tommaso rada

The Portuguese colonisation and the Atlantic Slave Trade are the historical reasons at the bases of the presence of black African people in Brazil. Despite the law that abolished slavery is dated 1888, today, Brazil suffer an Institutional and Societal racism. 

The Quilombos are Brazilian settlement founded by people of African origin; most of the founders of these communities were escaped slaves. After years of fight and struggle the Quilombolas around Brazil was able to have their land and their status of Communities with an own cultural identity recognised, but it was only one step to get their rights in fact they have been threaten by farmers, owner of industries and some time by the same persons that represent the State. In the latest year the right-wings government started political actions aimed to expropriate the Quilombola from their lands.

There is an expression said by the Quilombolas all around Brazil: Estamos na luta, we are in the fight. This said is not only a declaration of fight for their rights and for the injustices their communities are currently living, it is a way to remember they are carrying on the fight for freedom started by their slave ancestors.