Challenges for construction of the afrocentrated concept of development in Quilombolas communities in Brazil

Abstract

In Brazil, social inequities persist over time and are strongly associated with the cruel process of colonization structured in the slave system. The conventional model of development in Brazil, which is based on the pursuit of economic growth at the expense of social and environmental balance, has been extremely harmful to the traditional communities who have their territories and natural wealth threatened when facing the Western logic of progress. Quilombola communities have struggled over the years to effectuate their citizenship rights, especially the titling of their territories as well as the access to public health policies, to education and to other social rights. Given the sustainable development discourse originally utilized to promote the integration of peripheral countries and communities in the developmental logic of the central countries, the quilombola communities do not have their needs and particularities met in proposals and projects. Despite spreading the need for economic, social and environmental balance, government agents who are inductors of sustainable development policies neither encourage the empowerment of communities nor appreciate the ideas and civilizing values that have positively integrated communities to their territories, promoting balanced interaction between their members and the environment. The construction of a new perspective to promote the collective welfare and environmental conservation in quilombola communities requires the recognition of the contribution of epistemologies to localize the African descent in the center of their history and their present, promoting the decolonization of thought. The discussion about development in quilombola communities involves the actualization of rights of these communities and the recognition of knowledge and practices of communities for building sustainable and equitable environments.