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Dia da Consciência Negra – November 20

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Dia da Consciência Negra (Black Consciousness Day) is observed in Brazil on November 20 and honors Zumbi dos Palmares, who was killed on this date. It is a day to reflect on Black resistance in Brazil, from enslavement to today.

Zumbi was the leader of Quilombo dos Palmares, the largest and most famous quilombo community that resisted multiple attempts to destroy it by both the Dutch and Portuguese. Located in the region of Pernambuco and Alagoas, it is estimated that between 10,000 to 20,000 freedom seeking enslaved Africans and others wanting to escape colonial society lived in Palmares between ca. 1605-1695.

Quilombo communities continue, with a population of 1,327,802 people according to the 2022 Brazilian Census. While the Brazilian Constitution recognized quilombos in 1988, 100 years after abolition, their land rights are still being challenged. As of July 2023, only 211 quilombola territories are titled in Brazil, with 62 of them only partially and 1,787 land-titling processes pending.

Learn more about quilombos through library resources:

Video (VPN if off campus):

  • Quilombo Rio dos Macacos Costa, Marcela, producer.; Pires Neto, Josias, director.; Épuros (Firm), production company. 2017. Available Online. Documentary film about the quilombola community located between Salvador and Simoes Filho (Bahia, Brazil), which focuses on the conflict over the land’s ownership.

eBooks (VPN if off campus):

Print books available for checkout at LACC:

Special Collections material (Request in Grand Reading Room by emailing special@uflib.ufl.edu)

Jane Malinoff-Kamide Collection on Afro-Brazil

This is a comprehensive and extensive collection on the history of Afro-Brazil issues in general, with a focus on literature, newspapers, scholars, poets, and organizations. The collection contains original newspaper issues of the first Black newspaper in Brazil, O Clarim D’Alvorada, as well as many copies of newspapers from the 1920s to the 1980s. The collection contains books and original publications and includes extensive documentation on notable Afro-Brazilian individuals such as Alberto Guerreiro Ramos, Paulo Colina, Oswaldo de Camargo, and Abdias do Nascimento, a poet, dramatist, scholar, activist, and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize nominee. This is a great collection for researchers interested in the history of Afro-Brazil, the rise of the Afro-Brazil press, poets, writers, and thinkers.

Browse the library catalog to find additional resources.