Kwanissa: Revista de Estudos Africanos e Afro-Brasileiros

THE DESIRE FOR WHITENESS BY BLACK PEOPLE IN THE WORK BLACK SKIN, WHITE MASKS BY FRANTZ FANON

2025-08-12T15:19:00-03:00

Black Skin, White Masks (1952), initially rejected by academia, was first published in 1952. In it, Martinican psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon analyzes the impact of racism on the subjectivity and psyche of black people. This review aims to analyze the main points of the chapters: Introduction; Black People and Language; Black Women and White Men; and Black Men and White Women. The chapters have one thing in common: the analysis of modern black people and their attitudes toward integrating and being accepted into the white world, with a focus on the experiences of black Martinicans. For acceptance to occur, Fanon discusses the strategies adopted by black people—white masks, perceived in the field of language and affective-sexual relationships—to feel that they belong to white civilization and are worthy of humanity.

INTERDISCIPLINARY BSc IN AFRICAN AND AFRO-BRAZILIAN STUDIES:

2025-10-17T16:05:17-03:00

Law No. 10,639/2003 made the teaching of Afro-Brazilian and African history and culture in Brazil mandatory in educational institutions. In this scenario, the decolonization of markedly Eurocentric curricula is essential. In this article, we aim to reflect on how the Degree in African and Afro-Brazilian Studies (LIESAFRO), a pioneering initiative in Brazil, implemented in 2015 at the Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA), trains teachers in interaction with basic education and with African, Latin American and Caribbean countries, such as Cape Verde, Cuba and Mozambique, from a South-South perspective of dialogues between knowledge and experiences, which inspired a Federal government policy: Caminhos Amefricanos - South-South Exchange Program. We used authors such as Quijano (2007, 2009), Walsh (2010, 2017) and Gomes (2017) as a theoretical-methodological reference. We conclude that the teaching of Afro-Brazilian and African history and culture structurally integrates the Political-Pedagogical Project of LIESAFRO/UFMA, which promotes the training of teachers from an emancipatory and anti-racist perspective.

The SYSTEM OF SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS AS SEEN BY FRANTZ FANON:

2025-07-03T10:03:54-03:00

Through a reconstruction of the Systematizing Concepts, a useful tool for the analysis of Hegelian philosophy, we did a contrast between the notions of recognition through a System of Self-consciences and the anti-colonial criticism mediated by Frantz Fanon. The core of the work is to highlight how the analysis of the colonial context is crucial for being able to debate notions of recognition and, consequently, in the Hegelian sense, an effective System of Self-consciences. In this case, a Dialectic of the Lord and the Servant carried to the ultimate consequences, different from what Hegel envisioned, the Négritude movement and the Fanonian contributions to Philosophy allows a philosophical dialogue that takes into account a foundation stone of Modernity: the dehumanization of the black subject. Thus, questioning a symbol of the philosophical canon that relegates the African continent to a historical void, we make this article with the commitment to revisit modernity from a critical perspective, through an intellectuality historically silenced.

“DJARAMA BUI LITERATURA!”:

2025-06-20T16:31:41-03:00

The aim of this article is to present a reflection on practices that use information and communication technologies (ICT) in educational processes as a strategic mechanism to overcome the difficulties of accessing works of and about African literature in Portuguese and Brazilian languages, notably in Guinea-Bissau. It considers the impact of the use of ICT in teaching and learning processes and highlights aspects of the literÁfricas project, which is configured as a source of information specialized in Africanities, dedicated to making visible, in open access on the internet, a collection of critical texts, interviews and videos about the literary system of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe. Shares the activity carried out in a training cycle at the Escola Superior de Educação – Unidade de Ensino Amílcar Cabral, located in the city of Bolama, in the Bijagós archipelago region – Guinea-Bissau, with Pedagogy undergraduates who produced episodes of a radio program, adapted for broadcasting via Whatsapp and YouTube, based on collective research, mainly in the online material of literÁfricas. The experience reported concludes that it is important to continue the work of populating the collection of the literÁfricas Project, given the contribution it offers to enrich and diversify the educational path of those interested in the literary systems of the five Portuguese-speaking countries on the African continent.

PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN THE PROCESS OF BUILDING SOCIOCULTURAL AND POLITICAL IDENTITY IN MOZAMBIQUE

2025-06-14T06:08:44-03:00

Each society, at specific times, presents particular forms of construction of sociocultural and political identity resulting from historical interactions. These particular ways of constructing identity are determined by sociocultural and geopolitical changes. Mozambique went through different experiences that represented three forms of construction of women's identity: colonial, independence (socialist) and post-independence (capitalist). In each of these moments, women were called to participate in the process of building Mozambicanity through the processes of education, culture, social mobilization, the organization of the family structure and work. In each of these moments, women fought for the conquest of their rights and for political, economic and cultural emancipation. For these reasons, women participated and continue to participate in the challenges for the preservation of indigenous traditions, religious beliefs; sociocultural practices, traditional education, combating poverty and for her rights to political participation that were harassed by colonialism. However, its participation in the mobilization of social strata, in the education of children, in political life and its self-affirmation in the construction and consolidation of Mozambicanity resulting from internal cohesion between the various ethnic groups that make up Mozambique is not recognized and remains insignificant. In this way, the article intends to analyze the role of women in the construction and consolidation of sociocultural and political identity and in the struggle for human rights in Mozambique.

DERACIALIZING THE SOCIAL CONTRACT

2025-06-16T08:54:40-03:00

This article critiques the Brazilian social contract from the perspective of Afro-diasporic cosmologies, bringing together contractarian political theory and Afro-intellectual epistemologies. Anchored in Charles Mills’s critique of the “racial contract” — a pact that structures the modern state as a device of white domination — I argue that the mere symbolic inclusion of marginalized groups is insufficient given the exclusionary logic that organizes the Brazilian state. As an alternative, I introduce the concept of “deracializing the social contract”, understood as the transformation of state structures by strengthening the cosmological and epistemic legacies of African diasporic peoples. This process goes beyond simply placing Black individuals in positions of power; it demands the appreciation and incorporation of Afro-Brazilian forms of organization that operate outside Western models, such as candomblé terreiros, capoeira circles, and samba gatherings. The article’s theoretical contribution lies in expanding Mills’s work by proposing a critique of the racial state and concrete pathways to overcome it. In this context, it highlights the sacred circles of the Black Brazilian universe — a concept developed by Xavier (2022) — as social technologies of resistance, belonging, and community reorganization. The article proposes a theoretical and methodological agenda to rethink the Brazilian state from democratic, plural, and anti-racist principles rooted in the historical and political experience of the Black population.

THE BOA ESPERANÇA VIRTUAL MUSEUM:

2024-01-20T00:54:31-03:00

The Boa Esperança Virtual Museum was inaugurated on June 5, 2021. In it, we find photographs, news, life stories and collective memories of the people who make up the community that represents a traditional region of Teresina-PI. The aim of this paper to present the museum as a space of memories of the collective culture of families threatened with expropriation by the Lagoas of North Program (PLN). The PLN proposed by the Teresina City Hall aims to invest in housing and urban drainage. However, to be executed, the Project requires expropriating more than two thousand families residing in the area. The sources analyzes are the testimonies contained in the Museum, historiographical production and documentation produced by the municipal authorities. In short, the museum is a tool for struggle, to denounce involuntary evacuations to demand rights, and preservation of their culture.

ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A BLACK PATRON SAINT OF A RACIST COUNTRY:

2025-06-20T16:00:54-03:00

The article aims to investigate how Our Lady of Aparecida, the Catholic saint who is named the Patron Saint of Brazil, has a question mark over her colour: is her image white or black? In order to formulate conjectures that seek to answer the question proposed throughout the text, we turned to counter-colonial productions by mostly black women to analyse the history of black women in Brazil from colonial times to the present day, as well as bringing into dialogue authors who defend the idea that the saint was blackened, and that her image was never dark. Making use of the comparative method, netnography and semiotics as tools for data collection and cross-referencing them with the theoretical framework of authors, we found the conjecture that one possibility of what happens to Our Lady of Aparecida is a historical whitened aesthetic combated by a rescue of her blackness.

THE STRENGTH OF BLACK WOMEN:

2025-06-20T16:36:31-03:00

This article aims to rescue and highlight the protagonism of Black women in the fight against slavery in Brazil, combating the historical erasure promoted by traditional historiography. The methodology employed consists of a bibliographic and documentary review, which analyzes the biographies of leaders such as Dandara dos Palmares, Tereza de Benguela, and Zacimba Gaba, among others. The study is based on concepts such as intersectionality, decoloniality, and critical race theory to deconstruct hegemonic narratives. As a main result, the article shows that these women were active agents who exercised political, military, and spiritual leadership, organizing quilombos and other forms of resistance. We believe that sharing their life stories is a fundamental part of a more complete and just understanding of Brazil's sociopolitical formation. This diversifies historical narratives and recognizes the contribution of Black women to the achievement of freedom and the construction of our national identity.

BLANK BOARDS:

2025-08-12T14:44:51-03:00

This work aims to debate how whiteness, as an ideological structure, acts to erase and empty black contributions to the history of Brazil, making it difficult to build a critical black racial consciousness. The research begins by carrying out a critical study of the post-abolition period, on the situation of the black subject as a former slave in a still slave-owning society that denies him wage labor, creating ideological discourses to marginalize and discriminate against him. Afterwards, an analysis is carried out of whiteness as a structure that serves to ensure the privileges of white people, which uses mechanisms such as racial democracy and meritocracy to invalidate the Brazilian socio-historical process and cultural plurality. Finally, it will be discussed how black subjects who are subjected to this ideological discourse of whiteness accept the structures that make them deny their black ancestry and identity, thus hindering the formation of a collective and critical black racial consciousness.

TERREIROS IN THE FACE OF THE PANDEMIC:

2025-05-29T18:38:02-03:00

The present research aims to understand how, with the arrival of Covid-19 in Macapá-AP and with the health restrictions imposed by public bodies that aimed to reduce the spread of the virus in the city, Umbanda and Candomblé houses and terreiros adapted and reinvented their practices and rites, considering that one of the determinations was the prohibition of 'religious events in temples or public places, of any creed or religion'. Afro-Brazilian religions have always had a very strong relationship with regard to the physical, mental and spiritual health of individuals, which makes it undeniable the importance of understanding how the spread of Covid-19 affected the rituals of these religions, in view of that these are religions with a lot of contact and have several particularities in their rituals that do not fit with the recommendations of the health authorities, the big question to be addressed is to understand how the religious dealt with and adapted their cults and rites during the period of isolation and What is their view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

AFRICAN BEAUTY:

2025-01-29T18:32:39-03:00

The study analyzes the evolving beauty standards among Mozambican women, influenced by colonialism, globalization, and media. Is employs a qualitative methodology base on semi-structured interviews with 14 participants, women from various professional and cultural backgrounds. The research investigates how external eurocentric beauty ideals, once imposed during colonization, persist but face resistance from traditional cultural practices. The symbolic importance of the body in African societies is highlighted, along with the conflict between global trends and local identity through bodily modifications and beauty rituals. Findings suggest that while external pressures, particularly from western media and beauty industries, have impacted the self-perception and beauty practices of Mozambican woman, there is still a strong attachment to local traditions, particularly in rural areas. Women navigate a fine balance between global beauty standards and cultural identity, resisting complete assimilation.

THE IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING WORKS WITH BLACK PROTAGONISM AS AN ANTI-RACIST PRACTICE WITHIN THE 9TH GRADE CLASSROOM OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

2024-03-18T22:56:58-03:00

Over the centuries, black people have been portrayed by the white perspective in a mistaken and even prejudiced way, distorting their image and creating a negative representation that always places them in an inferior position. The present article aims to analyze the teaching of Afro-Brazilian authors and works within the 9th grade classroom of elementary school II in a non-stereotyped and positive way. The research is applied of a qualitative nature, understood as a case study, in which a questionnaire was used as a technique, interviewing 15 students from the public school system with the aim of observing the study of works of black protagonism within Afro-Brazilian literature, after the questionnaire was applied with the students, precisely from the titular teacher, a project about black authors who bring with them a close view of the experience of black people, providing the students with the construction of an anti-racist and prejudiced thought. To assist in the theoretical development, Proença Filho (2004); Evaristo (2005); Duarte (2008) and Lobo (2007) were mainly used.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE CURRICULAR CONTENTS OF FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY ON THE EATING PRACTICES OF NUTRITION STUNDENT IN A UNIVERSITY ENVIRONMENT:

2025-08-12T15:09:49-03:00

Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) is a right for people in the context of health promotion, based on food practices without compromising access to other essential needs, respecting particularities and cultural characteristics of each region. The FNS approach in the nutrition course curriculum responds to a multidisciplinary learning of students in the context of food consumption and in the minimization of increasingly growing nutritional problems. The objective of the study is to understand the curricular influences that FNS mobilizes regarding the eating practices of nutrition course trainees in a university environment. It is a field study with quali-quantitative research, based on an explanatory methodology, developed through a questionnaire supported by the poster "our food", Mozambican and semi-structured interview supported by the nutrition curriculum. The study population is composed of 18 participants of both sexes, 11 students aged 18 to 25 years of the 3rd year of college and 7 permanent teachers. The curriculum includes subjects with content directly and indirectly related to SAN, as well as subjects with unrelated content. The FNS discipline is little addressed in the course in relation to the contents of the other direct disciplines. There are limitations to implement the curriculum in the practical component due to the lack of internal resources in which teachers address more content about food production processes in relation to nutrition. The students' eating practice is based on the group of foods contained in the poster our food, preferably the building and protective foods.

THE THE SPECTER OF DEATH IN WINDS OF APOCALYPSE, BY PAULINA CHIZIANE

2025-11-19T09:16:16-03:00

Starting from the work Ventos do Apocalipse (2001), by Paulina Chiziane, a Mozambican author, this article weaves relationships of death caused by the colonial system and allegorized in three moments – death under the rigor of colonialism, death and animal symbolism, death shared as reproduction of the lived. Animalia runs through the entire work in images associating man and animal in the same warlike geography.

FEMALE INFLUENCE IN GUINEAN POETIC:

2025-03-20T08:46:53-03:00

The object of this work is investigation about female influence in literature reconstruction process at Guinea Bissau, country recently independent (1974), and heir to the culturals Africans traditions, orality, griots. The oral literature of Guinea Bissau after 1940 has anticolonialist and identity characteristics. Women like Odete Semedo and Filomena Embaló appear in the final of nineties as females voices reconstructing the national identity and making obvious presence of Guinean women in the decolonized fight, significantly contributing with Guinean women’s literature, bringing hers uniques perspectives and dealing relevants social and culturals questions. With qualitative character, the proposal of bibliografich and documentary research try to understand if and how female intellecuality helps statement of Guinean’s emancipation, wich can not be exclusively politics, but also cultural, assuring stability and continuity of that and how it can helps for construction nationals identities elements. Both, through poetry and from women’s sense, their longings, conflicts, hopes, translate the soul of Guinea people from orality into literature and his effforts to make sure itself as nation independent intellectual, politics and socially from the others Portugueses colonies. Couto and Embaló (2010), Timbane (2018), Ié (2019), Gil (2017), Lakatos (2017) are theoreticals references that base this study.

INTERVIEW WITH CARLOS BENEDITO:

2025-11-19T09:25:47-03:00

This interview represents a historical milestone in the life and career of Professor Carlos Benedito da Silva Rodrigues, also known as Professor Carlão or Carlos Rastafari, a professor, intellectual, activist, cultural producer, father, husband, friend, and son. Initially, the driving force behind this work was the objective of understanding the dynamics of the Black Movement in Brazil, from its decentralization to other states, such as Maranhão. In pursuit of this objective, we conducted an interview with a leading figure in the Black Movement in the city of São Luís, Professor Carlos Benedito. Throughout the interview, the chronological sequence of events within the social movement intersects with the life trajectory of this developing Black intellectual. The interview is structured in three parts, initially highlighting his arduous journey as a student and worker, which would lead to his teaching career. The second part emphasizes his participation as an activist in the vibrant Black Movement of the 1970s, encompassing Black collective clubs and emphasizing the issue of race. And finally, upon arriving and settling in the city of São Luís, Maranhão, he consolidated his teaching career at the Federal University of Maranhão, serving as a professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and in the Bachelor's Degree in African and Afro-Brazilian Studies, in addition to contributing to and becoming a reference in the areas of reggae, Afro-Maranhense culture, and affirmative action.