Empoderamento da mulher negra: A Educação e a Cultura como ferramentas para preservar o legado de Felipa Aranha do quilombo de Alcobaça.

Abstract

The fight for gender and racial equality is a recurring theme in Brazilian society, and the empowerment of black women is a fundamental issue in this context. Education and culture are important tools for preserving the legacy of black women who have fought and resisted throughout history. An emblematic example is Felipa Aranha, leader of the Quilombo de Alcobaça, who stood out for her courage and determination in the fight against slavery and for the freedom of the black people. In this context, the present dissertation aims to analyze bibliographic materials and documents that make positive reference to Afro-Brazilian women in order to identify empowering characteristics and profiles to promote the dissemination of this knowledge in a way that contributes to the empowerment of black women. The methodology used in this dissertation is action research, which focuses on collective action to improve praxis and promote intervention in reality. Action research differs from conventional research due to its transformative approach in the spaces where it is applied (Thiollent, 2011). To carry out the research, a cycle of four stages was adopted: planning, action, observation, and reflection. The objective was to promote an intervention in the studied reality through collective actions that aim to improve the praxis of the subjects involved. Our theoretical framework was built based on the following authors: Pinto (2001, 2004, 2010), Amaral (2015), Costa Lima (2013), Davis (2016), among others. The research concludes that the inclusion of ethnic-racial issues in school curricula is fundamental for preserving the values and knowledge of the community. The promotion of examples of women who fought for their rights and transformed their realities can encourage students to do the same. The research highlights the importance of education in promoting racial equality and combating racism, allowing for a historical process of reparation and recognition of others, as well as African, Afro-Brazilian, and indigenous history and culture. It is concluded that education plays a fundamental role in building a more just and equal society, with one of its main focuses being the preservation and maintenance of the culture of the peoples that constitute it.