The black freshman from Unicamp took a dive at the Emanoel Araújo Afro Brasil Museum (Mabea) on March 16th and 17th. Around 160 students visited the museum located in Ibirapuera Park, in São Paulo, in the first “Immersive Week at the Emanoel Araújo Afro Brasil Museum”. With the aim of getting to know the collection fMade up mostly of works by black artists, in addition to works that portray black history, the event was an encounter with ancestry, marked by strength and emotion. In addition to racial literacy, the visit promoted an quilomba, in the words of professor Debora Cristina Jeffrey, from the Faculty of Education (FE) at Unicamp.
“Being here at the Afro Brasil Museum is quite representative. Our quilombamento happens because the museum is a genuinely black space, which is highlighted on the national and international scene”, said the professor in her welcome speech. “We are here in this process of union, of celebration in this house.”
The visit to Mabea is part of the Calourada Negra 2023 program. The novelty is the result of a partnership between the government of the State of São Paulo and Unicamp, through the deans of Undergraduate Studies (PRG) and Extension and Culture (Proec) , the Executive Directorate of Human Rights (DEDH) and the Permanent Entrance Exam Commission (Comvest). The proposal came from a student studying Social Sciences, from the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences (IFCH) at Unicamp, Guilherme Renan Domingos Antunes, who is an intern at Mabea. His idea was welcomed by the coordinator of the museum's Education Center, Siméia de Mello Araújo, who promptly formalized the proposal to Unicamp, which in turn accepted it and made it viable.
The special activity included a bus trip (round trip), a guided tour to see the museum's collection, meals and an opening class. On Friday, the book was launched 20 Years of Law 10.639/2003 – Paths and Possibilities in the Education of Ethnic-Racial Relations (Editora CRV), organized by researchers Debora Cristina Jeffrey and Maria de Fátima Garcia.
On Thursday (16/03), after the arrival of the two buses in São Paulo, the approximately 70 students organized themselves into groups, to then accompany (in separate groups) an art educator on the guided tour and get to know part of the collection of 12 thousand works (8 thousand from the long-term collection and 4 thousand from the technical collection). On Friday (17/03), the dynamics were the same with the participation of 90 students. “The collection is the place to meet our past, with black people, so that we also understand the future”, says student Guilherme. Between anonymous and famous, the visitor will come across characters such as Pelé and Maria Carolina de Jesus, as well as works by black artists, such as the founder who gives the museum its name, the sculptor Emanoel Araújo, and white artists who portrayed black culture. such as the French photographer Pierre Verger and the Argentine Carybé.
other perspectives
“The museum also has a pedagogical function”, says Guilherme. “The history of black people did not begin with slavery and does not end there. This story is happening now with these students here. It is a constant, dialectical movement. Whiteness tried to erase this history. The museum is also a counterpoint to official history, that is, it has the perspective of black people”, he concludes.
Among the students, there were not only freshmen. When the application forms were made available, there were no restrictions. The tour was offered to all interested students. “That’s what we’re trying to do here, a little bit of this little ant work, but also showing that our steps came from a long time ago, a long way away,” said Guilherme.
“I found it very important [to visit the museum], especially in terms of learning about the history. As I went into the exact sciences field, the knowledge I have about my ancestors is somewhat limited and superficial. It really was a surprise to see that we have a lot of potential, even though our people went through what they went through. I will definitely study next week with an even greater conviction that I will win. It's very motivating. In my course, which has few people in my social circle, this was a huge blow. So, this feeling of not feeling like I belonged, that I wasn’t good, was very strong,” said João Victor Ribeiro dos Santos, an Applied Mathematics student.
Biology student Ayra Mahalla de Souza already had a history of valuing ancestry in her family. “I was very happy to be here contemplating the Africanities that we have in Brazil. It's something that my mother always valued, as an Arts and Literature teacher, with a postgraduate degree in African Matrix. Being here today with the freshmen is very important and rewarding for me.”
Representativeness
Larissa Adorno Inácio, a Social Sciences student, took photos next to a panel with text by Carolina Maria de Jesus, the black Brazilian writer, composer and poet who had international prominence in the 1960s. “What Carolina de Jesus did was very impactful in its time. As a black woman, she is extremely representative. It is important when the knowledge of a black woman can be used as the basis of research or experience.”
Leonardo Xavier, also from the Social Sciences course, praised the program. “I thought the initiative was very good, especially for these black bodies who are now entering the University, which is still a very white place, in terms of knowledge. For us to have access to this, to our memory, to things that are also produced by black people, I think this makes people enter the University with a different vision.” Leonardo said he was impacted by everything he saw at the museum. “I have the same blood as those who went through slavery and continue to go through it, with the different social crossings, in relation to the most diverse social issues in Brazil today.”
Educator May Agontinmé prepared one of the groups of students before entering the room with torture devices used on enslaved people. “There is a fetish for pain, some people like to know details of torture. But we have to be careful with this, because we have to deconstruct narratives. It’s important not to forget, we will never forget the pain, but that’s not our only memory.”
Vítor Alves, from the Visual Arts course, had already visited the museum more than once and had the opportunity to talk to Emanoel Araújo himself, who passed away in 2022. “Emanoel himself said that in history you can't just talk about happiness, that we also needed to talk about suffering. The museum is not just for fun. It's like art, there are works that make you feel uncomfortable. It has an entire anthropological interpretation. This room is for you to feel really bad, so you don’t forget.”
Open class
The open class, which took place right after the visit to the museum and lunch, had the theme “From quotas to the museum: memory and black political representation”. The event also intended celebrate five years of implementation of ethnic-racial quotas at Unicamp and 20 years of Law 10.639, which instituted the teaching of Afro-Brazilian history in schools. Welcomed by the museum staff, the students were motivated to dedicate themselves to their studies. “Unicamp is a platform to launch successful people”, they announced.
For professor Debora Cristina Jeffrey, bringing black students into a process of reflection and expansion of Afro-Brazilian culture is very important. “On the other hand, I also think that this has a fundamental role in the anti-racist fight, in the sense of understanding that black students also have their demands, their demands, and that they are engaged in this. The idea is to encourage them so that they can continue throughout their journey in the course of their choice, feeling integrated and welcomed by the University, its dynamics and its routine.”
Warmth
In the teacher’s opinion, welcoming makes a lot of difference. She didn't have that when she joined in 1995. “There is progress at Unicamp when black freshmen are institutionalized, this has been a demand for many years. This freshman already has a history of the Black Consciousness Center, an initiative of students, some teachers, who thought about this effectiveness and representation, as well as the reception for indigenous students, thinking about this integration as a whole.”
For the professor, the desire of young black university students is to seek their identity, or to see themselves represented at the University as an integral part of the Unicamp community. “Don’t give up. Long live the University, despite structural racism, despite all the challenges. Don't get lost. Be you. Be together, be united. We can come together and make a difference”, concluded Debora.
Professor Carolina Cantarino Rodrigues, deputy coordinator of the Directorate of Culture (DCult), thanked the Dean of Extension and Culture and DCult and also remembered when she joined Unicamp in 1995. “I didn't have a reception like this. There weren't even racial quotas in Brazil. The scenario was completely different. This meant that at that moment I was the exception that confirmed the rule of racial inequality in higher education. There were many times when I was the only black person in the classroom. But now I'm not alone in the classroom anymore. Now I'm with you. The room became more plural, more real. This is due to the struggle of the various black movements, in their most diverse modes and fronts. It was with this struggle that this scenario transformed intensely in the last 20 years. This transformation is concrete and it is expressed here today in this room, with our presence, with the presence of all of you black students at Unicamp and with the presence of this museum. If we were previously present (both at the university and at the museum) only as objects of knowledge, now the quality of our presence in these institutions is different, since we can now affirm our existence as creative subjects, producers of knowledge, of art, of culture, of thought. The Afro Brasil Museum moves me. We can feel that this ancestral force lives in each and every one of us. And so we strengthen ourselves, collectively, mutually, because this cultural heritage is ours.”
Sávio Machado Cavalcante, professor of Sociology at IFCH and advisor to the Dean of Undergraduate Studies (PRG), thanked Guilherme and recalled that the event was the result of a collective effort. “I see this moment, today, as very important. You will continue this fight. I'm very happy to be part of this story, in some way, and to see your interest, with all this energy. Much luck to you on this journey. Congratulations."
Second accoordinator of the Mabea Education Center, this was the museum's first partnership with a public university. “This is a project that was very successful, considering today's beautiful meeting. We want to turn this into a dialogue program with some institutions.” Siméia said that the university public, especially quota students, is a public that the museum is very interested in talking to. “We learn and teach together.” According to the coordinator, Law 10.639 guides the activities of the Mabea Education Center.
The museum
Founded in 2004 by the Bahian sculptor Emanoel Araújo – a year after Law 10.639, which established teaching about Afro-Brazilian history in schools –, Mabea is located in Ibirapuera Park, in São Paulo, at the Padre Manoel da Nóbrega Pavilion, which hosted the second São Paulo International Art Biennial. The building dates back to 1953. Emanoel started the museum with its 1.100 works. Today there are 12 thousand works in the institution and the museum is integrated into the Secretariat of Culture and Creative Economy of the State of São Paulo. The artist passed away in 2022.
Watch the video produced by the Proec Communication team:
