Teaching African-Brazilian heritage still a challenge

In an area that was home to the largest maroon community in the Americas, Quilombo dos Palmares, teaching African-Brazilian history in schools is still a big challenge. According to the local school headmistress, Luciete Santos, the schoolpupils have low self-esteem and look down on their own heritage. “Sometimes they are biased against their own culture. They fail to recognize themselves as part of that culture and aren't aware of their own potential. They had no idea of what their heritage was and what this place means,” she said.

The school is located at the Muquém maroon community, next to the Quilombo dos Palmares Memorial Park, listed as a heritage site. More than 140 families live in the community. One local highlight is clay crafting. “Children up to the 5^th grade like handling clay, but 7^th–9^th graders are self-conscious,” the headteacher explained.

A national law requires schools to cover African-Brazilian history as part of their educational programs, not as a standalone subject, but across the curriculum. But the difficulties remain. Luciete Santos works to help students regain a sense of pride, and the community plays an active role. Last year, school staff received training for maroon education and African-Brazilian history and culture teaching from the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL).

Luciete Santos says that when students leave the community to study in the city, they face discrimination, which only shows how African-Brazilian culture learning is lacking in other schools. “There are no educational resources, [the subject] is not even officially in the curriculum [as a standalone subject],” the mayor of União dos Palmares, Carlos Alberto Baía, explained. He says the municipality has a group that discusses teaching this topic, but the poor resources make the legal guideline a hard requirement to comply with.

The Ministry of Education's Secretary for Continuing Education, Literacy Teaching, Diversity and Inclusion, Paulo Nacif, says the ministry has stepped up its efforts producing resources that cover African-American history and culture and provides incentives for teacher training and supports universities that teach these courses.

*The reporter traveled to Palmares at the invitation of the National Council for Education (CNE).

Translated by Mayra Borges