How about playing bica bidom? The game comes from Angola and even resembles our hide-and-seek, but it has connections that are even more important than the rules of the game. The African and Afro-Brazilian Games and Games Catalog is one of the initiatives that seek to contribute to an education for ethnic-racial relations. This week, on January 9, Law 10,639, which officially included the teaching of Afro-Brazilian history and culture in school curricula, completed 20 years. Agência Brasil spoke with specialists and educators who highlighted advances and the need to monitor the implementation of the law. Among the interviewees, there is a consensus that the law, in itself, is already an important advance, including because it is a demand from the black social movement. “The teacher’s training, the process of changing textbooks, the paradidactic books, nowadays, I see this movement of children’s literature that has been starring with black characters and with the history of the black population in a positive way. These are points that make me look at with great joy, even thinking about the law”, says Juliana Yade, education specialist at Itaú Social.Neli Edite dos Santos, professor at the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU) and organizer of the book Construindo uma Educação Antiracista : Reflections, Affections and Experiences, says that, despite observing obstacles to the implementation of the law, he recognizes that this is an issue that exposes issues rooted in society. “We are dealing with our slavery, with our coloniality, with ethnic-racial hierarchies, with the myth of racial democracy that did and still does so much harm to the country. I understand that the anti-racist movement and the anti-racist movement in education, per se, is already a product of these laws.” For researcher Givânia Silva, from the National Coordination of Quilombos Articulation (Conaq), it is necessary to remember that Law 10.639, in fact, it is an alteration of the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education (LDB). “It is the greatest law of education in Brazil”, emphasizes Givania. For her, it is up to the Ministry of Education to induce policies and support tools, but also to charge municipal and state networks. “If that doesn’t happen, there’s no other way but for us to appeal to the inspection bodies.” The topic on Racial Equality, in the Final Report of the Transitional Government, assesses that there was “a lack of follow-up, monitoring and evaluation of the Law on Teaching Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous History and Culture (10.639/03 – 11.645/08)”. Juliana agrees that this monitoring is one of the fundamental aspects to advance in the implementation of the law. “We are talking about strengthening the identities and rights of people of African descent, indigenous peoples, to be and learn in this school that trains, and can no longer train, in favor of racism. We are also talking about educational actions to combat racism and discrimination. The implementation of the law and this monitoring will help to understand how and where each of these processes are in the states and municipalities.” Barriers Previous assessments of the law pointed out, for example, deficiencies in the production of textbooks. And this is one of the aspects in which it is considered that there has been progress. On the other hand, limiting curricular actions on ethnic-racial relations to reference dates, such as the Day for the Abolition of Slavery and the Day for Black Consciousness, are situations that are still observed in schools. Juliana emphasizes that the discriminatory reading of African mythical narratives also needs to be overcome. “Because of this false morality, the teachers became very attached to this issue of morality, in a simplistic translation that talking about the law is dealing with African-based religiosity within the school.” For her, the curriculum has biases and, therefore, even for many years it has had a Eurocentric bias. Givânia believes that the non-implementation of this aspect of the LDB results from a “shortsightedness” of Brazilian society, which refuses to look at race issues. “We will only reduce inequalities if we reduce and combat this structured racism in our society. How are we going to reduce this racism? With training, with education and that new managers are formed”, she says. Initiatives The Catalog of African and Afro-Brazilian Games and Play, which opened this report, covers the ludic universe of seven countries: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe. They are part of the University of International Integration of Afro-Brazilian Lusofonia (Unilab), Malês campus, located in São Francisco do Conde, Bahia. The research came up with the idea of elaborating a material that is in line with Law 10.639, especially with children in kindergarten. According to researcher Míghian Danae, one of the organizers of the catalogue, adherence to the games, both by educators and children, is almost instantaneous. “The proposal is a connection, or a reconnection, with this place of belonging and also the promotion of education in ethnic-racial relations.” The researcher points out that the little ones feel integrated into the production of knowledge, as they have routine day-to-day activities recognized in the school environment. Although it was not the initial objective of the research on games and games, Míghian recalls that other reflections emerged from the material collected and new academic productions are in progress. “[Observamos] similar games, and they will always be similar, they will never be the same, because we are talking about different countries. Always different. But the root is the same, the diaspora, which came to us through that very violent process that was colonization.” The catalog was included in the Edict Racial Equity in Basic Education, which supported applied research and other works that pointed out solutions to the challenges of building racial equity in schools in the country. The initiative is supported by Itaú Social, the Center for the Study of Labor Relations and Inequalities, the Tide Setubal Foundation, the Unibanco Institute and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). Another survey contemplated by the announcement was coordinated by Neli Edite dos Santos. In the book Building an Anti-Racist Education: Reflections, Affects and Experiences, organized by Neli, educators find a collection of different authors on structural racism in the school environment and resistance strategies. The work brings successful educational practices, in addition to reports, poems and scientific articles. Under the public notice, Neli developed the project “Building an anti-racist education: admission and permanence of quota holders in basic education”, at the UFU School of Basic Education. In this initiative, dialogue strategies were used with teachers, parents and guardians, in addition to children, also from early childhood education. “We bet on music, storytelling, theater, drawing and dance and, through these artistic expressions, we brought elements of appreciation of black and indigenous cultures, so that these children would have their eyes expanded to aesthetics, corporeities, for musical instruments, for sounds, for narratives that expand their repertoire, beyond the so-called Eurocentrism”, adds the researcher. In one of the activities, students aged 4 to 5 were encouraged to reflect using crayons with 12 skin tone colors. “We bring to the pedagogical perspective something that is within reach of that age group, something that will also trigger the family and allow this family to look at itself from an ethnic-racial point of view. Look at yourself. Who are we?”, she asks.
Agência Brasil
Folha Nobre - Desde 2013 - ©