July 25, 2022

14:07

Priscilla Peixoto – from Amazon Agency

MANAUS – Current issues from the perspective of Amazonian black women is the purpose of the new podcast from CENARIUM, in partnership with Onda Digital Network. Under the command of the lawyers from the specialized consultancy in Antidiscriminatory Law, ODARAS, the weekly show will have an unprecedented proposal in the media of Amazonas and will debut this Monday, 25th, at 10 pm, in Cenarium’s platforms and in Channel 8.2 of Rede Onda Digital.

“We are 4 women lawyers with the intention to ‘aquilombar’ (making it quilombo) to collaborate. The problems that exist in our individual activities have shown us the need to act together. After the magazine’s invitation, we realized the opportunity to broaden the debate and bring provocations and reflections based on the intersectional themes of race, gender, and class”, says Laila Alencar, lawyer and one of the presenters, who shares the presentation with Ana Carolina Amaral, Luciana Santos, and Rhaiza Oliveira.

Special date

According to Laila, the premiere of the podcast for July 25 has a meaning linked to the real meaning of the date that commemorates the “Tereza de Banguela Day and the International Day of Black Latin American and Caribbean Women”, which aim to combat racism, sexism, and race and gender oppressions, besides proposing the empowerment and mobilization of black women on the subject.

“The Day of Tereza de Benguela, a quilombola leader who led her quilombo resisting slavery for over two decades, brings to Brazilian women, like us, the inspiration to resist the struggles against racism and sexism that try to take from us, among other things, the right to live”, comments Laila.

Voices and resistance

The lawyer also points out that the podcast was designed with a focus on the North and will have guest appearances (always female), in order to take advantage of the space to promote the often silenced voices of northern and racialized women. For lawyer and journalist Luciana Santos, the weekly program is emblematic and challenging.

“The fact that our podcast goes on the air on Black Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Day, Teresa Benguela Day, and on a Monday, the day dedicated to Exu, who is the lord of the paths and of communication, is very emblematic and a sign that we have the support of our ancestry, which also makes our work much more challenging”, says Luciana.

Social transformation

For the lawyer, being part of a work that addresses, among several topics, subjects such as race, gender, and class, is part of a dream and of resistance to the colonial violence that still exists far beyond physical violence. “It’s all the daily microaggressions of racism, it’s the erasure of our existence and our humanity”, considers Luciana, who adds.

“This project is a dream that I, as a journalist, have carried for more than 20 years and that, thanks to the Orixás, to the companionship of my sisters and to the inclusive vision of Cenarium Magazine, will be available not only for Amazonians, but also for all those who access the internet. Social transformation is what moves us and feeds our Orís (heads) daily. May the seeds planted in this project yield leafy trees, like the Amazon kapok trees and the African baobab trees”, he celebrates.

Read also: Lawyers launch company specialized in anti-discrimination law in Amazonas

Black Woman, Latin American and Caribbean

July 25 is celebrated as Tereza de Benguela National Day, Black Woman’s Day, and International Day of Black Latin American and Caribbean Women. The celebration arose 30 years ago, at the first Meeting of Afro-Latin American and Afro-Caribbean Women, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

In Brazil, the date was officially sanctioned by Law No. 12,987/2014, by President Dilma Rousseff, and is considered a “landmark in the struggle and resistance of black feminists” and all existing forms of erasure of this population.

Known as “Queen Tereza”, the date remembers the figure of Tereza de Benguela, for the symbol of strength and resistance that she was as leader of the Quilombo Quariterê, in the 18th century, in the region of Mato Grosso. Tereza became the leader of the quilombo after the death of her husband José Piollho. The then-widow had to coordinate the fight against the Portuguese and became an icon in the fight against slavery. In 1770, she was murdered, in the midst of the quilombo’s destruction, by the forces of the Mato Grosso captaincy, commanded by the then Luiz Pinto Coutinho.