{"id":68273,"date":"2022-01-21T14:58:10","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T17:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=68273"},"modified":"2025-09-13T14:07:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T17:07:46","slug":"exu-killed-a-bird-yesterday-with-a-stone-he-threw-today-is-an-anti-racist-world-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=68273","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Eshu Throws a Stone Today and Kills a Bird of Yesterday\u2019: Is an Anti-Racist World Possible?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

This article is the latest contribution to our year-long reporting project, \u201cRooting Anti-Racism in the Favelas<\/a>: Deconstructing Social Narratives About Racism in Rio de Janeiro.\u201d Follow our\u00a0Rooting Anti-Racism in the Favelas series here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

An antiracist world must be fought for on several fronts. Acting in only one isolated area is not enough to heal the abyss left by years of racial inequality<\/a> in Brazil. It is necessary to act together, with broad participation from civil society, the private sector, and public authorities to deconstruct structural and institutionalized racism<\/a>. There is no magic bullet. The solution is a path built through hard work and dedication. The steps come from afar and are usually taken by us, black people, but above all by us, black women.<\/p>\n

By Us for Us<\/h3>\n

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Cases abound. Redes da Mar\u00e9<\/a>, for instance, is a civil society organization which has become a reference for citizen activism in one of the largest favelas in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Founded over two decades ago, the network lives up to its name in the way it is structured. It produces knowledge, develops projects, and promotes comprehensive actions<\/a> to ensure effective public policies to improve the lives of the 140,000 residents<\/a> of the 16 favelas that make up Complexo da Mar\u00e9<\/a>, in the North Zone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Working across four axes\u2014Art, Culture, Memories and Identities<\/a>; Territorial Development<\/a>; The Right to Public Safety and Justice<\/a>; and Education<\/a>\u2014Redes da Mar\u00e9 has managed to ensure significant advances, while promoting important debates about awareness and active citizenship in the community.<\/p>\n

Started by current and former residents<\/a> of the region, Redes da Mar\u00e9 is always attentive to local needs. This focus has contributed to the institution’s broad reach today, and ability to commit thoroughly to important issues\u2014much like other organizations from the Black Movement<\/a> have fought, and still fight, to guarantee a better life for current and future generations.<\/p>\n

Identifying and Ensuring Rights: “Blackology” and Yoruba Philosophical Pathways<\/h3>\n

\u201cEshu Throws a Stone Today and Kills a Bird of Yesterday<\/a>\u201d is a Yoruba<\/a> saying that became popular after Brazilian rapper Emicida quoted it in the documentary AmarElo\u2014It’s All for Yesterday<\/a><\/em>, which is about the artist’s work and about blackness in Brazil<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yoruba culture<\/a> comes from one of the greatest kingdoms in the history of West Africa<\/a>: the Oyo Empire<\/a>. In this culture, orality holds a sacred weight<\/a>. It is the fabric that weaves together peoples’ lives, transmitting their ancestral heritage<\/a> to the younger generation, and preserving traditional knowledge. Rhetoric and storytelling<\/a> are historical documents as well as educational practices.<\/p>\n

In order to understand oneself as a black person in the diaspora, amid a reality of hierarchies<\/a>, colorism<\/a>, and racial inequality<\/a>, it is necessary to reflect collectively on the topic. It becomes important to honor one’s ancestors, to educate oneself in the collective “doing” of blackology\u2014<\/em>or black pedagogy<\/a>\u2014<\/em>and to strengthen ourselves through our own.<\/p>\n

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The Mar\u00e9 Census<\/a>, produced by Redes da Mar\u00e9, revealed that 62.1% of residents identify themselves as black or brown. From this analysis, several policies were developed to improve race relations in the group of favelas, and thus combat everyday racism. The Black House of Mar\u00e9<\/a> was created with this aim, as explained by P\u00e2mela Carvalho, coordinator of Redes da Mar\u00e9’s Art, Culture, Memories and Identities axis: \u201cWe started out with formative roundtables, with the idea of re-educating people on race relations. Having discussions on black masculinities, black grandmothers… On the difference between retail drug sales and drug trafficking; understanding how important it is to racialize the issue of public safety because we, unfortunately, have a very racist public security project in force here in Rio de Janeiro<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The space aims to promote theoretical, methodological, and political education in order to work through ethno-racial issues, and provide tools to confront structural racism<\/a> in Brazil. The Black House also runs the Mar\u00e9 School for Racial Literacy, an ongoing training program for black youth that ran from July to December of 2021, with new classes planned for 2022, 2023, and years to follow.<\/p>\n

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Due to the pandemic, weekly classes were held remotely, with one face-to-face class per month. The training was divided into modules. The first module included theoretical classes to understand racialization in the context of Brazil; the second focused on analyzing audiovisual media from a racialized perspective, including practical knowledge of the topic; and the last focused on the arts in general.<\/p>\n

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As Carvalho explains, “We’re going to work a lot with rap, graffiti, funk, and the urban arts within these youths’ context, which is something they’ve shown an interest in. The idea is to make this a training course, with about 30 students per class. They will all receive stipends since we’ve realized that many are already in the informal labor market.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Black House of Mar\u00e9 also offers shorter-term courses and artistic cultural activities that are open to the general public. These focus on the Afro-Brazilian context, such as a course on the theory of Quilombismo<\/a><\/em>, a concept coined by actor and activist Abdias do Nascimento<\/a>. Also known today as aquilombamento<\/em>, both terms originate with the term quilombo<\/em><\/a>\u2014the first territories of freedom from enslavement for Afro-Brazilians in colonial Brazil, having a social and economic model that contrasted with the areas of Portuguese occupation. Quilombos<\/em> were based on African cultural heritage and values, they could be rural or urban, and were self-sufficient, producing their own food, laws, weapons, etc. although they established commercial relations with surrounding communities under Portuguese rule. Some quilombos<\/em> had more people than the largest Portuguese-controlled Brazilian cities at the time. Quilombismo<\/em> proposes this legacy as the foundational reference for the political mobilization of the Afro-descendent population in the Americas, based on their own historical and cultural experiences. It goes even further, in fact, with an Afro-Brazilian proposal for the contemporary national State as a multi-ethnic and pluricultural Brazil.<\/p>\n