Black Movement of Brazil

Movimento Negro (or Black Movement) is a generic name given to the diverse Afro-Brazilian social movements that occurred in 20th-century Brazil, particularly those movements that appeared in post-World War II Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

Social movements involving Black groups are found throughout Brazil's history. However, until the abolition of slavery in 1888, these social movements were almost always clandestine and radical in nature since their main objective was the liberation of black slaves. Since slaves were treated like private property,escapes and insurrections threatened the social order along with causing economic harm. These insurrections became the object of violent repression not only by the ruling class, but also by the state and its agents.

The principal form of embodiment of resistance against slavery by black rebel movements for nearly four centuries (1549–1888) was quilombagem. According to Clavis Moura: "Quilombagem is understood as the permanent rebel movements organized and directed by the slaves throughout the national territory. Considered a provocative social change movement, it was a constant and significant demoralizing force for the slave system undermining the slave system on several levels—economic, social and military. This kind of activity greatly influenced the crisis that the slave economy experienced and was eventually substituted by free labor" (22, 1989).

Even though according to Moura the quilombagem had as its organizational center the quilombo where escaped slaves sought refuge in addition to all sort of individuals excluded and marginalized by society during the colonial era, the quilombagem comprised "other forms of individual or collective protests" such as insurrections (the most notable one being in Salvador in 1835) and bandoleirismo, a guerrilla tactic in which groups of escaped slaves organized themselves to attack groups of people and travelers on the roadways (Moura, 1989).

In Moura's study the quilombagem as an emancipatory movement "greatly precedes the liberal abolitionist movement" that only began to be more public after 1880 when slavery had already entered into crisis. Nevertheless, because of the absence of mediators between the rebel slaves and the ruling class, the problems surrounding the quilombagem could only be solved by violence and not through dialogue. Even though there existed exceptions like the Republic of Palmares which lasted for almost a century, most of the quilombola movements did not have the means to resist for long against the oppressive mechanism of the state.

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