Residents of quilombos in Amapá, a state with dozens of these traditional communities, have lost meat, chicken, fish, and fruit pulps since the blackout that started on the 3rd, forcing them to resume traditional methods of preserving food—such as salting meat. The persisting blackout made quilombolas rely on the lamplight.
The lack of energy was already routine in these communities. In a month, in places where electricity just arrived ten years ago, three or four blackouts, which last for days, are common. Now, the outage has aggravated the situation and caused quilombola communities to regress in the enjoyment of rights conquered over decades.
According to the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra), there are 33 open processes for regularizing quilombola territories in Amapá. Twenty of them are in the capital, Macapá. Of the open cases, five have already resulted in titling, the final step in the regularization process.
According to the National Coordination of Black Rural Communities, Amapá has 258 quilombo areas identified. They are communities where the residents carry the ancestry of enslaved blacks who escaped from oppression and refugees in difficult to access regions.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon