Event Details

Maroon Futures: Quilombo struggles in the Bay of Aratu, Brazil
by Adam Bledsoe, Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota

For nearly two centuries, the Bay of Aratu has been the site of various forms of marronage. The present-day quilombos of Rio dos Macacos, Tororó, and Ilha de Maré trace their lineages back to enslaved and maroon populations in the region, and continue centuries-long practices of autonomy and self-subsistence. The past seventy years has seen increasing pressure on these ways of life, due, in part, to the expansion of extractive industries and their accompanying infrastructure. Petroleum exploration and refinement, commodity shipping, and militarization all work as concrete mechanisms that both plug the Bay of Aratu, and Brazil more broadly, into the global economy, while also physically changing the topography of the region at the expense of maroon ways of life. The quilombo communities have responded in a variety of ways, using protest and the occupation of public space, self-defense, engagement with local elected officials, and the continuation of self-subsistence and governance to both bring attention to their struggle, while also preserving the ethics of marronage that have affirmed their lives for centuries. These actions present forms of creativity and resistance which also evidence the possibility of a future in which Black life is valued and protected, demonstrating the potential for more just ways of life.

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