November 20th was Black Consciousness Day here in Brazil, and so we have included two reflections and a facts list on the Afro-Brazilian reality.

In this edition of News from Brazil

by Alzira Rufino*

[editor's note for a brief description of Zumbi of Palmares, go to http://www.sejup.org/500.htm; for a brief description of quilombos, go to http://www.sejup.org/515.htm.]

On November 20, Day of Black Consciousness, we remember Zumbi, who did not fight for territory or glory, but in legitimate self-defense, for the right "to be," for the right to recover our dignity. Palmares and all other quilombos, today some even urban, discard this hypocritical and cynical society which today sees the black race as something passive, trying to take away from the black person his or her pride in his/her blackness.

We honor the resistance of Zumbi of Palmares and countless unnamed ancestors and survivors of a war of terror and deception.

Dates like this one make me reflect and write on the roles that we Afro-Brazilians have in this great drama. In the end, we are the owners of our emancipation cards and we are coming out from behind the curtains not to clean the stage but to be the principal actors in this new millennium.

Does power have color? Where are the colors of Brazil at the desks of decision-making? The electoral process shows us the truth. The UN considers that a country has democracy when the racial breakdown of those in government positions is the same as the racial breakdown among the general population. So, Brazil will only be a true democracy when at least 44% of authorities are black women and men. Municipal, state and federal governments are the mirrors in which we can see our face. There continues to be very few blacks in this mirror. And we have called this country a racial democracy. The one thing necessary for the racial discrimination to continue is for all of us (blacks and whites) to remain passive. Our passivity is a form of approval, because to do nothing is to cooperate with racism.

What is it to be passive in the schools and universities? What expectations do teachers have in relation to black children and adolescents? Very low expectations there is a subtle message that if things get difficult, the black kids will quit.

And what about means of communication? The media, because of its power to influence public opinion, should be used in a responsible manner to promote respect among races.

To those who say that one century after abolition we are still unprepared for skilled jobs, we respond that blacks receive 30-40% less money than whites with the same amount of schooling and experience in performing the same jobs.

Dieese (a non-governmental research organization) conducted a study which demonstrates how racial democracy is not functioning in the Brazilian workplace. The worst place in the study was the city of Salvador where unemployment among blacks is 50% higher than whites.

In our daily experience, we have to "confront the lion." We have to use strategies to rest, retreat, advance so that we can remain in one piece.

At the time of Palmares, to flee was to be free. Not today.

Today's quilombo is to stay exactly where you are, resisting, organizing, demanding.

Today's quilombo is to know that the moment has come to turn the table, the table where we used to just receive scraps....

We must turn our eyes and hearts back to Africa, the birth of civilization, the drum that keeps us united. Our gods and goddesses dance and are very near to our joys and victories.

If we use our colored clothes, our hair in braids, it is not because we are exotic. It is because we are part of a history, a culture. We have roots.

We begin every new year at ocean's front, honoring our ancestors who came across the sea. We know that we must heal our pain, looking to children, women, our people.

Black is not only beautiful, but competent. We know politics. The quilombo experience, the Palmares school.

We pass our bamboo ring to the next generation. In spite of the strong winds of discrimination, the cold inequities we have suffered in all these years, we must do more than talk. We have little to commemorate and much to do.

Today, we more urgently need to denounce the veiled discrimination, this psychological aggression that we breathe.

The time for mountain-climbing has come!

*Director-President of Casa de Cultura da Mulher Negra, writer and editor for Esparrei magazine.

by Dom Demetrio Valentini*

November 20th is Black Consciousness Day. We remember Zumbi of Palmares, the hero of black resistance, the martyr for the dignity of African descendents in Brazil. It is they who carry the weight of the biggest perversity perpetrated by Western civilization the spoilage of the African continent and the subjugation of the African populations to slave labor, be it in Africa itself or in other countries through the slave trade.

We know that Brazil was the last country in the world to abolish slavery officially. It is not strange that we continue to feel its consequences, through the weight of prejudices against the black race, though discrimination which continues to persist, and through situations of social inferiority which is introduced in the structure of Brazilian society and which will only disappear after very long process of undoing.

Thereby comes the importance of the force of conscious-raising that symbolically has taken the form in the emblematic figure of Zumbi of Palmares. He symbolizes the awakening of consciousness, first among black populations, but also among all Brazilian people.

We have a great social and cultural debt with people of African descent. They brought with them to Brazil a great contribution, represented not only by their work, but above all through their culture and simply by their presence, which deserves our admiration, our care, and our solidarity.

Brazil needs to wake up to a special mission that we have in the world to give testimony to the peaceful and harmonious existence possible among different peoples and cultures. In solidarity with the black population in our country, we express our gratitude for their invaluable contributions to our history and our mission.

....We also remember on this day the Guarani hero Sepe Tiaraju. He died while confronting the Spanish and Portuguese troops who were uniting to divide up the Guarani territory in accord with the interests of these two powers, simply disregarding the will and organization of indigenous populations. The memory of Sepe Tiaraju is carefully kept by the Guaranis in the territories east of the Uruguay River. He is honored so much that he was canonized popularly as Saint Sepe, a name also given to one of the municipalities of Rio Grande.

These heros are the flag bearers, whose relevance still remains. The best way to honor their memories is to continue to take up the causes for which they gave their lives.

*Bishop of Jales, Sao Paulo

• 43% of blacks are below the poverty line.
• 20% of whites are below the poverty line.
• Of this 43% of blacks below the poverty line, 19% live in misery (earning less US$40 per month).
• Of this 20% of whites below the poverty line, 7% live in misery.
• Of the richest 10% in the country, 22.3% are black.
• 16.8% of the black population is illiterate.
• 7.1% of the white population is illiterate.
• 4.6% of the black population complete 12 years of school.
• 15.2% of the white population complete 12 years of school.