Diaspora

The fall of a 'racial paradise

"in 200 years, the black eclipse will have passed entirely". As one of the most racially diverse nations in the worid, Brazil has for centuries wrongly considered

itself a colour-blind nation. But as Regina Jere-Malanda reports, the veil is now off and black Brazilians, instead of disappearing within 70 years, are increasingly

ince che country ended slavery in 1888, Brazilians have not officially accepted the existence of racism. For three centuries, Brazil prided and touted itself as a country that has avoided racial tensions, by embracing the concept of "racial democracy". But in the past decade, cracks started showing, revealing that this epitome of "racial harmony and equality" is not what black Brazilians have always been made to beiie\'e it is.

Conceived by an anthropologist, Gilherro Freyre, in 1930s, the carefully crafted ideology oi "racial democracy" has stipulated that Brazil is composed of a single race forged through the harmonious mixture of its African, European, and indigenous ancestors. But despite this deliberate strategy, the uncomfortable reality is that there has always been widespread social prejudice againsr black-skinned people in Brazil, the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery. In contrast to the situation in the USA or South Africa under apartheid, where race was defined by ancestral background, in Brazil what has counted for all these years is one's hue. For example if one's skin appears white, looks whire-ish or somewhere in between, then they are white. As simple as that. This blurred vision ot racial identity has for generations made it difficult for black Brazilians to develop a positive image of rheir African heritage or to see racism in their midst, let alone to fight it. Because ofthe "racial democracy" myth the country didn't even see the need to be ethnically specific. Yet Brazil has more people with black ancestry than any other country outside Nigeria. Today, more than 76 million of Brazils population of 180 million is of African descent. With over 300 years of denial, practising "racial democracy'" meant eclipsing deeprooted state policies of racial discrimination. But Brazil is, thankfully, finally coming to terms with its long-ignored history of racism and exclusion. Today, innovative policies and national attention to racial disparities are being plugged - led by Affirmative Action programmes and quota systems - albeit grudgingly in some elitist quarters. But it is President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva (popularly known as Lula), who will go down in history as the crusader of racial equality for black Brazilians. Among many other policies, his government has established the much-hailed Secretary for the Promotion of Racial Equality (SEPPIR), a cabinet level ministry that coordinates efforts to promote

opportunities for Afro-Brazilians, racial minority groups, as well as ro work towards strengthening Brazil's ties with Africa. However, there are disturbing reasons behind this change of heart in government policy. According to Brian Fried, ofthe Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago, Brazil is riven by socioeconomic inequality. Darker skin colour is disproportionately associated with lower levels of education, poorer healthcare and inferior remuneration. "Racism causes much of this inequality and until recently, however, Brazili;ms regarded the mention of racism as taboo," Fried says. Ironically, racism in Brazil is constitutionally banned and punishable by imprisonment. Fried explains that historical suppression of discussions of race and research into racism contributed to the sentiment that racism never existed, that government support in the past of efforts to describe Brazil as a "racial democracy" further contributed to Brazil's traditional discomfort with attributing inequalit)' to racism. "Not only do those of darker skin tend not to identify themselves as Afro-Brazilian, they also deny that racism has affected them personally," Fried adds. But historical facts and figures speak for themselves: Brazil was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery. Initially, the Portuguese enslaved indigenous Brazilians, but when the natives began dying from European diseases and the demand for workers exceeded available numbers, the Portuguese looked to Airica. Over the next three centuries, Brazil brought approximately eight million African slaves to work on sugarcane plantations - 37% of all Africans sold into slavery. The country has had a history of racial division since those days when Afi-icans from all over the continent, including those from well-developed cultures such a.s the Yoruba from Nigeria and Benin, the Akan from Ghana and the Mende from Guinea were brought to Brazil between 1549 and 1830. Thanks to their labour, Brazil flourished into a prosperous colony. Today, Brazil has the second largest black poptiiation in the worid after Nigeria. Nearly balfof its 180 million citizens claim to be black or mixed-race. A large percentage of whites also have African ancestry, raising the number of Brazilians with African descent to over 100 million. Yet, black Brazilians make up over two-thirds of rhe countrys poorest. The wealthy white or light-skinned elite monopolise all the best institutions of learning, while illiteracy among black Brazilians
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realising that deep-seated racism has been alive and well, and as a fightback, are becoming more assertive, partly thanks to the efforts of President Lula.

Diaspora

is undeniably rampant. However, slavery in Brazil was not like slavery in America where slaves were totally debiiscd to the extent that every effort was made to destroy their African languages, cultute, teligions and intellectual capacity. Brazil retained many aspects of African culture. The Portuguese slavers in Brazil also accepted and encouraged the concept of miscegenation - the intermixing and intermarrying of different ethnic group - which, accotding to .some observers, has led to the difficult)' in finding a workable definition of what "black" means in Brazil. However, after slavery was abolished, the white Brazilian elite began a countrywide programme called "branquemento"- meaning "whitening" intended at making the people and population ol" Brazil more white, and less black. To achieve this, the then rulers deliberately encouraged white imiiiigrants (mainly European) into Brazil who they enticed into marrying biack Brazilians. The aim of these inter-marriages was to "whiten" the population and to eventually have a more or less white country (as in Argentina and Uruguay).In 1923, one Brazilian congressman declared that "Black Brazilians will disappear within 70 years". A renowned author, Afranio Peixoto in one of his writings said: "In 200 years, the black eclipse will have passed entirely." According to the journalist Lourdes Teodoro, in 194') the Brazilian immigration polic\' declared die need to "develop within die country s ethnic composition, the most convenient charaaeristics of its European descent". In 1966, adds Teodoro, a Foreign Ministry leaflet proclaimed that the Brazilian population was white with a minute population being of mixed blood. Just as recendy as 1988. the country's white elite was discussing delibetate sterilisation among black women to stop blacks from becoming a majorit)' When Nelson Mandela visited Braz.ii in 1998, black activists presented him with a dfKunient that claimed that millions of black women had been sterilised. Indeed, more measures were put in place to "whiten" the country's histor)' and culture by completely forsaking Afio-Brazilian histor)-, which until 2003, was never taught In schools. As such, describing the colour of one's skin in Brazil has always been profoundly confijsing due to the range of skin rone begat from miscegenation. But what is more disturbing is how the various shades among Brazilians rank differently on the social
NEW AFRICAN February 2008

status ladder! One is higher on the ladder depending on how lightly-hucd the tone of their skin is! So engrained in the psyche of Brazilians are .such notions that today they sec lighter skin colour as more superior. There is ample evidence in many Brazilian black quarters to the words of Malcolm X, who once said "the worst thing that the white man ever did was to make black people hate themselves". Many black Brazilians (like many African women worldwide) openly wish their hair was straighter, their skin lighter, their noses sharper, and tips thinner. And who can blame them? For many years, various Brazilian governments have excluded race as a category in the country's censuses of 1900, 1920, and 1970 - which meant the results lacked numerical data on the black population and hence effectively erased their identities from the public record. Following strong lobbying by black activists, race was Finally placed on the census form during the 1980 census - but even then black people were grouped in no less than 136 colour categories, which included bizarre shades such as: burnt white, toasted, cinnamon, white coffee., etc. But when the census results showed diat 45% ofthe Brazilian population was black, yet only 0,87% of them had a college education, many woolly eyes begaxi to open to the fact that disctiinination and racism were very much in their midst and even institutionalised! No wonder, in the 1990 census, the government reduced the race categories to just five - white, black, pardo (mixed race). Asiatic and Indian. The economic and social plight experienced by many black Brazilians today cannot be removed from their historic roots. After abolition, the situation tor freed slaves was compounded further through the severe economic hardship and discrimination, made worse by lack ot land ownership. Most freed slaves were forced into becoming homeless, jobless and penniless, as many were denied jobs which were instead reserved for white immigrants. This yawning social and economic disparity existed into the 21st century, but Brazilians continued to deny that race affected everythingeven when today some employers still blatantly advertise job opportunities to those with "good appearance" (a euphemism for lighter skin). But hoodwinked by the environment of "racial democracy", black Brazilians never really thotight about dcvelopinga positive imago of their African heritage, let alone begin to mobilise themselves

against racial discrimination. However, the new millennium saw an invigorated civil rights awakening which is rightfully and increasingly putting racism on Brazil's national debate. As a result, some black Brazilians are now becoming more assertive, forming their own black organisations to fight discrimination at ail levels. It is now not a rare sight to see them proudly adorning T-shirt emblazoned "100 per cent Negro" OT "I am black and proud". One rarely sees media articles lauding "racial democracy", but people on the streets of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo will openly admit they now believe racism exists. Different studies conducted between 1999 and 2006 reveal similar statistics which bear out serious racial inequities: Black Brazilians have the highest unemployment rate, many do not make it through to high .school, they arc rnore likciy to work in menial jobs that pay an average rate of iess that US$80 per month, only two per cent of blacks make it to universit)' compared to over 10 per cent of whites. More than half of the black Brazilian population is illiterate, biack infants are twice as likely to die before their second birthday than their white counterparts. But for years, such statistics were frowned upon and never accepted as an indication of racial

mud houses, grow their own crops, hunt, fish and make tbeir own instruments, but tbe loss of land and accompanying urban migration bave put a strain on tbe communities. Unlike tbe United Scares, where slavery is too often relegated to tbe sbadows of bistory, iti Brazil's Quilombos tbe memory is still alive and is a constant reminder to modern-day Brazilians about the countr)'s past. There are almost 1,000 Quilombos across Brazil. Many liberals, noting the extent to whicb income gaps reflect levels of education, agreed tbat an edticarional quota system or "reserved seats", bad to be introduced in Brazil as a way of reducing the education gap. A law has now been enacted which sets aside 50% of entrance places into universities C black-Brazilians, indigenous people, and O diose from disadvantaged socio-economic .md educational backgrounds - wbo bappen to be black anyway. Tbe law also makes coursework in African Studies a requirement. In 2003, Afro-Brazilian history and Afi-ican history were made compulsory in the Brazilian public scbool system and ;t special curriculum was created to encourage a year-long study on cbe contributions of Africa towards the building of Brazil. injustice buc rather tbat cbe situation was due to black people's poor economic status. On tbe political level, tbere are only a handful of black members of Congress, government ministers, and governors. Most of tbe blacks you see in corridors of power are waiters, chaufTcuts and cleaners just like in scenes common in Brazilian movies wbere black people are mainly seen as maids, criminals or labourers. Tberefore, from slaverj' in the 18th century, to racial quotas and affirmative action today, Brazil's journey has been confounding. Fortunately. Affirmative Action programmes are cbanging tbe rules of tbe game and bring bope to many. In 2001, during the preparations for tbe World Conference on Racism, tbe Brazilian preparatory committee adopted a position tbat endorsed [be introduction of an Affirmative Action phm and tbe system of quotas. Many colleges and tmiversities now reserve at least 20% of tbeir admissions for Afro-Brazilians. Enter President Lula. Since coming into office in 2002, Lula bas made Africa an important part of his foreign poliq', declaring that Brazil owes a lot to Africa. He is always stressing how most of Brazil's wealth was created by black slave labour, and be feels Africa should get a better deal from tbis past legacy. To prove his commitment, be bas
Above: President Lula (left) who is crusading equality for black Brazilians, gets a deserved hug from South Afrlca'5 President Thabo Ubeki

Lula's Secretaiyfor the Promotion of Racial

visited Africa several times during his term of office. Black Braz,ilian activists and otber liberals are now taking advantage of Lula's unflincbing commitment to racial equality to put anti-discriminatory measures legally in place, in case Lula's successor in three years time does not sbow tbe same entbusiasm. To prove bis commitment, in 2003 Lula declared that every 20 November would be celebrated as "Black Consciousness Day" wbicb also commemorates Zumbi, tbe 17tb century leader of tbe Palmares (the runaway slave community in tbe fore.st of Brazil). On 20 November 2007, true to his word, Lula launched a two-bi[lion-re;ils programme to develop tbe remaining Quilombos (tbe communiries of freed - and escaped African slaves founded m the country's forests wbo often acted as resistance groups, leading rebellions and plantation raids). Today, some black communities view tbemselves as carrying on tbe 6ght against injustice by continuing to live in tbe Quilombos. maintaining tbeir traditions and fighting for tbeir land rights. Most Quilombo residents still live in

Equality (SEPPIR), bas been pusbing a number of new legislation to support tbe inclusion of people of Afriam descent in different political and social spheres. The Foreign Service, known as Itamaraty, also has a quota system tbat sets aside spaces for Afro-Brazilians to study diplomacy. Tbere is. bowser, valid scepticism on wbetber che quota system and affirmative action, in education and employment, will genuinely improve and reduce the disparity in wages. Many doubt tbat tbe new measures will lead to black Brazilians receiving tbe same income as equally qualified wbites. Critics in fact say both affirmative action and the quota system arc bad fot black people because tbey are separating people by colour and, hence "creating a racist countr)'". But bope comes in tbe vety realisation and growing acceptance among Brazilians tbat racism and discrimination bave been part of their lives from tbe 18tb century slavery to today's quota system - wbat matters now is to face tbe problem and combat it. But with 300 years of slavery', another 100 of living a lie, is racist discrimination really over in Brazil? Time will tell. Buc for now, it's comforting to know there is no more racism denial.! M A
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