Quilombolas are the descendants and remnants of communities formed by fugitive enslaved people (quilombos), between the 16th century and the year 1888 (when slavery was abolished ) in Brazil. Currently, quilombola communities are present throughout the Brazilian territory, and there is a rich culture, based on black, indigenous and white ancestry. However, quilombolas suffer from difficulties in accessing health and education.
Read more : Zumbi inspiration for the creation of Black Awareness Day in Brazil
Who are the quilombolas?
The word quilombo originates from the term kilombo , present in the language of the Bantu people, originally from Angola, and means place of landing or camping. Before the arrival of European settlers, West African peoples were essentially nomads, and camp sites were used for resting on long journeys. In Colonial Brazil , the word was adapted to designate the place of refuge for runaway slaves. Quilombola is the person who inhabits the quilombo .
Remnants of the Quilombo dos Palmares region celebrate the 20th of November, Black Awareness Day. [1]
Quilombola peoples do not come together in a specific region or come from a specific place. The common origin of the remaining quilombos is the African ancestry of enslaved blacks who fled the cruelty of slavery and took refuge in the woods. Over time, several of these fugitives crowded in certain places, forming tribes. Later on, whites, Indians and mestizos also started to inhabit quilombos , adding, however, a smaller number of the population.
Throughout Brazilian history , several quilombos have been recorded, some with large numbers of inhabitants. The Palmares , for example, which actually consisted of a set of 10 quilombos next, once had an estimated population of 20,000 inhabitants in the seventeenth century.
Even today there are quilombola communities that resist urbanization and try to keep their way of life simple and in contact with nature, however, often living in precarious conditions due to the lack of natural resources and the difficult integration into urban and non-tribal life.
There is a difficulty, for example, in access to health and education. Because of this, since the early 2000s, there has been a government attempt to demarcate quilombola lands so that they are not taken over by farmers, loggers and land grabbers and so that there is a greater guarantee of survival for the communities that live on them.
The extinct Special Secretariat for Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality ( Seppir ), created in 2003 and extinguished in 2015, followed and tracked quilombola communities. The National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra), by Decree no. 4,887 of 2003, is the federal agency responsible for the demarcation and titling of quilombola lands in the country.
In addition to these entities, the Fundação Cultural Palmares, a public body linked to the extinct Ministry of Culture (incorporated into the Ministry of Citizenship), is responsible for maintaining and preserving the quilombola cultural heritage.
See also: Beginning, characteristics, functioning and abolition of slavery in Brazil
Quilombolas and indigenous people
There is a general cultural proximity between quilombola populations and indigenous populations . The two groups live simply and integrated with nature, taking most of their livelihood from the land. However, with the advance of urbanization, agribusiness and unsustainable extraction, the way of life of these communities and their preservation are in danger.
Quilombo São José da Serra, in Rio de Janeiro. [two]
Just as many indigenous people do not live in isolation from cities and rural communities, many quilombolas also do not live like this. Respect and greater actions to preserve these communities are necessary so that their cultural heritage is not lost.
Don’t stop now … There’s more after the publicity;)
Quilombola communities schools
According to the Palmares Cultural Foundation, there are 1209 quilombola communities registered in Brazil and 143 quilombola areas with titled land | 1 | . However, the education offered to these communities is still extremely precarious .
Educational facilities are inadequate, sanitary conditions are inappropriate for their functioning, there is no drinking water or electricity in many of them, and they are far from the homes of many students. There is also a deficit of teachers, with the few professionals not having adequate training and many classrooms are multi-grade (they have students from various grades due to the low number of teachers).
Continuing education actions for teachers have been taken since 2007, in addition to the allocation of funds for basic education that contemplates the quilombola reality. However, despite the efforts of some governments to improve the education offered to quilombola communities, there is still a lot to be done to make the conditions of that education at least closer to the ideal.
Quilombola communities tradition
It is difficult to point out a unique quilombola tradition , since quilombos were formed and organized in the most diverse ways. In the first place, it was not just African descendants who populated the quilombos. In addition to black people (who are predominant today in the ethnic composition of quilombo areas), there is a significant presence of descendants of indigenous and Europeans.
Quilombo organizations were also the most diverse. There was a predominance of the tribal way of life in them, but many quilombos developed trade systems and some even established internal political systems, such as kingdoms and republics.
This is the case of Quilombo de Mola , led, for a time, by the resistant leader Felipa Maria Aranha. This quilombo, located where today is the south of the state of Tocantins, was temporarily organized as a true republic, with a civil code, an army and a democratic voting system .
Despite the diversity of cultural origins , some general features of African culture are present in the quilombos, in addition to the religious syncretism of Afro-Brazilian religions, which mix the traditional cult of the orishas with Catholicism, and the cuisine, with various indigenous elements. Quilombolas in general are very fond of music, singing, dancing and traditional parties.
The Pará municipality of Oriximiná , for example, is in a region that is home to several quilombos. There, there is immense cultural diversity. On January 6, there is the traditional Aiuê a São Benedito, a party in celebration of the patron saint of the Jauari community, São Benedito. In this community it is common to practice soccer as a favorite sport for men and women. The dances range from African rhythms, such as the lundum and mazurka, to a traditional European rhythm, the waltz. The so-called “brega” music, widely heard in Pará, is also a favorite in the municipality of Oriximiná.
The municipality of São Bento do Sapucaí , 185 kilometers from the city of São Paulo, in the Serra da Mantiqueira, also houses a quilombola community. The handicraft produced there is a reference in quilombola art and keeps alive the cultural tradition of the ancestral peoples of the quilombo in that region. Using banana straw, corn and other natural elements, artisans produce their pieces for sale in the city’s tourist complex.
This community has also celebrated, for more than 50 years, the traditional Festa do Quilombo , kept alive by Luzia Maria da Cruz, 86 years old (better known there as Dona Luzia, the matriarch). The party is celebrated on May 13, the date on which the abolition of slavery in Brazil was sanctioned.
The typical quilombos’ food is more determined by the region where they are than by an ethnic unit. In Bahia’s quilombos, for example, acarajé is a typical delicacy. In the northeast in general, a lot of couscous is eaten, no different in these communities. Tapioca and garapa (the traditional sugarcane juice) are also appreciated in several quilombos throughout the country.
As for the religion worshiped in the quilombola regions, there is no specific one. Quilombos have several religious origins , with Candomblé, Catholicism and Protestantism predominating. In them, the syncretism between Catholic and Candomblecist elements is also very present.
Learn more: Differences between candomblé and umbanda
Brazilian states with the largest number of quilombos
With the exception of Acre, Roraima and the Federal District, all Brazilian states have quilombos. Although the Federal District does not have them, in the regions surrounding the district belonging to Goiás they are present. The Brazilian states with the largest number of remaining quilombo communities are Bahia, which has 229 registered quilombos; Maranhão, with 112; Minas Gerais, with 89; and Pará, with 81 registered quilombola communities | 2 |.
Quilombola child from Quilombo de Trigueiros, Pernambuco.
The Northeast quilombo communities represent the majority of quilombo concentration by region and maintain a strong tradition due to the existence of quilombos that marked the history like Quilombo of Palmares. In Bahia, there are quilombola communities that suffered from the violence of land grabbers and farmers, but today they have protection from Incra and projects to restore their culture. Bom Jesus da Lapa is a municipality that concentrates many remaining quilombo communities.
