“(Re)Adapting to Resist: The Case of Brazil’s Urban Quilombo Aparelha Luzia (2022)” by Lucas Novais | Master Thesis

Abstract: “The following master thesis discusses a contemporary phenomena in Brazil: the creation of self-titled urban quilombos. If in the past, the quilombos were created by enslaved negros to resist against slavery, currently they were readapted to resist a structurally racist society. In this process, the urban quilombo Aparelha Luzia, located in the center of São Paulo, quickly gained notoriety for Afro-Brazilians, be it for its distinctiveness, be it for the success of its founder, Erica Malunguinho, in the political sphere.

We follow Stuart Hall’s (1990, 2006) cultural identity theory of a continuous reconstruction of someone’s cultural identity, that occurs through interactions between their own culture with others and varied cultures; within this theory, by returning to their past, one is enabled to reconstruct their own cultural identities. Applying this theory to our case study, Afro-descendants bridge together their past towards what they become. This thesis will analyze how this return to an Afro-Brazilian past (i.e. returning to quilombos) helps Aparelha Luzia’s attendees in reshaping their cultural identities. To answer this question, we apply Hall’s theory into an autoethnographic study. This consisted of qualitative interviews and field visits, by which we experienced what it is to be at Aparelha Luzia’s activities and apprehended different ways of cultural reshapings of identity.”

 

This master’s thesis, authored by Lucas Novais and supervised by Prof. Dr. Amélia Polónia & Prof. Miguel Filipe Silva, was defended in 2022 as part of the EIMAS (European Interdisciplinary Masters in African Studies) master’s degree program, promoted by the University of Porto, Universität Bayreuth, and Université Bordeaux-Montaigne. A copy of the dissertation is available in English in the University of Porto’s Open Repository.

ANO

2022

AUTORES

Lucas Novais

EDITORES

Prof. Dr. Amélia Polónia & Prof. Miguel Filipe Silva