By PAULO FERNANDES SILVEIRA*
Considerations about the book, recently republished by Abdias Nascimento
Four decades later, Besieged in Lagos: self-defense of a black man harassed by racism, by Abdias Nascimento, gets a 2nd edition, revised and expanded. In addition to the original text and the preface by Dom José Maria Pires, published in 1981, the current edition features a presentation by Elisa Larkin Nascimento, a new preface by Molefe Kete Asante, and an afterword by Carlos Moore. Appendices were also added: Open Letter to the XNUMXst Black Arts Festival and Open Letter to the XNUMXnd Conference of African and Diaspora Intellectuals.
The history of the Brazilian black movement in the 1914th century coincides with the history of struggles of Abdias Nascimento (2011–1930). In the 1940s, Abdias participated in the Frente Negra Brasileira – FNB. In the 1982s, he founded and directed the Teatro Experimental do Negro. According to Lélia Gonzalez: “her critical position in the face of racism and its practices, her concrete work of literacy, information, training of actors and creation of plays that point to the racial issue, meant a great advance in the organization of the community” (24, p. 1970). In the late XNUMXs, Abdias Nascimento helped create the Unified Black Movement (against racial discrimination), which deepened the struggles for effective racial democracy.
Visual artist, playwright, actor, director, writer and scholar of black issues and Pan-Africanism, Abdias has published dozens of books in Portuguese and English and taught at several foreign universities. He received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from renowned Brazilian and foreign universities. He was a federal deputy, senator of the Republic and secretary of Human Rights and Citizenship of the government of the State of Rio de Janeiro.
Besieged in Lagos It is a courageous denunciation of the political persecution imposed by Itamaraty and the military dictatorship on Abdias Nascimento. The cover of this new edition reproduces a mask of Idia, the Iyoba (queen mother) of the kingdom of Benin, chosen to be the symbol of the II World Festival of Black and African Arts and Culture, held in 1977, in Lagos. Based on a series of confidential telegrams from Itamaraty and the official note from the Brazilian embassy in Lagos, Abdias Nascimento analyzes the reasons and strategies of the military dictatorship to avoid participating in this festival.
Just as occurred at the 1966st World Festival of Black Arts, held in XNUMX, in Dakar (check the Open Letter to the XNUMXst Festival of Black Arts),1 Abdias Nascimento was not included in the delegation of artists and intellectuals that represented Brazil. According to Colonel Ahmadu Ali, chairman of the committee of evaluators and Nigeria's minister of education, Abdias Nascimento's work was not strictly academic and aimed to propagate ideological beliefs.
Despite the negative opinion being made by the festival committee, some press organizations maintained that the rejection of Abdias Nascimento's work responded to the interests of the Brazilian government.
The essay prepared by Abdias Nascimento for the festival is entitled: “Racial democracy: myth or reality?”, and was published by the newspaper Versus, in November 1977. The text formulates the thesis of the historic genocide of the black population in Brazil:
Through the era of slavery, from 1530 to 1888, Brazil carried out a policy of systematic liquidation of Africans. Since the legal abolition of slavery, this policy has been carried out through well-defined mechanisms of oppression, keeping white supremacy free from threat in this country. (1977, p. 40).
This thesis by Abdias Nascimento anticipates some of Achille Mbembe's (2018) reflections on necropolitics. On the other hand, Abdias makes a fundamental contribution to the debate regarding the myth of racial democracy in Brazil. In Besieged in Lagos, Abdias Nascimento defends this position again: “The genocide that is practiced against black people in Brazil follows several paths: there is direct death through hunger, disease or police action; there is genocide through the suppression of African languages, the denial of history, culture and religions brought by enslaved Africans; there is ideological genocide based on the suppression of demographic information in the service of falsified elaborations, as witnessed by the Brazil 662 and the official note from Lagos”. (2024, p. 84–5)
Even without financial support from the Brazilian government, Abdias participated in the Festival as an observer, without the right to vote or present proposals. With the support of the North American delegation, Abdias Nascimento took the floor to contest some of the theses presented by members of the Brazilian delegation. Furthermore, he circulated copies of his work that could not be presented.
What, then, was the reaction of the Brazilian authorities?
At the end of Besieged in Lagos, Abdias transcribes the official note from Ambassador Geraldo de Heráclito Lima, head of the Brazilian delegation: “The Brazilian embassy in Lagos is very sorry for the inconvenience caused by Mr. Abdias Nascimento to the competent authorities of Festac 77, in relation to the essay he presented at the colloquium, which was rejected by his work selection board as “not strictly academic”. […] Mr.’s work Abdias Nascimento in the United States are considered, as has now been seen in Nigeria, devoid of academic value and recognized as pamphleteering in nature” (2024, p. 59–60).
Regarding the thesis of genocide of the black population and criticisms of racial democracy in Brazil, Heráclito Lima's official note is emphatic: “In two hundred years, no one has ever heard of racial problems or conflicts in Brazil. Brazil presents, in this regard, its great universal contribution, as the most genuine, spontaneous and significant example for any country really interested in learning to practice racial tolerance” (2024, p. 60).
After Festac, Abdias (1978) published in Brazil the book The genocide of black Brazilians: the process of masked racism. Considered by the Festac evaluation committee and Itamaraty as lacking academic value, this work by Abdias Nascimento had two prefaces, by Florestan Fernandes and Wole Soyinka, who a few years later received the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Until that moment, most research on interracial relations in Brazil highlighted the absence of racial conflicts like those that occurred in African countries and the United States.
In his thesis, defended in 1978, Carlos Hasenbalg maintains that, in Brazil, although white people have stereotypical conceptions of black people, “such stereotypes are often verbalized in friendly contexts and situations rarely evolve into interpersonal conflict and violence” ( 2005, p. 260). Analyzing the same theme, Kabengele Munanga states: “The white Brazilian, instead of being brutal or hostile towards his black compatriot, is rather charitable and paternalistic. He takes pity on the black man and treats him with sweetness and tenderness” (1978, p. 151).
Em The genocide of the Brazilian black, Abdias relays the news of the murder of Robson Silveira da Luz at a police station in Guaianazes, in the east zone of São Paulo. In the early hours of April 22, 1978, upon returning from a dance, Robson and his friends stole three boxes of fruit from a truck. During the torture, the police chief reportedly said: “black people have to die on a stick!” (1978, p. 38) The expression of sovereignty, argues Mbembe, “is the ability to define who matters and who does not, who is 'disposable' and who is not”. (2018, p. 41)
The murder of Robson Silveira reveals the action of police officers bribed by traders to torture and murder whoever they indicated, as the Death Squad officers did. In the 1960s and 1970s, many police officers who were part of the Death Squad had carried out torture and murder for the military government. One of the Deops files with newspaper clippings about the Death Squad shows that the victims, the vast majority, were black people (State Department of Political and Social Order, 1977).3
In a protest against this murder, on July 7, 1978, the first demonstration of the Unified Black Movement took place. Abdias Nascimento was one of the black leaders invited to speak in front of the steps of the São Paulo Municipal Theater (Departamento Estadual de Ordem Política e Social, 1978a). In an open letter to the population, the activists demanded an end to police oppression (Security and Information Division, 1978).
The actions of the military dictatorship would once again focus, even more strongly, on the work of Abdias Nascimento and on everything that could lead to awareness and the fight against racial discrimination.
The demonstration was monitored by agents from the State Department of Political and Social Order (Deops, 1978b). Even before the demonstration, Deops was already monitoring the activities of some intellectuals engaged with the black movement, such as Florestan Fernandes (State Department of Political and Social Order, 1978c) and Clóvis Moura (State Department of Political and Social Order, 1978d).
Two years after Festac, Abdias received from an “African brother” a set of telegrams sent, during the festival, from the Brazilian embassy in Lagos to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Brasília. In his brilliant research, Jerry Dávila (2011) found copies of these telegrams in the archives of Itamaraty and Chancellor Azeredo da Silveira.4
The telegrams show the Brazilian embassy's commitment to preventing Abdias Nascimento's interventions at Festac. Some initiatives had the help of Fernando Mourão, coordinator of the Brazilian delegation at the festival, professor at USP and director of the Center for African Studies.5
In a search in the archives of Deops in São Paulo (SILVEIRA, 2023), I found a document prepared by Mourão that reveals his collaboration with the security and information body linked to the USP rectory.6
Among other topics covered, this document deals with Abdias' participation in Festac: “Brazil has been attacked on several levels at international meetings. […] Recently, at the colloquium on education that took place within the scope of the II World Festival of Black and African Arts and Culture, Mr. Abdias Nascimento appeared as an observer. Having had his thesis “Racial democracy in Brazil. Myth or reality?“Refused, it began to systematically attack Brazil, a fact widely known by the authorities who were informed from Lagos, in a reserved manner”. (Security and Information Advisory, 1977).
In this document, sent by the USP rectory to Deops, Fernando Mourão suggests: surveillance of black associations in São Paulo; surveillance of researcher Juana Elbein; surveillance of researcher Thomas Skidmore; boycott of the Black Fortnight, planned by sociologist Eduardo de Oliveira e Oliveira and boycott of Clóvis Moura's participation in the 1st Congress of Black Culture of the Americas, in Cali.
The document also alerts surveillance and repression bodies to the imminent termination of Abdias Nascimento's contract with the University of Ifé, which could interrupt his exile. Months later, Abdias Nascimento was prosecuted based on the National Security Law (National Information Service, 1978).7
Twice, at Fesman, in 1966, and at Festac, in 1977, with the repressive support of the military dictatorship, Itamaraty tried to silence Abdias Nascimento. However, his thesis on the genocide of the black Brazilian population influenced the group of intellectuals of the Unified Black Movement and continues to inspire new research.8 Besieged in Lagos and his other books continue to be studied by new generations. Abdias Nascimento's work opens up paths for struggles and reflections on the black issue in Brazil and the world.
* Paulo Fernandes Silveira Professor at the Faculty of Education at USP and researcher at the Human Rights Group at the Institute for Advanced Studies at USP.
Published in number 3 of volume 9 of Pink Magazine. [https://revistarosa.com]
Reference
Abdias Nascimento. Besieged in Lagos: self-defense of a black man harassed by racism. São Paulo: Perspective; Rio de Janeiro: IPEAFRO, 2024, 144 pages. [https://amzn.to/4cjvr0z]
REFERENCES
Administration Department (1966). Brazil 1966: resources and possibilities. Brasília: Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Available in: https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=xzs-AAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PA6&hl=pt
Security and Information Advisory (1977). Forward. nº 117/ASI/USP/77, April 19, 1977. Subject: Panel: “Black people in Brazil”, Dean’s Office, University of São Paulo. Dossier 50-K-104-3115. São Paulo: Archive of the State of São Paulo.
AZEVEDO, Daniel. A representative of Palmares in the National Congress: political activity of Abdias Nascimento, from the black Atlantic to the institutions of the Brazilian State. Doctoral thesis in History. Faculty of Sciences and Letters, São Paulo State University (unesp), Assis. Available in: https://repositorio.unesp.br/items/7c89694e-5df4-4044-925e-7c39cbde433d
CARDOSO, Hamilton (1978). Ceremonies for the murder of a black man, Versus, n. 22, p. 38–39. Available in: http://www.marcosfaerman.jor.br/Versus22.html?vis=facsimile
CARRIÈRES, Henri (Org.) (2021). Vasco Leitão da Cunha's management at Itamaraty and Brazilian foreign policy: selection of diplomatic documents (1964–1965): vol. 2. Brasilia: funag. Available in: https://funag.gov.br/biblioteca-nova/produto/37-1-gestao_de_vasco_leitao_da_cunha_no_itamaraty_e_a_politica_externa_brasileira
DÁVILA, Jerry (2011). Tropic hotel: Brazil and the challenge of African decolonization, 1950–1980. São Paulo: Peace and Land.
State Department of Political and Social Order (1977). Death Squad: Newspaper Clippings, folder 67, São Paulo Civil Police. São Paulo: Archive of the State of São Paulo. Available in: https://www.arquivoestado.sp.gov.br/uploads/acervo/textual/deops/prontuarios/BR_SPAPESP_DEOPSOS000992.pdf
State Department of Political and Social Order (1978a). Information Division, Subject: Public Act Against Racism, São Paulo Civil Police. Dossier 50-ZO-14631. São Paulo: Archive of the State of São Paulo.
State Department of Political and Social Order (1978b). Information Division, Subject: anti-racism concentration, São Paulo Civil Police. Dossier 50-ZO-14623. São Paulo: Archive of the State of São Paulo.
State Department of Political and Social Order (1978c). Information Division. Florestan Fernandes, São Paulo Civil Police. Dossier 50-ZO-14616. São Paulo: Archive of the State of São Paulo.
State Department of Political and Social Order (1978d). Information Division. Clóvis Moura, Civil Police of São Paulo. Dossier 50-ZO-14615. São Paulo: Archive of the State of São Paulo.
Security and Information Division (1978). Open letter to the population: against racism. Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Human Rights and Torture in Brazil, BR dfanbsb Z4.dhu.0.49. Rio de Janeiro: National Archives, p. 118. Available at: http://imagem.sian.an.gov.br/acervo/derivadas/BR_DFANBSB_Z4/DHU/0/0049/BR_DFANBSB_Z4_DHU_0_0049_d0001de0001.pdf
GONZALEZ, Lélia (1982). The black movement in the last decade. In. GONZALEZ, Lélia; HASENBALG, Carlos. place of black. Rio de Janeiro: Marco Zero, p. 9-66.
HASENBALG, Carlos (2005). Discrimination and racial inequalities in Brazil. Belo Horizonte: Editora UFMG.
JANUÁRIO, Eduardo (2011). Abdias: historical aspects of a black militant, Sankofa. Journal of African History and African Diaspora Studies, year IV, n. 8, p. 35–43. Available in: https://revistas.usp.br/sankofa/article/view/88809
MBEMBE, Achille (2018). Necropolitical: biopower, sovereignty, state of exception, politics of death. São Paulo: n-1 Editions.
MONTEIRO, Matheus (2023). Are we blackness?, Kwanissa: Journal of African and Afro-Brazilian Studies, v. 6, no. 14, p. 213–239. Available in: https://periodicoseletronicos.ufma.br/index.php/kwanissa/article/view/20869
MUNANGA, Kabengele (1978). Prejudice of color, different forms, the same objective, Journal of Anthropology, v. 23, no. 2, p. 145–153. Available in: https://www.revistas.usp.br/ra/article/view/131553
NASCIMENTO, Abdias (2024). Besieged in Lagos: self-defense of a black man harassed by racism. São Paulo: Perspective; Rio de Janeiro: ipeafro.
NASCIMENTO, Abdias (1981). Besieged in Lagos: self-defense of a black man harassed by racism. Rio de Janeiro: New Frontier.
NASCIMENTO, Abdias (1980). Quilombismo: documents of a pan-Africanist militancy. Petrópolis: Voices.
NASCIMENTO, Abdias (1978). The genocide of the Brazilian black: process of masked racism. Rio de Janeiro: Peace and land.
NASCIMENTO, Abdias (1977). Racial democracy: myth or reality? Versus, n. 16, p. 40. Available at: http://www.marcosfaerman.jor.br/Versus16.html?vis=facsimile
PIMENTEL, Irene (2024). The essentials about Pide. Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda. Available in: https://imprensanacional.pt/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/O-Essencial-sobre-a-PIDE_IN.pdf
RAMOS, Paulo (2021). Black grammar of the fight against state violence: from racial discrimination to black genocide (1978–2018). Doctoral thesis in Sociology. Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences of the University of São Paulo (FFLCH), São Paulo. Available in: https://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8132/tde-19052021-202215/publico/2021_PauloCesarRamos_VCorr.pdf
National Information Service (1978). Minister's office. Memorandum nº 1533, October 23, 1978. Subject: Abdias do Nascimento — Black Racism in Brazil — Interview published in Quibbler, nº 481, of 15/21/Sep/78. Rio de Janeiro: National Archives. Available in: https://querepublicaeessa.an.gov.br/images/MovimentoNegro/BR_DFANBSB_V8_MIC_GNC_AAA_78114973_d0001de0001.pdf
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SPEKTOR, Matias (org.). 2010. Azeredo da Silveira: a statement. Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV.
Notes
[1] The exclusion of Abdias do Fesman by a commission of intellectuals formed by Itamaraty was studied by Matheus Monteiro (2023). Shortly before the festival, the director of the National Security Section, of Itamaraty himself, indicated that some people should not represent Brazil in any activities abroad. The list included, among others: Edison Carneiro, Florestan Fernandes, Jorge Amado and Milton Santos ( CARRIÈRES, 2021, p. 80).
[2] In 1966, the Administration Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs produced a book in English highlighting some aspects of Brazil. In Quilombismo, Abdias considers the data on the black population to be fanciful. On the subject, the military government's book informs that: “The majority of the Brazilian population is made up of white people, with a small percentage of people of mixed blood” (Administration Department, 1966, p. 125).
[3] Unfortunately, not all repression files are accessible online. In addition to helping to identify the dictatorship's informants, some of these archives hold important records from the resistance groups and organizations themselves. The São Paulo Deops files on Abdias were studied by Daniel Azevedo (2023).
[4] In an interview, Azeredo da Silveira shows that he is well informed about Festac: “At that event, we were heavily attacked by representatives of the United States in terms of African politics and the problem of racial discrimination. They stated, in the middle of the conference, that saying that there was no racial prejudice in Brazil was nonsense” (SPEKTOR, 2010, p. 99).
[5] In the same interview, Azeredo da Silveira highlights the importance of the partnership between Itamaraty and Ocea: “We have, at USP, an African Institute, perhaps the most important in Brazil, although Bahia is the ShowCase more interesting” (SPEKTOR, 2010, p. 99).
[6] It is necessary to advance studies on informants of the Brazilian military dictatorship, as was done in research on dictatorships in other countries. In her research into the archives of the repression of the dictatorship in Portugal, Irene Pimentel (2024) lists some motivations of those who acted as informants, informers or “snitches”: monthly remuneration; payments for services and political favors, known as “cunha”. Pimentel highlights the importance of the informant being an infiltrator, that is, someone with free movement among the people under surveillance.
[7] In 1978, at the height of the amnesty campaign, artists and intellectuals began to return to Brazil. Among black researchers, many had notable academic productions and could be incorporated into USP. This is the case, for example, of Abdias Nascimento, Milton Santos, Guerreiro Ramos, Jacob Gorender and Clóvis Moura. Of these researchers, only Milton Santos was hired by the university, in 1982. Jacob Gorender was a visiting professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at USP, from 1994 to 1996.
[8] Among the research that deals with the topic, I highlight the article by Eduardo Januário (2011): Abdias: historical aspects of a black militant, and the doctorate by Paulo Ramos (2021): Black grammar of the fight against state violence: from racial discrimination to black genocide (1978-2018).
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