One of the most respected anti-racist activists in the world spent Carnival in Brazil. In addition to learning about Afro-Brazilian cultural and political roots, the Senegalese Luso Mamadou Ba met with leaders of the black movement. He received support and exchanged experiences that he intends to take to Portugal, where, in April, he will be tried for slander and defamation against Mário Machado, former leader of a neo-Nazi and white supremacist organization. On Friday (25th), Mamadou Ba paid a visit to Complexo do Alemão, in Rio de Janeiro. He walked through the community alongside activist Camila Santos, one of the founders of the collective Mulheres em Ação no Alemão. The two received, in 2021, the Front Line Defenders award, given to internationally outstanding human rights defenders. In an interview with Agência Brasil, Mamadou Ba pointed out similarities between the existing structural racism in Portugal and the existing racism in Brazil. In common, state violence and discrimination in access to basic universal rights, such as housing, health and employment. “When the police kill people indiscriminately, systematically and without resulting in any consequences, both for the police and for public opinion, it means that structural racism exists in the country”, highlighted the founder of the Portuguese association SOS Racismo . “We found these similarities in all countries where there was a colonial process. Brazil does not escape this. Brazil is the result of colonial violence, of the colonial trajectory.” In the activist’s assessment, the level of murder of young black men in Brazil is absolutely exponential. For him, the fact that these murders do not raise commotion or ethical discomfort shows that society is anesthetized in relation to racial violence. Education Asked about how to promote an anti-racist culture and education, based on children, Mamadou Ba said that this requires, in the first place, public will and political commitment, in addition to concrete measures to combat inequality as a racial factor. He sees education as one of the pillars of a democratic society, capable of building ethical and moral impediments to racial violence. The Senegalese Portuguese activist also indicated the need for the State to be committed to ensuring that equality is not a proclamation, but a practice. Mamadou Ba has hopes in the new government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, especially because of the leaders chosen to conduct the new public policies. “We can cure the ills that we inherited from this sinister period that we went through in the last five years”, he evaluates. “Not just for Latin America, but for Europe, North America and also Africa. In other words, we need a new generation of policies that put people and human rights at the center of political action”. Mamadou Ba considers that the persecution against him in Portugal is a reflection of the organization of the extreme right, which constitutes the third largest force in the country’s parliament. He believes there is also a retaliation movement on the part of racist and neo-Nazi police. The activist’s work, as an intellectual and militant, was to denounce the cells of this group and the racist violence of the Portuguese police against young black people, especially those living in the periphery. One of the leaders of the black movement in Brazil, professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) Babalawô Ivanir dos Santos, a member of the Brazilian Association of Black Researchers (ABPN), intends to take an international delegation to support Mamadou during the trial in April . Alemão The collective Mulheres em Ação no Alemão, visited by the Portuguese-Senegalese activist, has welcomed more than eight thousand women in the last eight years. Mobilizer Camila Santos informed Agência Brasil that the institution works to shelter women who are heads of families and victims of violence. “All of our work has a focus on the issue of gender and race because in Brazil, as in other countries, black women are the most negatively impacted in everything”. Activist Camila Santos during an interview with Agência Brasil in Complexo do Alemão, in the northern part of the capital of Rio de Janeiro. Photo Tomaz Silva/Agência Brasil The organization encourages women’s self-esteem and seeks to promote them through information and access to rights, showing that the Brazilian Constitution establishes that men and women are equal before the law. The collective works in partnership with the municipal and state secretariats for Women and with women’s commissions. Courses, training and workshops are also offered, bearing in mind the importance of generating income and financial independence for these women. “We also take care of women who are victims of violence and financial independence is very important to get out of this cycle”, said Camila.
Agência Brasil
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