{"id":43694,"date":"2018-05-22T09:52:05","date_gmt":"2018-05-22T12:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=43694"},"modified":"2018-05-26T10:38:09","modified_gmt":"2018-05-26T13:38:09","slug":"130-years-after-abolition-quilombo-sacopa-resists-through-traditional-feijoada-and-samba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=43694","title":{"rendered":"130 Years After Abolition, Quilombo Sacop\u00e3 Resists Through Traditional Feijoada and Samba"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Por<\/strong>tugu\u00eas<\/strong><\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

On Saturday, May 12,\u00a0Quilombo Sacop\u00e3<\/a> organized a traditional feijoada<\/em> and samba<\/a> event in the context of May 13 marking\u00a0130 years since the abolition of slavery<\/a>\u00a0in Brazil. The community consists of around 40 members of the Pinto family, descended from its founders, Eva and Manoel, who arrived in Lagoa<\/a> at the start of the twentieth century. At that time, Lagoa was a semi-urban periphery of the city of Rio. Eva and Manoel migrated to the city from the Nova Friburgo<\/a> municipality, where their parents and grandparents had been slaves<\/a>. Such migrations in the aftermath of abolition were common, as many recently freed slaves and their descendants did not wish to remain where they and their ancestors had been enslaved.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since then, the family has struggled to remain on their territory, resisting evictions<\/a>. In the 1970s, when Lagoa urbanized and gentrified<\/a>, the military dictatorship forcefully removed the neighborhood\u2019s favelas<\/a> and poorer residents, also targeting the Pinto family. At first, the Pintos fought to remain on their land through an adverse possession process. Since 2004, they have been in the process of demarcating their territory as a quilombo. Lagoa is today an upper-class, white neighborhood\u201491% of its residents are white<\/a>\u2014with one of the highest per capita incomes in the city<\/a>, as well as one of the highest per square meter prices<\/a>. The community is located on what is today Rua Sacop\u00e3, from which it derives its name.<\/p>\n

According to Article 68 of the 1988 Constitution’s Temporary Provisions<\/a>, quilombo communities have the right to the lands on which they live. There is some confusion, however, about what a quilombo is. Historical quilombos<\/a> were communities of runaway slaves and could be found in urban and rural areas. Contemporary quilombos<\/a>, on the other hand, are urban or rural slave-descendant communities who have developed cultural and\/or religious traditions that are linked to their black ancestry and are inseparable from their territories. Often, a community begins to self-identify as a\u00a0quilombo because it is experiencing land conflicts, so that quilombos are, today, <\/em>also\u00a0<\/em>a movement for land rights<\/a>. Their territories are indispensable to their cultural and physical survival. Many emerged as quilombos, therefore, only after the 1988 Constitution. In the city of Rio, Pedra do Sal<\/a>, Camorim<\/a>, and Sacop\u00e3 are the three urban communities currently identified as quilombos.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Celebrating Sacop\u00e3<\/h3>\n

On Saturday, the community recognized the anniversary of the abolition of slavery with mixed feelings. As Luiz Sacop\u00e3, the president of Sacop\u00e3\u2019s association, explained, \u201cblack movements do not celebrate this date, because the abolition brought a certain freedom but no dignity<\/a>, and, until today, we still have not achieved this dignity.\u201d Abolition ended Brazil\u2019s slave-based economy<\/a>\u00a0but previously passed laws, such as the Land Law of 1850<\/a>, prevented recently freed slaves\u2019 access to lands<\/a>, and independent Brazil continued to deny substantive citizenship to its black and indigenous<\/a> populations.<\/p>\n

For Sacop\u00e3, the event itself marked an opportunity to challenge this lack of dignity and respect. The family is prohibited from organizing events in its territory, even though Article 215 of the Constitution<\/a> guarantees quilombolas’ right to practice their culture<\/a>. In the 1980s, Sacop\u00e3 was famous for its\u00a0pagode<\/a> and samba events known as\u00a0S\u00f3 na Lenha<\/em><\/a>, at which residents served a traditional feijoada<\/em>, cooked on firewood. However, noise complaints by the neighbors led the police to prohibit the community from continuing this important tradition. S\u00f3 na Lenha<\/em> was not only a major source of income for the community, but also an important expression of their black ancestry. Family members such as Luiz and the late Tia Nen\u00e9m\u00a0were themselves samba singers and composers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The neighbors\u2019 complaints led to accumulating fines and several police interventions in the territory. For a period of time, the police even locked up the communal kitchen and two police officers lived in the community to surveil the family 24\/7. Despite Sacop\u00e3’s recognition as a quilombo and as a Special Area of Cultural Interest<\/a>, residents’ constitutional right to express their culture has so far not been respected. \u201cWe are celebrating this occasion,\u201d Luiz explained, \u201cbecause we are legally prohibited from holding any type of cultural manifestation on our land.\u201d Therefore, on May 13 and November 20 (Black Awareness Day<\/a>, or Zumbi Day), the Pintos organize a feijoada<\/em> and samba to test the reaction of Rio\u2019s justice system. As Luiz put it, \u201cfor us [May 13] is a sad day, but it\u2019s a day when we can manifest our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Saturday event therefore had the political purpose of bringing visibility to this ongoing injustice, and of reenergizing residents’ struggle for land in Lagoa. As Sacop\u00e3 member Cl\u00e1udio noted, such cultural manifestations are important in passing on a sense of belonging and pride<\/a> to the younger generations by showing them that the community has \u201ca specificity and history of resistance<\/a> on that territory.\u201d This younger generation, such as Cl\u00e1udio\u2019s children, has been forced to grow up detached from these cultural traditions.<\/p>\n

Despite these ongoing challenges, Sacop\u00e3 residents Tina and M\u00e1rcia served their famous feijoada<\/em>, while the Sacop\u00e3 samba group and singer and composer Noca da Portela guaranteed a lively atmosphere. Other musicians, supporters, and politicians attended the event.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The land struggle continues<\/h3>\n

Similar to indigenous land rights, quilombo land rights come in the form of a collective land title, and are implemented through an administrative process with more or less seven stages<\/a>. Sacop\u00e3 is currently approaching the sixth\u00a0stage, in which invaders living on a community’s lands are removed and compensated. The last milestone in their demarcation process was in 2014, when Sacop\u00e3 received the “portaria de<\/em> reconhecimento<\/em>” documentation<\/a>, which recognized the community as a quilombo and delimited the collective land. \u201cSince then,\u201d Luiz stated, \u201cthings have calmed down a bit. We feel a bit more secure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2003, the regularization of quilombo land titles has fallen under the responsibility of the federal institute INCRA. In the past five years, however, the budget for the demarcation of quilombos has been drastically reduced<\/a>, further slowing down and complicating an already lengthy process<\/a>. One consequence of this budget cut is that it hinders the removal and compensation of invaders on quilombo lands, so that several communities, including Sacop\u00e3, have been forced to reduce the perimeters of their traditional territories to exclude the plots invaded by outsiders.<\/p>\n

Besides delays in the demarcation processes, quilombolas throughout Brazil have also been facing growing incidents and threats of violence<\/a>, which affect several types of political activists throughout the country. In 2017, the number of quilombo leaders murdered in Brazil increased to 14<\/a>, compared to eight documented murders in 2016 and only one in 2015.<\/p>\n

Still, Sacop\u00e3 stands as evidence of the power of resistance. The family, after all, has remained in its territory and continues to thrive, resisting real estate speculation<\/a>, privilege, and racism<\/a> in one of Rio\u2019s wealthiest neighborhoods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas On Saturday, May 12,\u00a0Quilombo Sacop\u00e3 organized a traditional feijoada and samba event in the context of May 13 marking\u00a0130 years since the abolition of slavery\u00a0in Brazil. The community consists of around […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":43696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1293,1288,1333,335,336],"tags":[662,2570,2734,504,2622,573,11,65,188,1103,203,1675,1033,936,2593,574,450,1189,10,270,1034,571,279,156,1885],"writer":[1317],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-43694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-highlight","9":"category-event-reports","10":"category-policies","11":"category-violations","12":"tag-afro-brazilian-culture","13":"tag-collective","14":"tag-collective-titling","15":"tag-culture","16":"tag-event","17":"tag-feijoada","18":"tag-forced-evictions","19":"tag-gentrification","20":"tag-history","21":"tag-how-not-to-treat-a-community","22":"tag-inequality","23":"tag-lagoa","24":"tag-land-rights","25":"tag-land-titling","26":"tag-nova-friburgo","27":"tag-pagode","28":"tag-quilombo","29":"tag-racism","30":"tag-real-estate-speculation","31":"tag-resistance","32":"tag-sacopa-quilombo","33":"tag-samba","34":"tag-slavery","35":"tag-south-zone","36":"tag-zumbi","37":"writer-desiree-poets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43694"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=43694"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=43694"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=43694"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=43694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}