Black Bodies, Black Rights: The Politics of Quilombolismo in Contemporary Brazil
Under a provision in the Brazilian constitution, rural black communities identified as the modern descendants of quilombos—runaway slave communities—are promised land rights as a form of reparations for the historic exclusion of blacks from land ownership. The quilombo provision has been hailed as a success for black rights; however, rights for quilombolas are highly controversial and, in many cases, have led to violent land conflicts. Although thousands of rural black communities have been legally recognized, only a handful have received the rights they were promised. Conflict over quilombola rights is widespread and carries important consequences for race relations and political representations of blackness in twenty-first century Brazil. Drawing on field work in a quilombola community, Elizabeth Farfán-Santos explores how quilombo recognition has significantly affected the everyday lives of those who experience the often-complicated political process. Questions of identity, race, and entitlement play out against a community’s struggle to prove its historical authenticity—and to gain the land and rights they need to survive. This work not only demonstrates the lived experience of a new, particular form of blackness in Brazil, but also shows how blackness is being mobilized and reimagined to gain social rights and political recognition. Black Bodies, Black Rights thus represents an important contribution to the rapidly growing interdisciplinary field of Afro-Latino studies.
Check out a sample chapter here
Published by The University of Texas Press, 2016.
Praise for Black Bodies, Black Rights
"[A] brilliantly researched and argued book…a much-needed investigation of the differences between how state actors understand ideas of black land rights and how an Afro-Brazilian community effectively makes space on their own terms and in the process maintains a centuries-long commitment to sustaining themselves amidst racialized poverty."
— Adam Bledsoe, AAG Review of Books 2019-01-15
"The drama of resistance and rebellion to enslavement and the odyssey of transformation from enslaved Africans to rights-bearing subjects make for a terrific narrative, highly accessible to a general readership."
— Charles Hale, Professor of Anthropology
“Black Bodies, Black Rights is…a case study of bureaucracy, race, power, and wealth in contemporary Brazil. For anyone who wants an illuminating look [on] these phenomena at the grass-roots level, this is the book to read.”
“I consider this book important supplementary reading for students in health and human sciences, professionals [in these fields], and required reading on health inequities and the promotion of racial equality in Brazil”
— Aline Ferreira, Ciencia & Saude: Journal of the Brazilian Association of Collective Health 2017, translation mine