Favela Heritage Practices: Women Warriors’ Struggles for Political Memory and Social Justice in Rio de Janeiro

ABSTRACT

This article discusses everyday spatial heritage practices in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. It focusses on the experiences of faveladas, Black and poor women residents of the favelas, as they build their houses and struggle for political memory in the city. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and photowalks conducted in 2011–2013 and 2018 with residents of the favelas of Pavão-Pavãozinho and Cantagalo (PPG), this article documents the insurgent heritage practices of ‘women warriors’ and analyses the ways in which these practices typify means of resistance to urban coloniality. I draw on theories by the Afro-Brazilian feminist scholars and activists Beatriz Nascimento on quilombos (maroon communities) and Lélia Gonzalez on ‘Amefricanity’, who recourse to black and indigenous women’s Southern Atlantic experiences of oppression and forced migration and of resistance, to suggest the notion of ‘Amefrican’ heritage practices. The women warriors’ spatial practices and resistance encompass curated favela heritage. They challenge prejudice against the favelas and Afro-Brazilians, thereby sustaining ‘Amefrican’ heritage practices and shaping Rio de Janeiro’s cultural heritage and future, especially against contemporary processes of urban coloniality.

KEYWORDS:

• ‘Amefricanity’
• forced migration
• resistance
• favela heritage practices
• quilombo
• women warriors

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the participants in this research who shared their thoughtful reflections and experiences. I also would like to thank Lars Frers, Jaime Amparo Alves and Brodwyn Fischer for their valuable insights and discussions on initial ideas for this article. I am grateful for the comments from the editors of this special issue whose suggestions improved the article. I would like to thank the reviewers for their insightful comments

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Faveladas (or favelados for men) are residents from the favela, often used with a negative connotation. However, residents reclaimed the term favelada (woman from the favela).

2 ‘Women warriors’ (mulheres guerreiras) is frequently used term to describe Black women’s resistance referring to everyday struggles against violence, everyday survival, and building communities (see Veillette, 2021: 95). In this paper, I use the term referring to the women from the favelas or faveladas. In PPG, the favela museum has organised women warrior exhibitions since 2008. The term is used also amongst residents in Rio and other favelas.

3 Afro-Brazilians or Black, (including pardo or brown): I use the term Black here, as all Afro-Brazilians and favelas are particularly targeted by structural racism and police violence that hit racialised residents in Rio’s favelas particularly with increasing numbers of death, while Brazil supposedly has been presenting itself as a ‘racial democracy’ based on its so-called racial harmony and mixture, with no formal segregation since the abolition of slavery in 1888. Black Brazilians, descendants of slaves, are however still affected through the ‘afterlives of slavery’, as visible in all statistics on life expectancy, health, income, education, incarceration, etc (see Håndlykken-Luz 2022).

4 See https://www.slavevoyages.org/.

5 The residents who contributed with photos were not anonymised (Håndlykken-Luz, 2022), and their first names accompanied their photos according to their suggestions. The remaining participants in this project are anonymised or referred to by their surname according to their wish. This project was validated by NSD (Norwegian centre for research data), the responsible review board for my university (project number 59959).

6 ‘The Museum de Favela (MUF) is the ‘first territorial and alive museum about favela memories and cultural heritage in the world. Its collection has about 20,000 residents and their lifestyle narrate an important and unknown part of Rio de Janeiro’s history. The territorial museum is located above the steep slopes of Cantagalo’s mountain range, among Ipanema, Copacabana and Lagoa, at Rio de Janeiro’s south zone, in Brazil. It has an area of about 30ft² and a rich collection of culture and lifestyle. Its natural heritage gathers the Atlantic Forest and remarkable panoramic views among the most astonishing views of Rio de Janeiro’. (See https://www.museudefavela.org/)

7 For an article on the favela museum in English, see https://rioonwatch.org/?p=45983

8 For more information about the local favela museum (MUF), see: https://www.museudefavela.org/sobre-o-muf/

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Åsne Håndlykken-Luz

Åsne Håndlykken-Luz is an associate professor at the Department of Culture, Religion and Social Studies, University of South-Eastern Norway. Her research explores urban cultures, everyday experiences and politics, spatial practises, the role of the senses, social inequalities, social justice, urban militarization and changes in cities in the Global South and beyond. She holds a PhD in culture studies and a master's degree in studies on society, science and technology.