[NYTr] News from Brazil No.515 - August 20, 2004

[nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com]

NEWS FROM BRAZIL supplied by SEJUP 
(Servico Brasileiro de Justica e Paz).

Number 515, August 20, 2004

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This week4s edition of NEWS FROM BRAZIL focuses on the Campaign to
Demarcate Quilombo Territories.

The National Campaign to Demarcate Quilombo lands in Brazil was
officially kicked off on August 18, 2004 by the National Coordination
of the Quilombo Communities (CONAQ). The campaign is being sponsored
by diverse entities who are committed to pressure for the land
regulation of almost 1,100 remnant quilombo territories identified
in Brazil (only 29 areas are currently demarcated).

The objective of the campaign is to enlarge and secure the land
ownership of these communities so as to avoid illegal evictions and
forced relocations, as well as to give access to programs and public
projects for basic sanitation, family agriculture, education,
culture, heath and housing.   Leadership courses and activities for
the communities are also part of the campaign.

In 2003, CONAQ initiated a process in the quilombos to promote
human rights and to offer courses to increase  knowledge regarding
national and international laws that can be helpful in guaranteeing
rights to the quilombo lands as well as to provide for adequate
housing.  The course will also provide a forum for quilombos and
urban housing movements to share experiences and information thus
enlarging the social networks

Quilombos, in the Banto language, means a settlement.  Quilombos
are rural Afro-Brazilian communities that distinguish themselves
from other sectors of the population because of their customs,
traditions, culture, social and economic conditions.  These communities
are ethnic territories that originated principally in the seventeenth
century with the rebellion of African slaves in Brazil. They emerged
in colonial Brazil as a form of organization and resistance against
the institution of slavery.  Palmares, the most famous quilombo in
the state of Alagoas, had a population of more than 30,000 people
by 1700 and functioned like an autonomous state, resisting attacks
from colonists from Holland, luso-Brazilians, and slave hunters.
Palmares was led by Zumbi, in whose memory the Day of Negro
Consciousness is celebrated on November 20th each year. Unfortunately,
Palmares was completely  destroyed in 1716.

The 1988 Brazilian Constitution gives the descendants of quilombo
communities the right to their land and guarantees the right to the
maintenance of their culture.  Since 1988, many judicial and political
errors have been committed in the process of demarcation. The goal
of the current campaign is to correct these errors and implement
the law.

The Palmares Cultural  Foundation is promoting an official registration
of communities that are remnants of quilombos in Brazil. The National
Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) is responsible
for the demarcation of the land, which has become more and more
difficult because of invasions and land conflicts by squatters and
land grabbers.  The delimitation of the quilombo includes the
geographic area used by the communities for social, economic, and
cultural activities as well as the areas of habitation, planting,
fishing, and forestry.  Once an area is demarcated and identified
as a historic  remnant of a quilombo, the Palmares Foundation will
designate the land as Afro-Brazilian Cultural Territory, and will
begin the process of registry as a national historic and artistic
patrimony of Brazil.  Judicial assistance will be guaranteed to all
quilombos to guard them from usurpation and land conflicts, thus
protecting the territorial integrity of the land.

The identification, delimitation, demarcation and titling of quilombo
lands is now the responsibility of INCRA, the Minister of Agricultural
Development, the Palmares Foundation, the Minister of Culture, and
the Special Secretary for the Promotion of Racial Equality, the
movement of communities of Quilombos, and the President of the
Republic.

Source: Adital, August 17, 2004

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