Brazil cities celebrate Black Awareness Day

More than a thousand Brazilian cities celebrate the Black Awareness Day on Friday (Nov. 20). The date was fixed in 2003 on the national calendar and marks the death of Zumbi dos Palmares, the last leader of the largest quilombo (a place that housed runaway slaves) from the colonial period, the Quilombo dos Palmares.

In the town of União dos Palmares, in Alagoas state, the celebrations will be held at Quilombo dos Palmares Memorial Park, where they will crown Zumbi’s bust and hold reverence to the African origin’s ancestry, among other activities. The campaign for freedom and against religious intolerance will also be launched; artists, celebrities and religious leaders will participate.

In Salvador, the state capital of Bahia, the city with the largest number of Afro-Brazilians, the 15th Walk for Freedom will occur in the afternoon. The walk shall assemble more than 20,000 people, and will begin at the headquarters of the Afro Carnival group, Ilê Aiyê.

In Maranhão, to celebrate the date, the government submitted to the Legislative Assembly a bill that reserves 20% of the government servers’ positions to black people. There will also happen a rally during the afternoon, in the capital of São Luís, and a special edition of the More Culture and Tourism Program, with capoeira presentations, afro music, and bumba-meu-boi (which is a typical cultural manifestation).

In Brasília, Distrito Federal, the government launched a campaign on social networks in order to raise public awareness and rethink the use of racist terms, like "things are black"(which means that things are not going well), "black list", "black humor" and “bad hair” (referring to black people hair).

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta