Young Mothers in a Quilombo Praia Grande, Brazil

Abstract

From 1550 to 1850, Portuguese traders are estimated to have kidnapped and sold four to eleven million Africans into slavery in Brazil (Conrad, 1985; Klein, 1987). The large stretches of unclaimed land, due to the country’s political and physical geography, promoted the formation of quilombos. These are defined as self-sustaining communities settled by escaped slaves or their descendants (Araujo, 2000). After the end of slavery in 1888, quilombos continued to form, with over 7,000 estimated to be in existence today (Caldas and Garcia, 2007; Freitas, 1981). Situated on the island of Ilha de Mare in the northeast of Brazil, Praia Grande is one of these quilombos and the site of my fieldwork from March to June 2010. The inequalities that I saw there inspired me to conduct research to increase the understanding and awareness of quilombos and the difficulties its marginalized citizens continue to face. Within the community, research with adolescent mothers also helped to highlight the structural violence experienced by Praia Grande residents.