Against the current — Laila Thaíse Batista de Oliveira’s (UFS) review of “Uma história feita por mãos negras: Relações raciais, quilombos e movimentos”, coletânea de textos de Maria Beatriz Nascimento”, organized by Alex Ratts
Abstract: Uma história feita por mãos negras: Relações raciais, quilombos e movimentos, organized by Alex Ratts, explores the works of Beatriz Nascimento on race relations and quilombos in Brazil. The work retells Brazilian history through a black perspective, criticizing European theories and highlighting the importance of the black narrative.
Keywords: Race Relations, Quilombos, Blacks.
The work Uma história feita por mãos negras: Relações raciais, quilombos e movimentos, organized by anthropologist Alex Ratts, through the publisher Zahar, in 2021, aimed to provide an overview of the writings of Sergipe historian Beatriz Nascimento, focusing on racial relations, formation of Brazilian society and his studies on quilombos in Brazil, relating them to experiences on the African continent. Ratts also announces in the introduction that, in this overview, he intends to delve deeper into the themes and theses brought up by the historian, as well as point out contradictions in her work. As a black intellectual, Beatriz Nascimento dealt with race, class and gender, developing an understanding of Brazilian society, its inequalities and social dynamics.
Beatriz Nascimento, graduated in History from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), did postgraduate studies at the Federal Fluminense University, created the “André Rebouças” Working Group and produced several writings on racial relations in Brazil and on quilombos, the latter was the focus of his research. Alex Ratts, doctor in Anthropology and professor at the Federal University of Goiás (UFG), launched the collection of texts in memory of the intellectual victim of feminicide in the 1990s. The book, which reaches the public in a context of pandemic and political crisis in the country, is divided into twenty four chapters, distributed in four sections, and is part of the research carried out by the author around the production of intellectual, making accessible the ideas and reflections that share with the construction of a decolonial thought in Brazil, a history told by black voices.
The first section of the book brings together four texts that point out a problem experienced in the sphere of Brazilian intellectuality, with an emphasis on historiography: writing about black people without black people. For the resolution, along the lines of a historical reparation, she proposes a change of perspective, a break with the white gaze, and the retelling of the formation of Brazil through black hands (in addition to sociological and ethnographic studies).
In the same section, the author will analyze how racism structured Brazil through the white perspective in the production of its history and in the hegemonic social and political conduct of the nation, making it impossible for black people to occupy places of power to narrate their existence. The writings deny racial democracy and highlight the need for black people to move from the place of object of research to the place of researcher.
Among the positive points of this section is the criticism of the adaptation of European concepts and theories, used by scholars, to understand the historical-social formation of Brazil. I also highlight the analysis of black women in the job market and in Brazilian society. For a better understanding of the role assigned to black women who, since ancient times, have represented exploited labor. The condition of subordinate roles to this day would be a “slavery legacy”.
Another point to be highlighted in a positive way was the perception of the effects of the myth of racial democracy and the whitening of black Brazilians. The author makes a historical review of this journey to illustrate “who it serves” the realization of a nation project in which black people and their history are erased for the emergence of an ideal of mulatto Brazilianness, on the way to redemption by trying to achieve the “dreamed” whitens the population.
In the second section of the book, with a total of eight chapters, the author delves into the details of the slavery system, a strong arm of the European economy. To this end, the intellectual analyzes the historiographical productions that deal with the period of slavery, selecting writings, such as that of Corad and Brasil Gerson, evaluating and opposing some perspectives of these historians. She highlights Conrad’s change of perspective, which had been reinforcing the stereotype of docility and, in a certain way, the permissiveness of the condition of enslaved black men, concluding that there was no slavery without resistance. Beatriz’s criticism also goes in the direction of the overview made by Brasil Gerson, since the historian does not seek the entire framework that already exists in literature and research on the subject, and begins his research from his own perspective, making the research inconsistent.
We consider Beatriz’s analysis to be positive. By reflecting on the researchers’ erroneous conclusions, the historian demonstrates the contradiction, stating that black men as slaves were insubmissive. They were active in their liberation process by undertaking revolts and liberation strategies. Furthermore, Brazil was the country where the most demonstrations of resistance occurred throughout the slavery system. The work, therefore, configures a clear exercise in changing the position of black people in the period of abolition, which in traditional writings was placed in the place of passivity. By bringing black abolitionist references from the time, she demarcates the protagonism of black people in their own history. The author plays an important role in constructing a severe critique of traditional historiography, which discards individual trajectories, in addition to asking: What is the lens through which historical processes are read? Who does this lens serve?
Still on the second section, it is possible to observe that, in a careful way, the author retrieves data and makes a rigorous reading of the elements that shaped the process of the slavery system, refuting historians’ statements. An example of this criticism is in the review she produced about Luiz Luna’s book. There, the author reproaches the author for choosing a colonial perspective to translate what was the exploitation of black African labor in Brazil, falling into ethnocentric traps.
This section, as we see, deconstructs several records produced under the white gaze, ranging from the origin of the people and places of embarkation, to, in the words of the intellectual from Sergipe, hasty conclusions. Based on research and analysis of the works, she denounces writings of references that contribute to the permanence of stereotypes of black people in the slavery period and establishes concepts and categories that neglect the history of this population..
In section three, Nascimento analyzes the formation of quilombos as a strategy of resistance by the black population during the slavery period. In traditional historiography, quilombos were linked to the historical logic of colonization, of European advances, without their own process being explained through a more careful study.
Among the positive aspects of this section is the statement that quilombos were not just places of escape and hiding, but functioned as an economically self-sustainable society. It concludes that spaces such as favelas, for example, can be considered “ex-quilombo areas”.
Finally, section four of the collection is connected to the end of the penultimate part, in which the author makes a correlation between people in the struggle for liberation from slavery and the beginning of the formation of social movements. It brings the representation of the quilombo beyond territoriality, but as a symbol of resistance, guardian of African memory.
The section reflects on the importance of collectivity, as opposed to representation in a hero/heroine, asserting that only in this way is it possible to achieve rights and freedoms. It narrates the dynamics of the constitution of black movements, collective life, art, music and intellectual production. The author uses the historical processes of liberation and resistance of black people to defend a point of view: the strength of the continuity of ways of reinventing oneself. It describes a collective feeling of living among the black population, preserving traces of an African and Afro-diasporic memory.
Therefore, the author’s ability to narrate the transformations of black resistance in the post-abolition period is positive, highlighting that the achievements achieved until then only occurred through the collective and the survival strategy of black populations, unlike the narratives of heroes.
The historian’s writings, as we see, explore the formation of the country, presenting a project to rewrite Brazilian history and the urgency of breaking the white gaze in the history of Brazil’s formation, evoking the urgency of history through the perspective of the diasporic black Afro population . However, the collection partially fulfills the purpose launched by its organizer. It brings “themes and sources”, but does not identify the “contradictions”. Despite this insufficiency, the collection makes it clear that Beatriz Nascimento is included in a group of black intellectuals who, by producing analyzes on the formation of Brazilian society, through the black perspective, of their experience as a colonized, exploited and resistant subject, unmask the myth of racial democracy and the idea of a single history to determine the many existences and so many Brazils, permeated by inequalities, that engage in the fight for social justice. The work, therefore, should be read by researchers on the themes of gender, race, class and the formation of Brazilian society, as well as activists from the black movement and human rights.
Summary of Uma história feita por mãos negras: Relações raciais, quilombos e movimentos
Introdução
I. Intelectualidade, relações raciais e de gênero
1. Por uma história do homem negro
2. Negro e racismo
3. A mulher negra no mercado de trabalho
4. Nossa democracia racial
II. Escravismo, fugas e quilombos
5. Escravos a serviço do progresso
6. A incensada princesa
7. Conselhos ao príncipe
8. Conceitos ultrapassados
9. Escravidão
10. Zumbi de Ngola Djanga ou de Angola Pequena ou do Quilombo dos Palmares
11. O Quilombo de Jabaquara
III. O quilombo como sistema alternativo
12. Sistemas sociais alternativos organizados pelos negros: Dos quilombos às favelas
13. Quilombos: Mudança social ou conservantismo?
14. Kilombo e memória comunitária. Um estudo so
15. O conceito de quilombo e a resistência cultural negra
16. O nativismo angolano pós-revolução
17. O movimento de Antônio Conselheiro e o abolicionismo: Uma visão da história regional
IV. Movimento negro e cultura
18. Daquilo que se chama cultura
19. Atualizando a consciência
20. Carta de Santa Catarina
21. A mulher negra e o amor
22. A luta dos quilombos: Ontem, hoje e amanhã
23. Eram deuses os negros da “Pequena África” do Rio de Janeiro
24. Kilombo
Notas
Bibliografia
Fontes
Reviewer
Laila Thaíse Batista de Oliveira has a master’s degree in Comunicação (UFS), a specialist in Didática e Metodologia do Ensino Superior (SLF) and a degree in Jornalismo (Unit). She is a PHD student in Sociologia (PPGS/UFS) and in Estudos Étnicos e Africanos (PÓS-AFRO/UFBA), member of the Grupo de Pesquisa Pós-Abolição no Mundo Atlântico (PAMA) and Communication Coordinator of Coalizão Direitos na Rede (CDR). Published, among other texts, Enegrecendo as redes: o ativismo de mulheres negras no espaço virtual (2016) co-authored with Renata Malta. ID LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/4373831715435167; ID ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4027-6891; Instagram: @laila_oliveira.jornalismo; E-mail: lailathaise@hotmail.com.
To cite this review
NASCIMENTO, Maria Beatriz. Uma história feita por mãos negras: Relações raciais, quilombos e movimentos. Organização de Alex Ratts. Rio de janeiro: Zahar, 2021. 272p. Review by: OLIVEIRA, Laila Thaíse Batista de. Against the current. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.4, n.15, jan./feb., 2024. Available at <https://www.criticahistoriografica.com.br/en/against-the-current-laila-thaise-batista-de-oliveiras-ufs-review-of-uma-historia-feita-por-maos-negras-relacoes-raciais-quilombos-e-movimentos-coletanea-de-textos-de//>.
Against the current — Laila Thaíse Batista de Oliveira’s (UFS) review of “Uma história feita por mãos negras: Relações raciais, quilombos e movimentos”, coletânea de textos de Maria Beatriz Nascimento”, organized by Alex Ratts
Abstract: Uma história feita por mãos negras: Relações raciais, quilombos e movimentos, organized by Alex Ratts, explores the works of Beatriz Nascimento on race relations and quilombos in Brazil. The work retells Brazilian history through a black perspective, criticizing European theories and highlighting the importance of the black narrative.
Keywords: Race Relations, Quilombos, Blacks.
The work Uma história feita por mãos negras: Relações raciais, quilombos e movimentos, organized by anthropologist Alex Ratts, through the publisher Zahar, in 2021, aimed to provide an overview of the writings of Sergipe historian Beatriz Nascimento, focusing on racial relations, formation of Brazilian society and his studies on quilombos in Brazil, relating them to experiences on the African continent. Ratts also announces in the introduction that, in this overview, he intends to delve deeper into the themes and theses brought up by the historian, as well as point out contradictions in her work. As a black intellectual, Beatriz Nascimento dealt with race, class and gender, developing an understanding of Brazilian society, its inequalities and social dynamics.
Beatriz Nascimento, graduated in History from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), did postgraduate studies at the Federal Fluminense University, created the “André Rebouças” Working Group and produced several writings on racial relations in Brazil and on quilombos, the latter was the focus of his research. Alex Ratts, doctor in Anthropology and professor at the Federal University of Goiás (UFG), launched the collection of texts in memory of the intellectual victim of feminicide in the 1990s. The book, which reaches the public in a context of pandemic and political crisis in the country, is divided into twenty four chapters, distributed in four sections, and is part of the research carried out by the author around the production of intellectual, making accessible the ideas and reflections that share with the construction of a decolonial thought in Brazil, a history told by black voices.
The first section of the book brings together four texts that point out a problem experienced in the sphere of Brazilian intellectuality, with an emphasis on historiography: writing about black people without black people. For the resolution, along the lines of a historical reparation, she proposes a change of perspective, a break with the white gaze, and the retelling of the formation of Brazil through black hands (in addition to sociological and ethnographic studies).
In the same section, the author will analyze how racism structured Brazil through the white perspective in the production of its history and in the hegemonic social and political conduct of the nation, making it impossible for black people to occupy places of power to narrate their existence. The writings deny racial democracy and highlight the need for black people to move from the place of object of research to the place of researcher.
Among the positive points of this section is the criticism of the adaptation of European concepts and theories, used by scholars, to understand the historical-social formation of Brazil. I also highlight the analysis of black women in the job market and in Brazilian society. For a better understanding of the role assigned to black women who, since ancient times, have represented exploited labor. The condition of subordinate roles to this day would be a “slavery legacy”.
Another point to be highlighted in a positive way was the perception of the effects of the myth of racial democracy and the whitening of black Brazilians. The author makes a historical review of this journey to illustrate “who it serves” the realization of a nation project in which black people and their history are erased for the emergence of an ideal of mulatto Brazilianness, on the way to redemption by trying to achieve the “dreamed” whitens the population.
In the second section of the book, with a total of eight chapters, the author delves into the details of the slavery system, a strong arm of the European economy. To this end, the intellectual analyzes the historiographical productions that deal with the period of slavery, selecting writings, such as that of Corad and Brasil Gerson, evaluating and opposing some perspectives of these historians. She highlights Conrad’s change of perspective, which had been reinforcing the stereotype of docility and, in a certain way, the permissiveness of the condition of enslaved black men, concluding that there was no slavery without resistance. Beatriz’s criticism also goes in the direction of the overview made by Brasil Gerson, since the historian does not seek the entire framework that already exists in literature and research on the subject, and begins his research from his own perspective, making the research inconsistent.
We consider Beatriz’s analysis to be positive. By reflecting on the researchers’ erroneous conclusions, the historian demonstrates the contradiction, stating that black men as slaves were insubmissive. They were active in their liberation process by undertaking revolts and liberation strategies. Furthermore, Brazil was the country where the most demonstrations of resistance occurred throughout the slavery system. The work, therefore, configures a clear exercise in changing the position of black people in the period of abolition, which in traditional writings was placed in the place of passivity. By bringing black abolitionist references from the time, she demarcates the protagonism of black people in their own history. The author plays an important role in constructing a severe critique of traditional historiography, which discards individual trajectories, in addition to asking: What is the lens through which historical processes are read? Who does this lens serve?
Still on the second section, it is possible to observe that, in a careful way, the author retrieves data and makes a rigorous reading of the elements that shaped the process of the slavery system, refuting historians’ statements. An example of this criticism is in the review she produced about Luiz Luna’s book. There, the author reproaches the author for choosing a colonial perspective to translate what was the exploitation of black African labor in Brazil, falling into ethnocentric traps.
This section, as we see, deconstructs several records produced under the white gaze, ranging from the origin of the people and places of embarkation, to, in the words of the intellectual from Sergipe, hasty conclusions. Based on research and analysis of the works, she denounces writings of references that contribute to the permanence of stereotypes of black people in the slavery period and establishes concepts and categories that neglect the history of this population..
In section three, Nascimento analyzes the formation of quilombos as a strategy of resistance by the black population during the slavery period. In traditional historiography, quilombos were linked to the historical logic of colonization, of European advances, without their own process being explained through a more careful study.
Among the positive aspects of this section is the statement that quilombos were not just places of escape and hiding, but functioned as an economically self-sustainable society. It concludes that spaces such as favelas, for example, can be considered “ex-quilombo areas”.
Finally, section four of the collection is connected to the end of the penultimate part, in which the author makes a correlation between people in the struggle for liberation from slavery and the beginning of the formation of social movements. It brings the representation of the quilombo beyond territoriality, but as a symbol of resistance, guardian of African memory.
The section reflects on the importance of collectivity, as opposed to representation in a hero/heroine, asserting that only in this way is it possible to achieve rights and freedoms. It narrates the dynamics of the constitution of black movements, collective life, art, music and intellectual production. The author uses the historical processes of liberation and resistance of black people to defend a point of view: the strength of the continuity of ways of reinventing oneself. It describes a collective feeling of living among the black population, preserving traces of an African and Afro-diasporic memory.
Therefore, the author’s ability to narrate the transformations of black resistance in the post-abolition period is positive, highlighting that the achievements achieved until then only occurred through the collective and the survival strategy of black populations, unlike the narratives of heroes.
The historian’s writings, as we see, explore the formation of the country, presenting a project to rewrite Brazilian history and the urgency of breaking the white gaze in the history of Brazil’s formation, evoking the urgency of history through the perspective of the diasporic black Afro population . However, the collection partially fulfills the purpose launched by its organizer. It brings “themes and sources”, but does not identify the “contradictions”. Despite this insufficiency, the collection makes it clear that Beatriz Nascimento is included in a group of black intellectuals who, by producing analyzes on the formation of Brazilian society, through the black perspective, of their experience as a colonized, exploited and resistant subject, unmask the myth of racial democracy and the idea of a single history to determine the many existences and so many Brazils, permeated by inequalities, that engage in the fight for social justice. The work, therefore, should be read by researchers on the themes of gender, race, class and the formation of Brazilian society, as well as activists from the black movement and human rights.
Summary of Uma história feita por mãos negras: Relações raciais, quilombos e movimentos
Introdução
I. Intelectualidade, relações raciais e de gênero
1. Por uma história do homem negro
2. Negro e racismo
3. A mulher negra no mercado de trabalho
4. Nossa democracia racial
II. Escravismo, fugas e quilombos
5. Escravos a serviço do progresso
6. A incensada princesa
7. Conselhos ao príncipe
8. Conceitos ultrapassados
9. Escravidão
10. Zumbi de Ngola Djanga ou de Angola Pequena ou do Quilombo dos Palmares
11. O Quilombo de Jabaquara
III. O quilombo como sistema alternativo
12. Sistemas sociais alternativos organizados pelos negros: Dos quilombos às favelas
13. Quilombos: Mudança social ou conservantismo?
14. Kilombo e memória comunitária. Um estudo so
15. O conceito de quilombo e a resistência cultural negra
16. O nativismo angolano pós-revolução
17. O movimento de Antônio Conselheiro e o abolicionismo: Uma visão da história regional
IV. Movimento negro e cultura
18. Daquilo que se chama cultura
19. Atualizando a consciência
20. Carta de Santa Catarina
21. A mulher negra e o amor
22. A luta dos quilombos: Ontem, hoje e amanhã
23. Eram deuses os negros da “Pequena África” do Rio de Janeiro
24. Kilombo
Notas
Bibliografia
Fontes
Reviewer
Laila Thaíse Batista de Oliveira has a master’s degree in Comunicação (UFS), a specialist in Didática e Metodologia do Ensino Superior (SLF) and a degree in Jornalismo (Unit). She is a PHD student in Sociologia (PPGS/UFS) and in Estudos Étnicos e Africanos (PÓS-AFRO/UFBA), member of the Grupo de Pesquisa Pós-Abolição no Mundo Atlântico (PAMA) and Communication Coordinator of Coalizão Direitos na Rede (CDR). Published, among other texts, Enegrecendo as redes: o ativismo de mulheres negras no espaço virtual (2016) co-authored with Renata Malta. ID LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/4373831715435167; ID ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4027-6891; Instagram: @laila_oliveira.jornalismo; E-mail: lailathaise@hotmail.com.
To cite this review
NASCIMENTO, Maria Beatriz. Uma história feita por mãos negras: Relações raciais, quilombos e movimentos. Organização de Alex Ratts. Rio de janeiro: Zahar, 2021. 272p. Review by: OLIVEIRA, Laila Thaíse Batista de. Against the current. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.4, n.15, jan./feb., 2024. Available at <https://www.criticahistoriografica.com.br/en/against-the-current-laila-thaise-batista-de-oliveiras-ufs-review-of-uma-historia-feita-por-maos-negras-relacoes-raciais-quilombos-e-movimentos-coletanea-de-textos-de//>.
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Laila Thaíse Batista de Oliveira has a master’s degree in Comunicação (UFS), a specialist in Didática e Metodologia do Ensino Superior (SLF) and a degree in Jornalismo (Unit). She is a PHD student in Sociologia (PPGS/UFS) and in Estudos Étnicos e Africanos (PÓS-AFRO/UFBA), member of the Grupo de Pesquisa Pós-Abolição no Mundo Atlântico (PAMA) and Communication Coordinator of Coalizão Direitos na Rede (CDR). Published, among other texts, Enegrecendo as redes: o ativismo de mulheres negras no espaço virtual (2016) co-authored with Renata Malta. ID LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/4373831715435167; ID ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4027-6891; Instagram: @laila_oliveira.jornalismo; E-mail: lailathaise@hotmail.com.
