De macacos a escorrego: metamorfoses de uma territorialidade quilombola em Bom Conselho – Pernambuco

Abstract

The remaining quilombo communities represent the personification of the struggles of these people for freedom. They are the legacy of the marginalization and subjugation to which the Afro and Afro-descendant populations were subjected during several centuries of exploitation. As a result of a process of exploitation and resistance of this category, there is a considerable number of communities descending from quilombos - previously called rural black communities (more in the Midwest, South, and Southeast) and black lands (more in the North and Northeast) - spread over the five regions that make up the Brazilian territory: 3,475 identified and 2,819 certified by the Palmares Cultural Foundation (FCP, 2021). The presente dissertation consists of a study on the territorial metamorphoses of the Quilombola Community of Escorrego, formerly called Macacos, located in the municipality of Bom Conselho, in the Southern Agreste of Pernambuco, taking as its time scale the first decades of the 21st century (2000 to 2021). For its realization, we rely on the category used territory, developed by Gottmann (2012) and Santos (2005, 2009, 2011), and its understanding as a shelter territory. That is, marked by historical ties and traditions of those who inhabit it, resisting and coexisting with activities and practices characteristic of the current period. And, therefore, its understanding as a banal space, that is, a space for everyone. Therefore, conceived as a resource for some, as well as a shelter (in the case of the investigated communities). Therefore, establishing relations with other quilombola territorialities in the municipality and, on a broader scale, in the state and the country, by discussing the historical and jurisdictional processes necessary for the legalization of traditional territories, laws, and decrees, as well as the bureaucratic obstacles that impede the advancement of the titling processes. Thus, it was possible to understand and analyze the transformations of the then Macacos Community, now Escorrego Community, its territoriality and the characteristics that distinguish it or bring it closer to other certified municipal quilombola communities. Therefore, showing the existing traditions, economic activities, the traditional ways of production, and the tools used. And in this way, the relationships within the community itself and between it and other inhabitants of the municipality, its challenges and prospects.