“Eu fui lá e reconheci esta comunidade!”: ensinagens de quilombo e territorialidade dos afetos no movimento político de mulheres em Buriti do Meio (1994-2020)

Abstract

The present study was dedicated to quilombo teachings developed, above all, by female leaders in the Buriti do Meio Quilombola Community. Our hypothesis is that the learning spaces, created in a community and collaborative way in the quilombo's backyards, enabled what we define as “territoriality of affections”. This concept is fundamental for understanding the political movement of women who manage the process of achieving public policies in this traditional community, through their actions mediated by activism in the Quilombola Association of Buriti do Meio. In this sense, we seek to reflect on the political agency of these women during the community recognition process, as quilombola territoriality in the fight to defend their traditional territory, constantly threatened by the advance of agribusiness in the Northern region of Minas. To achieve our objective, we analyzed, using oral history methodology, the actions of six female leaders, namely: Dona das Neves, Simone de Souza, Maria Roma Reis, Ana Lina, Ana Luiza and Joana de Fátima. We listened to their life trajectories and identified that their actions make them “guardians” of living memory, as they actively work in the construction of safe spaces dedicated to sharing quilombo teachings, notably: the backyards of Dona das Neves and Dona Eva (now deceased) ), the craft sheds, the residents' association and the quilombola school of Passagem Funda. We consider as teachings, in addition to writing literacy, the practices of transmitting these living memories (permanently re-signified) and the educational actions present in the telling of stories, in the teaching of songs, in dealing with the land and the countryside, in the listening to the elderly, in the handling of clay to make pots, in the corporeality of the dancers and in the quilombola racial literacy present in the celebratory meetings of the Feast of the Abolition of Slavery and Black Consciousness Day, based on the community project “Resistir and affirm.”