here because we are the hallmark of resistance. The territory is in me, just as we are in the territory.”. Jeferson Pereira Umburana Quilombola Community, Águas do Velho Chico/territory of Pernambuco (PE).
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“Everyone was born and raised here, there’s no outsider, anywhere; it’s tradition. According to my mother and father, my great-grandfather came from Juazeiro, from Crato do Ceará, in 1860, fleeing a major drought. Our struggle will be an inheritance for our grandchildren and greatgrandchildren. We have to resist to exist, there is no other way; the solution is to resist in order to exist”. Joaquim Ferreira da Rocha (Seu Quinquim) Community leader of the traditional territory of Areia Grande, Casa Nova / BA – deceased August 2017.
Traditional shared grazing territory of Areia Grande, Ca benefit the agroindustrial company Camaragibe. Photo
asa Nova/BA. At the end of the 1970s, the area was targetted for grilagem, or ilegal annexing of lands, to o: CPT BA archives
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Community dancing in Marobá dos Teixeira, Almenara/MG, 2015. Photo: Edivaldo Ferreira
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“The territory, this physical space, is internalized in people. So it is also a symbolic space, which gives identity. Those who returned to their territories after many years recovered their own cultural manifestations that had been repressed. Recovering this is a factor and sign of new life and community health. Another very important aspect has been the struggles, to stand our ground and not run away. Staying put is an important force and sign of a new society”. Maria Rosa Quilombola Community Marobá dos Teixeira, Almenara / MG.
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Getting established in Fazenda Monte Cristo, in Salto da Divisa/MG, 2015. Photo: Edivaldo Ferreira
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Presentation
Traditional Communities “(...) with a rose and with birdsong, one is never alone in this world”
“(...) we will keep fighting and saying: we are here. We are fighting for improvements in the land. Today we live the legacy of our ancestors’ blood. Our indigenous, and our quilombola martyrs today are being murdered because they are fighting for the right to life”. Dona Dijé1
Dona Maria de Jesus Bringelo, Dona Dijé, passed away... She died; she flowered in mystery, she became seed; she became an ancestor on 14th September, 2018. Born on 1st January, 1948, in the quilombo of Monte Alegre, in the State of Maranhão, she identified herself as a black woman, mother, quilombola, babassu nut breaker, founder of the Women’s Interstate Babassu Breakers’ Movement (Movimento Interestadual de Quebradeiras do Còco Babaçu: MIQCB). The MIQCB, in a note of condolence, repeated Dona Dijé’s phrase: “We want the territory to be born, to live, to take root and die (...). The Earth is the land of freedom.”
This note on Traditional Communities in the catalogue of the itinerant exhibition Root and Resistance: Traditional Communities and Living Territories, organized by the Land Pastoral Commission, or CPT, of Bahia, Minas Gerais and Northeast 2, is a way of honouring not only Dona Dijé, but also the vibrant, continuous and constant pollination of essences and lives that takes place in Brazilian and Afro-Latin American territories. Territories occupied by people who take care of the bush, the animals, the rivers, including the Old Chico (as the São Francisco River is affectionately known), the tides, the forests, the sacred, the dry backland vegetation, known
1 Article published on September 13, 2017, by Rede Brasil Atual. Protagonism: ‘Agroecology has given voice to our knowledge’, says Dona Dijé. By Cida de Oliveira. Available at: <https:\www.redebrasilatual.com.br>. Accessed on September 14th of 2018.
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as the caatinga, the pastures, the (inter) cultures, the religious manifestations, daily life, organizations, rights, duties, transformations and things to come The images in this catalogue are circular memories. They bring sweat, smiles, movements, feelings, stories, sayings, tales, novenas, dances (rhythms), music, crafts, know-how; the planting, harvesting and preparation of food to provide energy for body and spirit for new days. These flavours, know-how and the landscapes of memories find in authentic traditions one of the legitimate ways for Brazilian society and the State to begin to see beyond their institutional shortsightedness and ongoing institutional racism. The ancestral power of community memory brings long-term “gourd” photographs of those that safeguard the right to (re)exist. In addition, these testimonies help to preserve the feelings, memories of a specific situation
and the hope of a land free of evil. Thus, we (re) construct the emotions and the power of vivid memories in keeping stories alive and passed on. Winning the territorial battle of our memories versus the hegemony of capital and its derivations is a essential mission. The roses, the birds, the community leaders, the forms of (re) existence of the traditional communities are like Dona Dijé, Dona Rosa, Seu Quinquim, Jeferson Pereira, Maria do Carmo, Tonis Mário de Oliveira, Maria Cristina Gueiros, Zoraide, Dona Antonia, Seu Romeo, Odetina Maria de Jesus, Denilson Santos Mendes, Flavio Alves dos Santos, Jurandir de Souza, Ivo Castro Reis, Dona Marinete, Cintia Mendes Barbosa, Maria de Lourdes Silva, Izabela Francisca Barbosa, Rosangela Santos, Silvano Jose dos Santos, Edicleia Barbosa Quirino, Dener Ronaldo Mendes de Oliveira, Elia Sodré and Anselmo Ferreira, and many others: they know that never in this world are they alone.
Eduardo Fernandes de Araújo2
2 Professor of the Department of Legal Sciences of the Federal University of Paraíba (City of Santa Rita), founder and member of the Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous Studies and Research Center (NEABI - UFPB). He is currently in the doctorate of the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra carrying out research on collective memories, mobilizations for rights and quilombola communities in Brazil from (and with) the quilombo of Conceição das Crioulas (Salgueiro - PE).
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Flowers of the Cerrado, in Barra/BA, 2006. Photo: João Zinclar
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Mobilization around the issue of water in the brejos, in the community of São Felipe, in Canápolis/BA . Photo: Thomas Bauer
Quilombola mobilization, in Brasília, in favour of Decree 4887/03, which regulates administrative procedures for the titling of quilombola territories, on 16th Augost, 2017. Photo: Renata Albuquerque
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Introduction
“The territory for us quilombolas is as important as life. With territory we have our freedom, our survival. It’s like our blood.” Dona Zoraide Quilombola community of Fidelão, Capoeiras/PE.
Amid the violence of those who proclaim death, there are men and women who resist and shed light upon life and utopia. Such are the traditional communities, the peoples of the earth, waters and forests. Treated by the elites and the state as refugees within their own country, they typically suffer threats, intimidation, persecution, expulsion from their traditional lands and the denial of their rights. They know that in order to exist they must resist and combat the violence and injustice of a system that wants either to kill them or to let them die. Contrary to the fate imposed on them, these brave souls announce the dawn of a new, colourful, possible and real world, in contrast to the hegemony and monochromatic
scenario of landlordism and agribusiness that frequently assail their territories. In their daily struggle and resistance on their traditional lands and through their community experiences, ancestry and their relationship to nature, these men and women prove to be bearers of dreams, of a world of solidarity, cooperation and justice. It was these examples of resistance and existence, so historically and deliberately silenced, that motivated the CPT to collate images and testimonies, giving colour and form to the itinerant exhibition Root and Resistance: traditional communities and living territories. The exhibition - which was supported by international cooperation organizations
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H3000, DKA and Welthaus - brings together 150 images of traditional communities accompanied by the CPT Bahia, Minas Gerais and Northeast 2. These are scenes captured from a pastoral perspective on the reality and the daily lives of hundreds of families who share dreams and experiences in the struggle for justice, dignity and territory. The approaches adopted and topics captured are multiple and diverse, and express the path taken in the conquest of life. The photographs depict moments of confrontation, of violence arising from agrarian conflicts and community organization, and include scenes
that portray these communities’ relationship with nature, culture, faith and religiosity, their symbolic objects, the work and the food that nourish their daily lives. The pictures were taken largely between 2012 and 2018 by CPT pastoral agents in their work and follow-up with the communities, and also by CPT’s partners. Some older photographs belong to the CPT collection. These are images that share a positive outlook and aim to enhance a sense of meaning that reveals life and celebrates the strength of rural peoples.
Land Pastoral Commission Bahia Minas Gerais Regional Nordeste 2
Woman sweeping the compound in the community of Conceição das Crioulas, Salgueiro/PE, 2017. Photo: Renata Albuquerque
Production of food in the community of Paraguai, in Felizburgo/MG. Photo: Edivaldo Ferreira
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Rights and achievements
Traditional Communities in Brazil comprise a broad diversity of ethnic and socio-cultural groups, revealed through a corresponding variety of know-how, languages, religious expressions, ways of life, forms of organization and relationships with nature. These traditional peoples and communities have always (re) existed, even if invisible to a large part of society, and invariably living under the yoke of landlord violence, State neglect, prejudice, racism, and oppression. For centuries they have faced cruelty against themselves and their typically usurped territories for the power of capital to expand in rural areas. It is worth noting that even with great spurts of rights-based mobilization - such as those that preceded the creation of the Consolidation of Labour Laws (1943), and others later, prior to the civil-military coup of 1964 - until the 1980s, only indigenous peoples had specific legislation, with the Indian Statute of 1973. Nonetheless, the latter was considered an assimilationist law, without respect for the autonomy of the original peoples, placing them, on the contrary, merely as State “protegés”.
Meanwhile, peasant diversity in Brazil was categorized as: leaseholders or squatters, rural workers, sharecroppers, peasants, or small farmers, without taking into account the particular size of each group and traditional community. But the period from 1972 to 1988 was marked by the strengthening of grassroots organizations, trade unions and social movements, which made other peasant identities (re) emerge in the political and legal scenario. Through the perception of all the violence to which they had been historically subjected, and from the intensification of their organization, resistance and struggle, traditional peoples and communities stepped up their political strength, demanding from the State a series of historical, cultural, economic, social and legal reparations, mainly through the recognition of their distinct identities and the guarantee of their specific rights. In this process, traditional peoples and communities have attained the recognition of a number of rights, currently provided for in the 1988 Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil (CRFB) which, in addition to guaranteeing the possession of indigenous territo-
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ries, recognizes for the first time the existence of quilombo communities and their definitive right to the collective ownership of their traditional territories. Other important achievements have been the recognition by the Brazilian State of the applicability of International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 169, Decree No. 4,887 of 20th November, 2003 - which regulates the procedure for the identification, recognition, delimitation, demarcation and titling of the lands of quilombo communities - and Decree No. 6040 of 7th February, 2007 (National Policy for the Sustainable Development of Traditional Peoples and Communities). Currently, in Brazil, traditional peoples and communities are considered: “culturally differentiated groups that recognize themselves as such, that have their own forms of social organization, that occupy and use territories and natural resources as a condition for their cultural, social, and religious reproduction, using knowledge, innovations and practices generated and transmitted by tradition. ”(Article 3, item I, of Decree No. 6040 of 7th February 2007). Traditional peoples and communities have different territorial identities and perspectives; since they are not fixed identities, sometimes
even their territories are not either, from a normative point of view. Traditions mix and form multiple categories, generally defined as3: quilombolas, gypsies, extractivists (such as rubber tappers, Brazil nut gatherers, babassu nut breakers,) communities with common grazing land, dwellers in holy sites, dwellers in Afro-Brazilian religious communities, faxinalenses, small-scale fishermen and women, shellfish gatherers, traditional riverine and coastal populations, people who live on varjeiros, backlanders, raft-builders, azoreans, pasture dwellers, varzantes, swamp dwellers, among many others that do not exclude the dimension of rural or peasant work, on the contrary, expand and reinvent these relations. Thanks to these diverse identities and forms of territorial relationship, these groups seek to maintain, in general terms, the balanced and communal enjoyment of natural resources or goods, land, waters and forests, assuming the mission of preserving these to honour their ancestors, provide sustainability for current generations and guarantee rights for those to come. By seeking daily sustenance and living with respect for the earth they tread and the understanding that this is a common space, they experience their cultural, spiritual, social, political and economic (re) production with the land in a territorial perspective.
3 In this publication, Indigenous Peoples are considered to be Original Peoples, which is why they were not included in the list of traditional peoples and communities.
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Some rights earned*: » The right to define one’s own identity (self-definition): it is the community or people themselves that must define whether or not they are a traditional community or people. It will be up to the State to comply with the public policies that are its responsibility and society to respect the way of life of each one of them. » The right to the possession and collective ownership of traditionally occupied lands: traditional communities and peoples should have their territories recognized and protected, reinforcing the expanded territorial dimension, involving permanent and temporary areas as a means of guaranteeing and (re)producing their lands. ways of life and relationship with nature. » The right to the preservation of their way of life: the specific customs of each community, whether in relation to the land, work, culture, leisure etc., must be respected, encouraged and protected. No public policy can interfere with this way of life without community consent (CRFB 1988 and ILO Convention 169 1989). » The right to definitive land titling (land regularization): The Brazilian State is obliged to recognize and protect traditional territories. Communities, if they wish, may require official documentation of their lands.** » The right to prior, free and informed consultation: any administrative or legislative act that will affect in any way a community or traditional people must be carried out through prior consultation with the communities involved, stating the real implications of the act that will affect them, and allowing them to manifest their position freely. » The right to universal and specific public policies: Because they have their own characteristics, communities should also have their own public policies that are appropriate and contribute to strengthening the way of life of these groups, but without failing to comply with universal public access policies. health, education and the justice system. * Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization - ILO, received in Brazil as Decree 5.051 of 2004, signed by then President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. ** The lands traditionally occupied by Fundo and Fecho de Pasto communities in the State of Bahia are regulated by State Law 12.910 of October 11, 2013. This law also regulates the quilombo communities of the state, but provides for differentiated treatment. The quilombolas receive denitive land titles, while the Fundos and Fechos de Pasto (Pasture Funds and Clusters) make contracts for the concession of a real right to use the area, with a term of 90 years, renewable for the same period.
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Access to the territory, public policies and all these universal or specific rights that can guarantee improvements in living conditions are still far from becoming a reality. The present challenge is the maintenance and enforcement of these rights, not forgetting that new achievements should happen with the recog-
nition of so many other rights yet to come. The following sentence, often spoken by men and women of traditional peoples and communities, reaffirms the reasons why it is necessary to fight for the guarantee of rights and for the territory: “We must resist in order to continue existing”.
Gilmar Santos4 Eduardo Fernandes5
Welcoming ceremony for the Dominican Missionaries, in Posseiros de Monte Cristo - Salto da Divisa/MG, 2009. Photo: Edivaldo Ferreira
4 Agent of the Pastoral Land Commission - Bahia. 5 Professor of the Department of Legal Sciences of the Federal University of Paraíba (City of Santa Rita), founder and member of the Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous Studies and Research Center (NEABI - UFPB). He is currently in the doctorate of the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra carrying out research on collective memories, mobilizations for rights and quilombola communities in Brazil from (and with) the quilombo of Conceição das Crioulas (Salgueiro - PE).
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TESTIMONIES
“Our community is seen by landlords and rulers as lazy and uneducated people, so we suffer prejudice. Sometimes they think we don’t need rights”. Maria Cristina Gueiros Cascavel Quilombola Community, Capoeiras/PE
“Our region is in a critical state, those big businessmen there are destroying our rivers, burying all the springs, and there is no agency to solve these issues for us. We are looking for someone to report this and can find no one. I, as a fisherman, only see sadness. Mariana once existed and is now the region of the Cerrado that entrepreneurs are grabbing.”. Tonis Mário de Oliveira impacted by agribusiness in the Cerrado, Barreiras / BA.
“The main cause of the conflicts is the government’s lack of priority over the quilombo land issue. Territorial regularization is lacking”. Dona Zoraide Fidelão Quilombola Community, Capoeiras/PE
“For as long as I can remember, since I was born, my father has worked on these lands, my father’s father worked on these lands. My grandfather told the old stories of the people fleeing here, so all the land belonged to us. We didn’t take land from anyone, these lands are from the runaway slaves or quilombolas that came here. Now these rich people have seized our land bit by bit”. Dona Marinete Lopes da Silva Castainho Community, Garanhuns/PE.
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“We have been through a lot of trouble and strife. When we see our reserve of esteem being invaded by outsiders, by the wind-energy people, the fear is to lose our land, where we grow cassava, and collect stakes to make our fences; that’s our livelihood, for us to stay alive”. Odetina Maria de Jesus, 76 anos, Quilombola Community of Malhada, Caetité/BA
“What do white people always have? Resources, funds; always an easier way to survive. Black people, no. They always have the weakest part of the money. Poor. The black man slaves away with an axe, a hoe, a pickaxe, He works with everything that appears because he is stronger. Because of their status, black people work harder. The rich man’s wealth is the black man’s poverty. If it wasn’t for the black, the rich white wouldn’t live. The black does the heavy work and faces whatever appears...If I answered wrong, I’m sorry... Who suffers the most is the black with all the poverty that the rich white brings. Rich white has everything to hand, everything is easy. The rich man has the pencil, the pen (formerly the quill), he earns a good wage, in the shade, well-seated, well-rested. The poor black man does not: he puts up with rain, sun, hot earth, sometimes he goes without... But less so nowadays, thanks to our good God”. Maria do Carmo Varzinha dos Quilombolas Community, Sertânia/PE.
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“One of the conflicts in our community took place on 24th March, 2017. They arrived there calling us by our names and then announced a robbery. They just said ‘robbery’ to say it was, but it was never robbery. They just started tying us up, hitting us, breaking everything, giving us poison to take, that’s what happened. We were deeply shocked because it left us feeling dead and until today we have had no solution, even in the police station. When we get there, they don’t even know where the police survey is. It was Rosa and me who suffered the attack. The suspicion is that it would have been the big farmer who had this done to us”. Jurandir Teixeira Quilombola Community Marobá dos Teixeira, Almenara/MG.
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“People worked from Monday to Thursday for the boss and, on Friday and Saturday, on their vegetable plot. The daily wage was cheap, dirt cheap! For ourselves, we could not raise a chicken, could not raise an animal. So we fenced off a well-watered plot and we planted. It had palm cactus, it had a little brush and everything. It was very beautiful. The boss went mad. After a few days there were sheep and cattle trampling our maize, beans, pumpkin and sweet potatoes. All we could see were the animals breaking everything and I already saw my children hungry in the yard, all small. The oldest was what, eight ?! God, how can such a thing exist? ‘My children hungry and we are seeing such destruction!”.
Dona Antônia Varzinha dos Quilombolas Community, Sertânia/PE.
Community meeting, Varzinha dos Quilombos, Iguaraci/PE. Photo: Carmelo Fioraso “Around the 1980s there was a lot of conflict around here, we were persecuted, there were gunshots, terrible clashes and a lot of threats. In 2008, there were more heavy conflicts, they wanted to get us out of here regardless; they knocked down our houses, they destroyed installations, fences, they killed livestock, they killed cattle, and we still haven’t recovered from the damage yet, because the days we spent away, they smashed everything; it was a time of terror for us. But we resisted and are resisting to this day. No one gives up and it’s no use because we don’t give up here. We are not going to give this area to anyone, because we can’t live outside it; this area is very important to us”.
Ivo Castro Reis Farmer of the Salinas da Brinca Community, from the traditional territory of Areia Grande, Casa Nova/BA.
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“We are descendants of warriors. We have the warrior blood we inherited from Zumbi”. Romeu da Silva Santana President of the Quilombola Community Association of Atoleiro/PE
“I am proud to be a quilombola. Our greatest achievement was the recovery of headquarters [of the estate], because no one could enter here. The powerful thought it was just theirs, and the neighbours all said we had no right to stay on the estate. But after we entered, then the neighbours felt that we had our rights to be here. One thing that weighed heavily was the attack that we suffered, but that wasn’t going to make me hang my head, nor the others. We move on. We do not think of giving up for little. We work hard to move on. If there is one person who thinks of giving up, maybe it’s the estate owner himself”. Jurandir de Souza Quilombola Community of Marobá dos Teixeira/MG.
“A conflict I remember was when the farmers wanted to let their cattle trample all the territory and the quilombo fields. This conflict was even armed, with eighteen gunmen, and lasted three weeks. We were able to publicize and access the organizations that could resolve the conflict; we also partnered up. This resulted in the publication of the community’s RTID [Technical Identification and Delimitation Report]”. Maria Rosa Quilombola community Marobá dos Teixeira, Almenara/MG.
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“Today the quilombolas are an emerging social force. Today the quilombolas are becoming subjects of their own history, they are organizing themselves internally within and between communities, and this is a new quilombola time. Quilombolas have a physical space of freedom and are conquering other social arenas and spheres of power, of choosing to do what each community believes it is possible to do”. Maria Rosa Quilombola Community Marobá dos Teixeira, Almenara/MG.
“No-one is going to die of thirst beside the Arrojado river”, Correntina/BA, 2017. Photo: Thomas Bauer.
15th Water and Land Pilgrimage (Romaria
a das Águas e da Terra) in Marobá, Almenara/MG, 2011. Photo: Edivaldo Ferreira.
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Quilombola community of Malhada, in Caitité/BA, 2014. Photo: Ione Rochael.
Creole seeds, in the Maurício de Oliveira community, in Assú/ RN. Photo: Carmelo Fioraso. Manioc, symbol of diversity and resistance, in Marobá dos Teixeira – Almenara/MG, 2017. Photo: Ediel Rangel.
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“We don’t have to go away, sleep badly and wait our turn to make manioc flour at our neighbour’s. Today, our food is right here. We make our farinha here. To be with our people, not with others”. Jurandir de Souza Quilombola of the Marobá dos Teixeira Community/ MG.
“We have pé de moleque cake, the tapioca pancakes, the cassava plantation, maize, sweet potato, among many other foodstuffs we grow in the community. This makes us happy: being able to grow and harvest food without pesticides. For us, taking care of the land is very important. Without land and water we have no health. My desire is that
we can live in the territory, working with dignity in pursuit of our goals, because we still have much to achieve in our community”. Cintia Mendes Barbosa Quilombola Community of Castainho/PE.
“We have everything, it is a pleasant and peaceful environment. We plant gherkins, raise chickens. Here we have water, the palm cactus, home remedies, the umbu gooseberry. We have the window open and this fresh air. In the city life is not like that. In the city, one lives uneasily and only those who have a job survive”. Maria de Lurdes Silva 51 anos, from the Quilombola Community of Lagoa do Mato, Caetité/BA.
“We work in the community working group for water, for cocoa… these practices help in building the new society”. Maria da Glória Pinheiro da Silva from the Quilombola Community Marobá dos Teixeira/MG.
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Kitchen, sacred spot. In Lagoa Grande – Jenipapo de Minas/MG, 2017. Photo: Edivaldo Ferreira.
Woman from the indigenous quilombo Tiririca dos Crioulos, in Carnaubeira da Penha/PE. Photo: Plácido Junior.
Man takes on domestic tasks in the rural area, in the communiy of Baixões, in Barra/BA, 2016. Photo: Thomas Bauer.
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Hand of quilombola woman that feeds the community, Conceição das Crioulas, Salgueiro/PE.Photo: Renata Albuquerque.
“The relationship between people here is very good; everyone works for the community, for nature. It is very important for the community to stay united, for our struggle and for generating improvements for the new generations”. Izabela Francisca Barbosa Angico Community, Barra do Mendes/BA.
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Mestre Juarez, from the quilombo Timbó, in Garanhuns/PE. Photo: Carmelo Fioraso.
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Dona Delzuita’s São Gonçalo circle in the community of Pau Seco, in Itaguaçu da Bahia/BA, 2017. Photo: Thomas Bauer.
Percussion, in Paraguai – Felizburgo/MG, 2015. Photo: Edivaldo Ferreira.
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Antonio Piaba in the Gathering of Geraizeiros, in Correntina/BA, 2017. Photo: Thomas Bauer.
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“To live in a common grazing land community is to live in a tranquil environment where everyone lives in unity, our animals range freely, one neighbour cares for another’s animals, and we have a lot of relatives. Here we try to keep the traditions of several generations, we bring together several families and pray, celebrate St. Gonçalo”. Rosângela Santos President of the Casa Nova Common Pasture Associations Union, Riacho Grande Community, Areia Grande Fundo de Pasto Territory, Casa Nova/BA.
“We have the Reisado tradition. It’s our fun and the time to celebrate and take the prophecy. This tradition needs to be passed on to the younger generation. To teach them. For them to remember one day: it was my grandfather who left it with me”. Silvano José dos Santos 66 anos, from the Quilombola Community of Malhada, Caetité/BA.
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Soul mouners (Rezadeiras das Almas), in Correntina/BA, 2017. Photo: Thomas Bauer.
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Woman from the Castainho quilombo community, in Garanhuns/PE. Photo: Carmelo Fioraso.
Faith strengthening resistance, in Marobá dos Teixeira - Almenara/MG, 2017. Photo: Edivaldo Ferreira.
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Via Sacra of the 39th Pilgrimage of the Land and Waters, in Bom Jesus da Lapa/BA, 2016. Photo: Thomas Bauer.
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“We are happy here in the community because we live in direct contact with nature, with animals. In our hills and mountains we find rivers and various medicinal plants cultivated by our ancestors; a nature that only brings benefits and there are men who want to deforest and end this, which saddens us greatly. We have suffered from these attacks, upheavals against our hillsides, and with the arrival of wind-farms”. Edicleia Barbosa Quirino from the Rufino de Queimada Traditional Community, Barro Alto/BA.
“What I am most proud of in my community is its respect for nature, flora and fauna, both wild and domestic animals, for living in the semiarid climate, with the neighbours, with the others”. Dener Ronaldo Mendes de Oliveira from the Traditional Community Várzea Grande, Oliveira dos Brejinhos/BA.
“Without the Gerais (cerrado biome) there is no way for family farming to keep going, because that’s where rivers are born, and without water we cannot survive. It is not only the survival of animals, and our families
that are important for us, but also the generation of waters, because we live in the largest water basin, and these waters are in danger because agribusiness with large enterprises is invading the cerrado. This is a vacant area of the state, and for many years it has belonged to small farmers, traditional communities, quilombolas, extractivists, fisherfolk, among others, who harvest medicinal plants and fruits of the cerrado to sell in street markets”. Elia Sodré Pedra Branca Traditional Community, Correntina/BA.
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Children bathing in the river in the territory Águas do Velho Chico, Orocó/PE. Photo: Vanessa Acioly.
Production of food in Marobá dos Teixeira, Almenara/MG, 2017. Photo: Edivaldo Ferreira.
The river route, in the quilombo Mangal Barro Vermelho, in Sítio do Mato/BA, 2006. Photo: João Zinclar.
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Popular Verses, or Cordéis
Tradition community of shared pasture
Of northeastern stock are my kin
A whole community survives
I say straight-out what I think
Keeping its joint strength alive
I live on a hillside farm Where all that I do is done I come from the dry caatinga Where the gourd is the muringa The grasslands are where I come from
Grassland communities Have their own way of life The land is shared and helps all Settle down without strife Where people raise crops and beasts
In the cerrado I’ve found my way
Together and with joy
To survive in this territory
To produce for all to eat
Where the earth my life insures, And plants are my clinic and cures It is there that I plant and I reap Most of the food that I eat My fields and my beasts are my wealth
In these historic groups Is everything that we do The communities raise goats Some sheep and chickens too We also keep some pigs
Sharing common grazing ground
And bees in the hollow
Is my family’s life on the land
And whenever we can, a cow
Where my parents, and theirs, were born From an age-old generation Living a simple life
And the caatinga is a rich store Of nature’s plants and more We extract and consume umbu
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Croatá and quince to name a few
Their living from the soil
We help preserve these lands
Nor environmental causes
So why then, in them, put an end
They exploit and destroy all
To this beauty that enchants?
Their aims are monocultural
Traditional peoples
The agribusiness class
Show organization too
Through multinationals
Since our people form groups
Brings together land and money
And create associations
And says that poisons are ideal
To discuss any dilemma
To put upon our table
And solve the situation
And transform for sure
According to each problem
Our lives into the artificial
They represent culture itself
But know, people of Brazil
Manifesting our traditions
That shared pasture folk are strong
Respecting life and death, through
Because we resist, with the will
Prayers, songs, and celebrations
To fight with and for each other
Community is the heart
For our land is no currency
Of this natural way of life
That we will just hand over
From a grand generation
While we are brave and we belong
But today we suffer threats From the owners of big estates Who want to steal our land That grileiros also covet For agribusiness, mining And wind-farming in it Planting money is politics
Because around these parts What I don’t have I don’t spend And between us for a start Respect is taken for granted To live with nature is natural And shared: traditional Communities of pasture land
For the rich and powerful seek More profits from capital They care not for who truly eeks
Anselmo Ferreira Baixão dos Bois Community – Campo Alegre de Lourdes/BA | 05/03/18
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Of one who fights without fleeing We have the reisado dance And the soccer game In this fight I’m as hooked
Power and endurance of a
As a fish on a line
quilombola warrior
We are not stars in the sky
I want you to tell me I want you to tell me now The power and resistance Of a quilombola warrior The quilombola is brave Strong, black and a fighter, He came to break all the chains To show his worth
We are the ray of the sun I’m a farmer’s daughter Quilombola to the root What life has taught me Has made me an apprentice It’ll always be teachers Making me happier Maria Senhora Gomes dos Santos Gonçalves
He came brought by ship
But a slave did not remain The Old Chico territory Has culture and tradition
Roots of my quilombo
Strong people who have faith And from their mission never flee
I will tell a story
A descendant of those who
Which is for you to know
are, no introduction needs
It has stayed in my mind,
I appreciate this power
I will never let it go
Of my friend Zumbi
It was God and our dear lady
It is a symbol of resistance.
That inspired me so
To stumble without falling He came to show the competence
My community You don’t know which it is
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Has two very old people:
with such pain and cruelty
Aunt Joana and Uncle Né I say with great pride
They were whipped
I’m from the forest of São José
if they tried to escape Their upper back was cut
They told me everything
with no one to restrain
One beautiful morning
They would die in desperation
How some came from Canudos
with nowhere to go
And others from the Serra do Umã Our roots are old.
They carried tree trunks on their back
Don’t you doubt it
and also took Brazil They fell, they fell,
We have many cultures
but he never gave in
In our dear place
It was to form a quilombo
Our great-grandparents
that the warrior Zumbi ran away
Suffered without giving up They died with a lot of love
I’m staying here,
For us to exist today
gentlemen and ladies thank you for listening this true story
We are black fighters,
We will never give up
There were strong ones there
because we are quilombola brothers
With a bitterness in their mouth
descendants of Zumbi.
hard to swallow But there is one that I speak now it’s our friend Zumbi They were brought to Brazil without mercy nor pity Shipped as cargo by a bunch of cowards No story has ever been seen
José de Jesus Gomes dos Santos
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São Francisco River Claims
They only see me as a well For business potential Many even stop and admire My beauty; and praise
Good evening my friends
But few mobilize
I’m here to say
People in my defence
Be faithful and aware
Even my heart broke
take care of yourself and me
for the benefit of companies
I’m just a seed I’m alive but I can die
If you wanna know who am I
Every day, all day long
I am an old sufferer,
You need me
who lives here nearby
To put the beans on the gas
The fisherman’s friend
Also to water the grass
And hostage to the projects
I die slowly each day
Search the alphabet
Why do you treat me this way?
It is so sad my demise
If inflation increases,
I’m tired of suffering
they are all worried
No one hears me scream
radio and television
My voice is you
let you all know
Since I am unable to speak
My breath is growing weak
Why don’t they make a joint effort to redress such abandonment? My coffee is sewage My lunch, pesticide I’m up to my neck Polluted by regret
Maria Senhora Gomes dos Santos Gonçalves
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Comunidades registradas
Andaraí (BA)
Community Nova Esperança, in Várzea do Poço (BA)
Baixões, in Barra (BA)
Community Carneiro, Xique-Xique (BA)
Barra (BA)
Cabeceira do Piabanha, in Salto da Divisa (MG)
Bom Jesus da Lapa (BA)
Community Monte Cristo, in Salto da Divisa (MG)
Caboclo, in Barra do Mendes (BA)
Lagoa Grande, in Jenipapo de Minas (MG)
Barra do Mendes (BA)
Quilombola community Marobá, in Almenara (MG)
Engenho, in Caetité (BA)
Quilombola community Marobá dos Teixeira, in Almenara (MG)
Comunidade Quilombola de Malhada, in Caetité (BA) São Felipe, in Canápolis (BA) RESEX Cassurubá, in Caravelas (BA) Barra do Parateca, in Carinhanha (BA) Shared pasture community of Areia Grande, in Casa Nova (BA) Casa Nova (BA) Côcos (BA) Vale do Rio Arrojado, in Correntina (BA) Shared pasture community Vereda da Felicidade, in Correntina (BA) Salto, in Correntina (BA) Correntina (BA) Poço de Fora, in Curaçá (BA) Pau Seco, in Itaguaçu da Bahia (BA) Genipapo, in Jacobina (BA) Assentamento (settlement) Corte Grande, in Jacobina (BA) Acampamento (camp) Pilões, in Jacobina (BA) Angical, Mansidão (BA) Baixa Verde, in Remanso (BA) Floreto, in Remanso (BA) Comunidade do Zuca, in Ruy Barbosa (BA) Igara, Senhor do Bonfim (BA) Torrada, in Serra Dourada (BA) Quilombo Mangal Barro Vermelho, in Sítio do Mato (BA)
Quilombola community Mutuca de Cima, in Coronel Murta (MG) Quilombola community Paraguai, in Felisburgo (MG) Quilombola community Varzinha dos Quilombolas, in Sertânia (PE) Quilombola community Fidelão, in Capoeiras (PE) Quilombola community de Atoleiro, in Caetés (PE) Quilombola community Conceição das Crioulas, in Salgueiro (PE) Quilombola community Castainho, in Garanhuns (PE) Territory Águas do Velho Chico: quilombo communities Umburana, Viturino Caatinguinha, Remanso and Mata de São José, in Orocó (PE) Quilombola community Mercês, in Cabo de Santo Agostinho (PE) Quilombola community Leitão, in Afogados da Ingazeira (PE) Quilombola community Negros do Osso, in Pesqueira (PE) Community Engenho Ilha, in Cabo de Santo Agostinho (PE) Quilombola community Poço dos Cavalos, in Itacuruba (PE) Quilombola community Tiririca dos Crioulos, in Carnaubeira da Penha (PE) Quilombola community Timbó, in Garanhuns/PE Quilombola community Jatobá, in Cabrobó (PE)
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Apoio: