guimaraes antonio carlos the displacement of traditional communities to rural villages in northern...

8/3/2019 Guimaraes Antonio Carlos the Displacement of Traditional Communities to Rural Villages in Northern Brazil

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Guimarães, Antonio Carlos M1.; Moreira Neto, Pedro R2. & Braga, Yara3

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1 Prof. Dr.Instituto de Pesquisa e DesenvolvimentoUniversidade do Vale do Paraiba, Brazilac.guimaraens @gmail.com2 Prof. Dr.Instituto de Pesquisa e DesenvolvimentoUniversidade do Vale do Paraiba, [email protected] Bachelor.Instituto de Pesquisa e DesenvolvimentoUniversidade do Vale do Paraiba, [email protected]

The Displacement of Traditional Communities to Rural Villages in

Northern Brazil - The Case of the “Quilombola” Population in the

Municipality of Alcantara.

Introduction

We support the idea that the processes of regional development should take

into account the cultural diversity present in human settlements, since this task is not

just a set of technical actions. Considered from this perspective, the processes of

identity construction in the territories become an important factor to be considered. At

this level, the activity of planning takes on greater complexity. It incorporates, first,

the self-ascribed identity, better, how people see themselves. This will compete with

the planner’s representation of the different groups of residents. What would be their

way of life and their values.Identity also implies a relation of otherness, with each group taking a self

representation that differentiates them from those with whom it has relations. This

becomes more apparent in the political play when the actors take on an identity as

condition to build alliances and oppositions.

All this has implications in terms of symbolism. also at this level can be seen a

disconnect with regard to the meanings attributed to elements of landscape. For




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those who inhabit a certain place, they are more than its function. They bind to the

collective memory, giving meaning to life that takes place there (Hallbwachs, 2006).

In this sense, we return to our starting point: the contrast between the culture

of the planner and the recipients of its projects. Would there be a disagreement

between them with regard to the meaning of social practices and the significance of

spatial elements. Additional complicating factors include the evolutionist and

ethnocentric view that supports the activity of planning, coupled with political interests

at stake in the dispute over certain areas. In this case, the affected communities

appear as backward or uncivilized, in manner that the planning appears in the

political arena with a character "civilizing" to drive certain groups to a higher standard

of life.

This study puts those issues under discussion. This is a first effort within an

ongoing research1, which approaches the example of the implementation of rural

villages in the municipality of Alcântara, in the north of Brazil. These were designed

to accommodate “quilombolas” communities that have traditionally occupied an area

claimed by the Ministry of Aeronautics, for installing a base to launch rockets.

In this paper, we are going to use some photos and testimonials as material.

And in order to highlight the cultural contrast, we are going to use also the speech of

the people who are not living in the government project. This people refer to

experience of another “quilombolas” who were moved to there, expressing the

diference with their patterns of culture. So, it will be possible to see differences in

how the territory is seen by technician and the quilombola people with more

accuracy.

Finally, we warn that the results reported are preliminary. They are part of a

study that is being developed at the University of Vale do Paraiba (Sao Paulo State,

Brazil).

1. Developed at the Instituto de Pesquisa e Desenvovimento / Universidade do Vale do Paraiba (Sao Paulo

State, Brazil)




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Who are the “Quilombolas”?

Our first questioning is about the quilombola identity. It suggests a uniformity

of life style and culture. However, it was a forged term not by them, but by the

portuguese administration in colonial Brazil. Thus, we can understand this identity in

the sense that Certeau (1994) designates the strategy, in other words, a no-place

occupied for the dominated people.

Quilombos begin to be formed in Brazil during the colonial period. At that

historic moment, the term was used to designate areas occupied by "black fugitive."

This definition appears in a report sent to the King of Portugal by the Overseas

Council in the year 1740 (SCHMIDT et all, 2002).

Although the quilombos have been formed with a population largely composed

of fugitive slaves, these communities also harbored other groups freed slaves,

Indians and whites poor. Thus, it is possible to say that "Quilombo" and “Quilombola”

is refered to who has no place in that society; something like the barbarians of

antiquity. So, we can not presume that when the quilombola name is used it’s ever

refered to the same pattern of culture, since that differences in ethnic formation and

the historic trajectory resulted in particular standards of life and values.

Nina Rodrigues – an unsuspected author, insofar he represents the eugenic

thought in 19th century Brazil - expressed a viewpoint closed to this when he wrote:

so far from actuality the aparent ethnic uniformity that is given to the

african man by his black pigment varnish. The confusion among the

Camit, and even the Semite, and the Sudanese and the Bantu is the

same, someone had already said this, that the ignorance that see the

cetaceous like simple fishes. (RODRIGUES, 1976, p.15)

The same confusion is made nowadays. The historic process of each of these

communities was quite different. We can't forget that the ethnic groups are not the

same everywhere, insofar, as said, the isolation level of each one wasn't the same

and even the way that they were formed differs themselves:

(…) groups that today are considered remnants of Quilombo

communities were formed from a variety of processes, including the

trails with the occupation of vacant land and usually isolated, but also

inheritance, donations, receiving land as payment for services

rendered the State, simply stay on the land they occupied and




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cultivated within the large estates, as well as land purchase, during the

term of the slave system and after its extinction . (SCHMITT et all 2002)

On other hand, these communities are unified in the struggle for recognition of

rights over the land occupied for generations. By this way, they assumed the name

that given by the portugueses in the past as a tactics for building a social basis for

their movement. We can mention Ernesto Laclau (1986) and his concept of "frontier",

a mark, projected in the meaning level, that separates allies and antagonists. We are

returning to Certeau (1994) to recognize here a tactics of whom is located in a non-

place.

As result of their movement, the Brazilian Constitution, promulgated in 1988,

incorporated the protection of the lands that were under the ownership of

quilombolas communities. Its Article 68 of the Temporary Constitutional Provisions

Act states that these communities would be recognized definitive ownership of the

land occupied.

However, the ethnic diversity present in the formation of these communities

makes it difficult to award a certain condition of Quilombo communities. The debate

involves experts from different fields and a large set of variables, sociological,

anthropological, along with historical reconstruction efforts in order to become the

offspring of members of these communities, which extends to the analysis of yourfamily tree.

An anthropological survey conducted by UNB (National University of Brasília)

in 2005, identified 2228 quilombolas territories and only 3.14% are recognized by the

Federal Government having record in INCRA (National Institute of Colonization and

Agrarian Reform) (2005 data). Over 60% of this territory is located in the northeast.

The states with the largest number of quilombola communities are: Maranhão (642)

Bahia (396) and Para (294).However, it is important to remind, as we have been pointing here, that in

Brazil the term "african descent" mutes the ethnic diversity of Africans who were

brought into the country during the period of slavery. Thus, homogenizes itself which

in itself is already very heterogeneous in addition to the fact that other ethnic and

social groups - Indians, poor whites - have also contributed in the formation of

quilombos. Thus, identifying the Quilombola as a single cultural standard is




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superficial and prevents it from recognizing the different cultures that are expressed

in quilombos.

On other hand, there is a growing tendency to use criteria self-assessment by

maroons. The Palmares Cultural Foundation is an agency under the Ministry of

Culture, responsible for survey, registration, dissemination of legislation and support

to quilombolas communities. In 2006, it published an ordinance which defines the

remaining quilombos as “The ethnic-racial groups, according to criteria of self-

attribution, with historical trajectory, endowed with specific territorial relations, with

the presumption of black ancestry linked to resistance to historical oppression

suffered” 2.

Although resembling the ancestry, the principle of self-attribution constructs a

political identity, able to gather a wide range of communities and ethnicities that are

diverse among themselves, but share a history of struggle for land and their way of

life.

It is an important question to be considered by the planner, insofar that the

necessary dialogue between his knowledge and values with the popular culture –

requirement for planning in a frame of cultural diversity - gets more complexity if the

people aren't the same every place.

Conflicts in the Implementation of Rural Villages in Alcantara

The background to dispute between quilombolas communities and brazilian

government dates back to 1980, while Alcantara was chosen as an area for

installation of a new launch center. In 1986, with the country recently egress of an

authoritarian period of 21 years, created the Alcantara Launch Center - CLA, aimed

not only activities carried out by Brazilian agencies, such as leases to co-generisother countries.

The disputed area in Alcantara aroused the interest of the brazilian

government, given its geographic attributes which make it one of the best in the world

to launch rockets. Its location in relation to the equator plus its low population density,

was identified by experts and researchers, Brazilians and foreigners, highlighting the

possibility of such releases with low relative cost of fuel.

2 BRAZIL. Decree n. 4.887, 11/20/2003




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The federal government - when he declared the 620 km2 of the northern

portion of the municipality of Alcântara as of public utility - determined that the

inhabitants of that region were relocated. The planning of actions aimed at the

expropriation process was conducted by Air Force, in conjunction with other

agencies. Repeating experiments of the previous period it were created rural villages,

designed and deployed according to a technical standpoint, without popular

participation in development of projects. Today, 312 families from 32 villages are

divided into seven rural villages.

The rural villages would be endowed with an urban core and rural areas. They

would be formed by brick houses, and a rural plot of at least 15 hectares for crop

family. It should be noted that social support and quantity of community facilities

designed for each rural village depended on the number of households. It would be a

flour mill, a tribune for the achievement of local celebrations, laundry, chapel, school,

soccer field, with well pumping system and tank, and the infrastructure of household

electrification, local roads and public telephony.

We can direct an questioning to the project. It are going to follow us along this

work. As noted above, “quilombola” is a term that covers a great diversity among the

communities that are designated by it. This became a political term that mutes

several historical, sociological or anthropological differences among the communities.

How, then, is it possible adopt the same spatial arrangement for culturally distinct

groups? Worse, in rural villages that are already installed, people of different

communities are mixed, regardless their historical and cultural differences.

This reveals a planning process that proposes an organization of life in

communities that the planner knows little or ignores much. Design with the values of

their group that space will be occupied by the Other. The distance between the two

patterns may result in failure of the project, particularly regarding its claim totransform the culture of the community. Trying, for example, the changing of

collective farmers in family farming. However, we continue to observe the traditional

system of land use in rural villages, scorning its splitting in family plots.




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Contrasts between Quilombola Community and Rural Village

Our approach of the difference between what is proposed by technicians and

the people from quilombos is based mainly in the point of view of who is resisting

moving. Interest to know how this people perceive the life in rural village, an opinion

that was formed in the contact with that one is living there. Moreover, it is important

to know how strong the binding of that group of quilombolas with his land is.

Reminding Marshall Sallings's work (2003), in the testimonials that we are going

report here, we could perceive a kind of value that don't bind itself to a practical

reason, but to its simbolism. So:

The black part of a unique land, a land he owns and which is

possessed. Their history is inscribed on it and himself, while black is

inscribed on it – the land (...) their relationship with it (the land) is

focused on rituals, myths, legends and facts. Memories that tell their

saga, reveal its source and reveal, besides the history, life in its

movement. (GUSMÃO, 1999, p.147)

The following are

some data and

photographic material thatunderlie our view on the

inconsistency between the

standards of technicians

and what is found in

quilombolas communities.

In the picture 1, we

find the traditional form of

space. It escapes to the

square of the architect

and appears to be configured as a response to the terrain. Besides the "irregularity"

in the distribution of houses on the ground, we will not see a very clear demarcation

of the area occupied by each family unit. This in itself already points to a standard of

living much more gregarious - a fairly common pattern in traditional communities of




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Brazil. This spatial distribution is consistent with production in most of the time taken

collectively, as we can perceive below in some testimonials.

In the second photo (picture 2), the space reflects the organizational models

with individual lots for each family, which we referred above. Thus, we can see tthat

what is adopted in Alcântara contrasts with other communities’ standards. In this

sense, it is worth mentioning a diverse policy currently adopted in the State of Para

(also located in northern Brazil). The state government has given out collective land

titling. The proceedings begin by former quilombo, through their associations or,

alternatively, by three interested residents. The criterion used in this process is the

self-determination, in which:

(...) The state legislature is premised on the concepts of citizenship as

mindfulness exercise of rights that do not need the stamp of

authenticity from the Government, and the modern concept of ethnicity

as a collective affirmation of a particular group, founded a self- agreed

definition, as in political and organizational practices and symbols that

mark a policy of differences with the other groups only needing to

declare this and make public through its institutions this pre-existing

historical condition (…) (ROCHA, 2010




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The argument presented by this Attorney Justice exemplifies a movement

towards incorporating the differences in public policy applying. The studies that relate

the quilombolas with collective forms of land exploration are yet scarcer in Brazil.

However, we find a paper that approaches this subject. The author detaches that:

The bind of communities with the territory is caracterized as a

fundamental factor, at last, besides being a survival condition for the

group, it is an relevant tool for the affirmation of the identity of the

community, for the maintance and the continuity of their tradition. It's

important to detach that the land isn't thought as an individual property,

but as a common apropriation by group.

In this sense, the regime of common use of the land allowed the

consolidation of the ethnic territory and it represents a fundamental factor of cultural identity and of social cohesion. Thus, it requires the

special protection of land, in view of the character of a collective titling.

(…) (MALCHER, 2010)

So,we can say that the question involves more than the titling and the use of some

modern equipment or credit access. Related to this there are a set of cultural

elements to be preserved. In Alcantara, it seems to have a great distance between

what is adopted by the quilombolas communities and what is projected by the

technicians. We can observe the persistence of traditional patterns of housing and

work in those communities. For instance, the use of pug in housing construction

(picture 3) is still widely used, followed by straw, with a few brick houses observed.




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According to research by even Ministry of Aeronáutica there is the following

distribution of construction techniques used on the fabrication of homes: Pug

71.90%; Straw, 18, 02% and Masonry, 10.74%.

These data are valuable, insofar they point to the diference concerning to the

adopted building system. As it couldn't unbind the housing pattern from the Culture,

we presume that their coexistence is related to differences for the ethnic origin,

observed among the communities and even within them.

Of course, it's required further data to claim with certainly about these ethnic

diferences. However, we noticed that the rural villages have adopted the brick house

as a single standard, disregarding some traditional patterns of construction anyway.

In view of that, we can locate a disrespect of the values of quilombola culture the

housing model, that is adopted in the villages; even considering that this isn't the

same for all.

The shift to the rural villages also represents a change in livelihoods as a

whole. Fishing is damaged; collective forms of farm work should be replaced by

cultivation in individual lots. Moreover, the contact with banks and official agencies,

mandatory in the new context, is a unknown practice for those who come to inhabit

the rural villages. Thus, there are some of vectors that impinge on the former

quilombolas in the new context, pressing them to a vulnerability situation. They think

about this, and is very important to know what they are thinking.

In this paper we chose deal with the speech of whom is resisting the move to

the rural village. As an inhabitant of a rural village, the people interact more

frequently with the involving society. So, these groups tend to hid their values

sometime. It’s a kind of behavior that is found in these who fight to their inclusion in

society.

Something like this behavior was found in a quilombola group from Bahia.Some of them tended to deny their slave ancestrality to avoid being stigmatized

(SANTOS, 2009). Otherwise, we presume that the bind with slavery is not so strongly

denied by who fights to sustain his values and lifestyle. Rather, we find some

testimonials in what it is detached, making more clear their distance concerning a

new set of cultural patterns:

The Base does not quiet, it's bringing injury. Before we had mussels,

oysters, shrimp. And the people came from the rural village and it's




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over. And if we take from here? It's like taking a small child from

mother. . My father and mother were born here. They have died for

over ten years. My mother said that the slaves, in slavery, were

arrested in the stick and they were beaten after they lay belly to the

ground and they trod upon, like a bridge. The road was made with our

arms. We have “tambor de crioula” 3 , many people plays, here is the

house of the party. We sing, pray, there is Epiphany, it is in January 6.

Need to dance, sweat. The men beat drums and women dance. This

was the land of ingenuity. They paid slaves with flour. Then it turned

released land, land of saints, holy land. Or land of black, of Quilombo.

Before he had a lot of fish. Now, with many people in place, it is

missing. We fear, worry. The people of the agricultural community say

it has money in the bank, but can not draw. Our flour is the bread of the

earth. If you have no flour we die. We have banana, beans, cassava,

maize and rice. I Work in the fields from 5 am until 5 pm. We work

together, the groups in the field. The land is alternating. (Testimonial of

Quilombola)

We highlight two points in this testimony, the social memory of the times of

slavery, not denied, but reaffirmed and the attachment to that land they conquered.

These are part of a collective memory that is tied to that territory. Also is described asociability that involves the parties and work.

At the same time stands out fear of change, when based on the experience of

those who already live in the rural villages. Banks and official agencies are

mentioned, to say the money is there but can not be removed, justifying their distrust

in the face of promises made to its displacement. The new techniques of agricultural

production are also rejected. "Here there isn't pesticide, chemical , but in the rural

village, the chemical is used " (testimonial of quilombola)

The quilombola speech, showed above, was got in a Web page, used as

support for a Negro Social Movement4. It offers an example how some negro actors

are reacting to a change in their cultural patterns. But we can't confuse it with an

overall reaction to the change. After all, they use internet to publish their demands

and, in this case, we must remind that Internet earned gradually a central role in the

construction of a more democratic public sphere (2005), with participation of people

3 Popular dance from the North of Brazil.4: www.social.org.br/cartilhas




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before segregated. Of course this kind of material doesn't take the place a direct

observation. But the material collected in this media is useful in a first approach,

particularly for regarding those points of view of whom has not another possibility to

participate of the political debate.

Returning to the testimonial, we perceive that the speeches are referred to a

problem that transcends the material space or even the economic questioning. First

of all, changing to a rural village from a quilombo is to change the identity; it's disrupt

with the elements of a collective memory that are inscribed in the landscape.

Moreover, new relationships must be built. There will be changes in production

patterns and sociability - moving from the collective to the individual. also There will

be also changing in the relationship with the environment that surrounds them:

It has lots of life, many children here. Let's take off our children of this

land to put where? Here I have everything in the world. So to where do

I go? I created 12 kids. What will I do in the city? Cry ten years. And a

boy cries three days to wean from the mother. Taking us out of here is

the same of killing us. It was better to kill us with rockets. I was looking

at the house of the rural village and I do not like. It was very low. The

Colonel said he could not give 30 hectares because Alcantara is very

small. He said the house and 17 hectares were going to have the

document. But it has nothing, neither the house nor the land.

Or,

The base came to undo what they found. The Base astray place. We

are not familiar with this skyrocket business. The site is small to put us

here. I will only leave if I am killed. My children will make their home

here, our crop is here, the church we did. We want here is the strength

to improve the situation. I will not sign their document, no. In the rural

villages have no home. The house is of the Base, they have no

document at all. The Colonel from Base does the following: you have

to ask for fishing, you have to ask for fishing, they give a card-carrying

that allow fishing from 8 in 8 days. The river is our fair, but the oyster

already missing after the staff came from rural villages. (Testimonial of

Quilombola)

The depositions show, as a whole, a feeling of threat. This represents more

than an economic concern. Admittedly, the title claimed in addition to fears about the




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possibility of survival, points in this direction. However, an affectionate link with the

area is also brought to discussion. Elements of social memory are revealed and there

is a future project with little change in the way of life.

Thus, it is evident the contrast with the vision of some planners, which are

animated by a particular vision of progress, that one is common sense in their group.

These are important points to make the contrast between the communities and rural

villages, since the alternative forms of production and the symbolic character related

to that territory are left out in their projects, regardless their importance for recipients

communities.

Final considerations

The situation that is present in Alcantara is illustrative of an dispute inscribed

in territory. More, it reflects the meanings that a land has for some human groups and

how it is related with their history and their identity construction. Authors like Malcher

(2010) are to remind us that the “Ethnic identity will be given through the feeling of

belonging to a particular group and in the case of quilombos, this feeling is linked to

the territory in which they live”. Thus, we can not reduce the transfer of thosecommunities only as an economic question, neither to an civilizing effort, represented

by an “better” standard of housing and property.

In the view of the planners, the life in the rural villages offered by the

Aeronautics Ministery is supposed as an improvement. However, here they are

considering only their own values, not the culture patterns of that people. They don't

recognize even that the quilombolas are not the same all over those communities. At

this point, we must make some considerations.

Spread over several parts of Brazilian territory, we found a large number of

communities that are remnants of former quilombos. In one widely used definition,

the quilombola land are identified as a rural community formed by fugitive slaves and

their descendants. However, these communities keep very different cultural

standards, as result of their isolation in the past and their ethnic formation. Indians

and white poor participated in formation of several of them. Indians and white poor




14

participated in formation of several of them. And it's necessary consider the cultural

diferences among the africans that were brought to Brazil, too.

Thus, it's plausible argue that 'quilombola" is a term that covers a multiplicity of

groups gathered by means of not the same cultural patterns. But, they approximate

in political field, since nowadays, the quilombola identity enables that different

communities and social movements meet under the same flag in their struggle for

land access.

The differences must be detached, since the apparent homogeneity

concerning their economic interests hides an heterogeneity found in the cultural level.

The differences are negotiated among the quilombolas groups, so that they can

appear like the same in the public sphere.

However the contrast of culture patterns appears more strongly between the

quilombola and the planners. Their values are not the same. They have different

points of view of what would be a "good land". As we saw, this is expressed in the

refuse of breaking ties with their territory for moving to the rural villages. For some of

them this is the same of death.

A participative planning process requires a dialogue among the social agents

involved. The planners doesn't belong to those territories, wich have their history

inscribed in the collective memory of the quilombola. The dialogue earns more

complexity if is considered that even the quilombolas are not the same all over the

place. This prevents the offers of standardized plans for too much differentiated

people; plans that are made in the offices, only guided by the planner values.

References

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GUSMÃO, Neusa M. Da antropologia e do direito: impasses da questão negrano campo. Brasília: Fundação Cultural Palmares, 1999.

HALLBWACHS, Maurice. A Memória Coletiva (translation of On CollectiveMemory). São Paulo: Centauro, 2006.




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LACLAU, Ernesto. Os novos movimentos sociais e a pluralidade do social.Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais; n.2, vol1

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