Black Quilmbola Women’s Leadership and Social Justice in Brazil

Bibliographic Data

ID9001976
AuthorsIvonete Da Silva Lopes (0000-0001-5162-4719, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, corresponding author), G Mitchell-Walthour (0000-0001-8239-9227, North Carolina Central University, Durham, USA), Daniela Ulysséa Leal (0000-0001-7865-3296, Universidade Federal de Viçosa)
Year2025
Publication date2025-12-16
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Black Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9347 • E-ISSN: 1552-4566
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00219347251397420
OpenAlexW4417417078
LanguageEN
References cited28

Quilombolas are those community members that have remained on the land of quilombos or the land in which maroon communities lived. Quilombolas constitute a Black ethnic-racial group historically linked to resistance against oppression since the period of enslavement. This resistance, especially as exercised by women remains in contemporary Brazilian society. Despite facing adverse socioeconomic conditions, racism, gender oppression, and class inequality, many quilombola women take on the challenge of community leadership. This article analyzes the role of women leaders in quilombola territories in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The research includes data collected from 41 leaders and 16 in-depth interviews conducted with them. We argue the importance of Black women’s leadership in popular mobilization and in everyday acts of resistance such as collective care. In the case of Quilombola women, the main finding reveals that ancestry is a central motivating factor for exercising leadership and that inspiration comes from mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and other women in the community. Leadership is hard work, but in this context is a response to injustice and is an act of collective care aimed at preserving community life

Community organizing · Context (archaeology · Ethnography · Injustice · Maroon · Oppression · Qualitative research · Resistance (ecology · Social justice · History of Colonial Brazil · Politics and Society in Latin America · Race, Identity, and Education in Brazil

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