by Natalie De Rosa Brazil commemorated the bicentennial anniversary of its independence But a new media project aims to highlight how that independence — and how Brazil has evolved up to the present day — was built on slavery Inspired by Nikole Hannah-Jones’ and The New York Times’ 1619 Project projeto Querino offers an Afro-centric history of a country that imported nearly half of all enslaved people taken from Africa and would be the last country in the Western hemisphere to abolish slavery Through an eight-episode podcast produced by Rádio Novelo and an essay series published by the magazine piauí projeto Querino demonstrates how enslaved people propelled Brazil’s independence and built its wealth The project also spotlights the contributions of Afro-Brazilians in the modern day ranging from music to education to health care ways journalists can incorporate historical research into their work and how the media can tell the stories of Afro-Brazilians which was conducted in Portuguese and translated to do a fellowship with the International Center for Journalists and got to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture I went to that museum four times — it’s the only museum that I’ve ever visited that much — and it was during one of those visits that I listened to the 1619 Project I got to know the work of an institute here called Instituto Ibirapitanga which funds initiatives to promote racial equality and we came up with the idea to do a Brazilian 1619 Project There were six months just of preparation to present projeto Querino to Instituto Ibirapitanga and obtain the grant It was a coincidence; at the time I was talking to Novelo about “Vidas Negras” [“Black Lives”] And that’s how Novelo entered projeto Querino [projeto Querino] obtained a grant from Instituto Ibirapitanga It was a year of research: historical research What stories were we going to tell about this macro-history of Brazil How were we going to tell the story of public health in Brazil It was two years of work with more than 40 people involved do you see projeto Querino in conversation with 1619 but the differences [between the projects] are posed from the very beginning because the number of slaves who came to Brazil is 10 times larger than the number that went to the United States And it’s not an accident that the percentage of Afro-descendants in the Brazilian population is more than half the population while in the United States it’s less than 15 or 20 percent Though politically and economically we’re the minority was what provoked some of the biggest advancements in American democracy in terms of human rights It was a major focus in projeto Querino for us to show some of Brazil’s best characteristics that are an example to other countries but especially compared to the United States it’s a system that is able to reach poor people [That system] is a result of the struggle of the Black movement and Black people this was a big inspiration to have this positive look at our history — a proactive One thing that struck me about the podcast was how much agency it assigned Afro-Brazilians — episode three What considerations did you take in choosing to tell this story about Brazil the way you did Agency is everything because to tell this story about Black existence in Brazil without agency The conventional historiography that we learn in school already exists in the mainstream media We had to show a version of the story that is not commonly told We did not want to make a kind of violence porn but we don’t describe the torture of slaves at all in the entire project Because that’s already part of people’s imaginations That’s why we’re a lot more interested in the ways that Black people found to Those were examples that we included to serve as an inspiration today there are sad and dark explanations for the inequalities we have in Brazil today But we also can find in the past examples of how people can fight today for a better world with more rights and more democracy This project is a blend between journalism and history How do you see the two informing each other [History and journalism] converse well because they’re professions that converge at a lot of points they guide both a good journalist and a good historian It’s cool to understand — and I think that we did this well in projeto Querino — the virtues of both to use the best that each have and contextualizing historiographical research [helps] not put today’s gaze on a [historical] moment a historian that we heard in the eighth episode talked about the fact that one of the main abolitionists in Brazil He defended the end of slavery and owned slaves But when we understand the historiography of this moment I think that systemizing this history from a point of view is narratively attractive I think that’s one of the main contributions that the journalism part of projeto Querino gave to the historical part I think [history and journalism] are complementary works as long as one learns from the virtues of the other The very end of the podcast series ends with you saying: “As long as there is racism And it’s past time for Brazil to actually be a democracy.” This project did not only come out during the bicentennial of Brazil’s independence — it came out right before an election where many see democracy at risk What should we take from projeto Querino into this election When we look at the two candidates [Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro] there are two projects: a democratic project and an anti-democratic project It’s important in this moment to understand that democracy is I think that one inspiration that projeto Querino leaves for the audience is to remember that despite all of the advancements that happened in Lula’s government — during Lula’s first two administrations and from the social point of view and economic point of view we were much better off than we are today — Brazil is not a country free of racism We still haven’t solved the issue of racism Brazilian democracy will only reach its peak when people have equal opportunities to exercise their rights as a citizen that we didn’t have even before Bolsonaro Going back to [the Lula administration] won’t resolve that We need to think about this moment as an opportunity to create a new Brazil to create a Brazil where people are not impeded from exercising their full potential as citizens A democracy should be where there isn’t a differentiation between people I believe that this is the main message that we wanted to relay in this finale Help advance the Nieman Foundation’s mission “to promote and elevate the standards of journalism” by making a donation © 2024 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College “We consider the witches’ broom not a plague but rather a ‘holy’ broom,” says Rubens de Jesus That’s not a sentiment shared by many of de Jesus’s fellow small farmers who in the 1990s saw their valuable cacao trees devastated by an outbreak of the fungal disease in the south of Brazil’s Bahia state leaving more than 150,000 farmers unemployed in what had been Brazil’s main cacao-producing region since the 18th century Bahia’s cacao was highly valued on the international market providing decades of abundance for local landowners known as “colonels,” who exported the crop by the ton every year the fungus that causes witches’ broom disease (WBD) in cacao trees The cacao trees shriveled up and sprouted the abnormal stems that give the disease its name home to 150 people in the municipality of Ibirapitanga the outbreak opened the way for land reform They mobilized for their land rights and received training and support from institutions eventually becoming an example of how to overcome adversity They started selling premium cacao to major brands and achieved freedom financial independence and food sovereignty Before joining the Dois Riachões land reform settlement many of the community’s residents worked on cacao farms as temporary employees paid weekly based on how much work they did Working conditions were harsh: about 15 years ago or about $4.60 at the exchange rate at the time “I thought I was worthless; it was almost like slave labor,” he says Workers didn’t get to participate in all stages of cacao production and it remained so for several generations so we wouldn’t understand the whole cycle of cacao.” This was designed to keep them dependent on the landowners the families of many cacao farmers had never eaten chocolate until they took possession of the land and many did not even know what chocolate was but I was not allowed to suck on a cacao seed or it would be deducted from our payment,” says Luiza dos Santos adding that they were monitored up close by “shift corporals,” as the farm foremen were known That was until some farmers started to get involved in social movements fighting for land And they decided to set up camp on an abandoned farm by the BA-652 state road: Dois Riachões after six years of fear and sleepless nights their persistence paid off and they managed to occupy the property which was eventually granted to them by INCRA land reform would have been virtually impossible in the region But the 40 families who occupied the land already knew that planting cacao would guarantee their livelihoods and their main source of income the 406-hectare (1,003-acre) settlement has no single owner; it is instead managed collectively by all 150 community members When the farmers first took over Dois Riachões There was nothing on the land but livestock and cacao As is customary in movements fighting for land they planted food crops such as cassava and beans for their own subsistence as soon as they arrived they started selling the surplus in neighboring towns and the reality finally began to change from being called “troublemakers and thieves,” they started to be praised as food producers an agroecological system that had been practiced in the area for 170 years It consists of cultivating without clearing the forest This is possible because cacao grows well in the shade; here it has the added benefit of preserving a patch of southern Bahia’s dwindling Atlantic Forest at least 50 species of native trees are required This differs vastly from much of the cultivated land in Bahia encouraged by the state government and major industries Another crucial decision by the community was to center their cacao farming around the local and ancient parazinho variety rather than on hybrid or cloned ones widely used in the area In addition to providing much tastier chocolate it contributes to maintaining the age-old farming tradition Another trademark of Dois Riachões is collective participation Each farming stage is carried out as a joint effort and the farmers sing while breaking the cacao “We can’t handle 4 hectares [10 acres] by ourselves but we can do it by working with the neighbors,” says Mara Silva the community’s income per hectare is four times higher than from a conventional system “Agroecological production is our only option Today we still have Atlantic Forest in Bahia thanks to cacao,” de Jesus says Through partnerships with several institutions the residents of Dois Riachões also learned to master fermentation the most sensitive and rigorous stage of the cycle responsible for producing truly high-quality cacao beans they have managed to sell to the two main premium chocolate brands in the Brazilian market: first Amma “It’s a beautiful and integrated community with a beautiful organization,” Amma’s founder “We made a [chocolate] bar and stamped it to inform identity Dengo has helped raise the quality of the beans even further by requiring that they be analyzed by Brazil’s Cocoa Innovation Center which assesses whether they meet the standard for processing Other smaller but also prestigious brands have followed “It’s a fantastic feeling when Amma sends us chocolate with that name written on it: Dois Riachões Association,” de Jesus says “Anyone who buys it will be consuming a product that doesn’t harm nature and will benefit those who are at the end of the chain the community is introducing cacao and its derivatives into its own diet “We’re starting to use it for ourselves as well Food production is liberation,” Mara Silva says “The process of struggle in Dois Riachões advances toward quality education and access to all levels of training,” says Teresa Santiago a farmer and member of the community’s education commission The commission has built a day care center and is finishing off work on a National School of Agroecology but now I’m finishing college,” Santiago says Farmers’ average monthly earnings went from 246 reais in 2008 to 2,000 reais today ($144 to $365) the community opened a school factory and is about to launch its own chocolate brand All this in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic — a sweet success in such difficult times The history of the community is told in the independent documentary short Dois Riachões Directed by filmmaker Fellipe Abreu and journalist Patrícia Moll it was released in November 2020 at the Terra Madre Brasil event promoted by Slow Food Banner image of the Dois Riachões settlement in Ibirapitanga This story was first reported by Mongabay’s Brazil team and published here on our Brazil site on Feb The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa as protected areas become battlegrounds over history and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins and trying to forge a path forward […] O endereço abaixo não existe na globo.com