Coordenação Nacional de Articulação das Comunidades Negras Rurais Quilombolas (CONAQ)

CONAQ articulates and defends the importance of social and political struggle based on the experiences and perspectives of quilombolas 

CONAQ is a national social movement that represents the vast majority of quilombolas and their rights in Brazil. It advocates for the implementation of sustainable development projects, public policies that take into account the organisation of quilombola communities, quality education consistent with the quilombo way of life, autonomy and self-determination for quilombola women, the permanence of young people in the quilombo and, above all, the common use of land, natural resources and harmony with the environment.  

Marleide Nascimento, a teacher and quilombola, is part of CONAQ’s National Education Collective and gave us an interview to share her knowledge about Quilombola School Education (EEQ in Portuguese) and CONAQ’s role in the struggle to protect the rights of the quilombola people. Follow CONAQ’s work here: https://conaq.org.br

Beyond the school walls: CONAQ struggles for an education rooted in traditional quilombola knowledges 

Marleide Nascimento, a schoolteacher, said that CONAQ was founded on 12 May 1996, during the 1st National Meeting of Rural Black Communities, in the city of Bom Jesus da Lapa, Bahia.  

“CONAQ, as a collective, plays an important role in ensuring that the school curriculum is inclusive and caters to ethnic, racial and gender differences” 

CONAQ was created to replace the Provisional National Commission and, as a collective, plays an important role in ensuring that the school curriculum is inclusive and addresses ethnic, racial and gender differences. CONAQ’s approach is also that education goes beyond the confines of formal academic settings, drawing on the experiences and traditional knowledge of quilombola communities. 

CONAQ was co-founded by Givânia Maria da Silva together with other quilombola leaders. Givânia da Silva is an educator, teacher and quilombola activist. A native of Conceição das Crioulas, she has dedicated the last 25 years to fighting for the rights of her community. As a teacher, she realised that the school curriculum did not take into account the histories and specificities of quilombolas, which demotivated students whose experiences were not reflected in schools.  

Givânia da Silva is active in tackling the inequalities faced by young quilombolas and fights to create a more just and equal future for quilombolas.

Quilombo Pedagogy: Territorialised public-school education

CONAQ advocates for self-representation in educational policies, ensuring that the needs of quilombola communities are recognised in broader educational discourse.

“We are a people with a history, and our education is contextualised. It does not begin in regular school; it begins on the ground at the quilombo”

Marleide emphasised that “we need to understand that, as Nêgo Bispo says, we are peoples with a history, and our education is contextualised. It does not begin in conventional schools; it begins on the ground of the quilombo.”

Based on this, the CONAQ National Education Collective was created in 2019 to discuss quilombola school education within the territories, to ensure that public policies are implemented, and to work with the training of quilombola teachers, managers, and educators with quilombo pedagogy in mind.

Marleide shared that CONAQ has “committed people working on many fronts,” and one of these actions is the fight to guarantee the right to contextualised and differentiated education for quilombola children and youth. CONAQ’s National Education Collective — made up of more than 100 teachers, including quilombola teachers who are in the territories and in the classroom — advocates and articulates on behalf of everyone and in collaboration to ensure that these teachers are trained to contribute to education within their territories.

The CONAQ National Education Collective has carried out a great deal of work in various areas, including the search for alternatives to reduce the school dropout rate among quilombola girls, and has conducted surveys in an effort to solve the various problems encountered in schools in quilombola territories in Brazil. The technical commission on quilombola school education is currently working with the Ministry of Education to initiate these discussions. For example, the collective is pushing for the implementation of the National Curriculum Guidelines for Quilombola School Education (Resolution CNE/CEB nº 8, 2012).

Another important action that the collective has been developing is the fight for contextualised and differentiated education at the national level. As part of the collective’s work in education, regional representatives are appointed by democratic and collective election to form a national commission that discusses quilombola school education. This is known as the National Commission for Quilombola School Education (CONEEQ). CONEEQ currently works with the Secretariat for Continuing Education, Youth and Adult Literacy, Diversity and Inclusion (SECADI), Ministry of Education (MEC). CONEEQ has  also contributed to the implementation of the EEQ guidelines but has been pushing for specific public policies to be implemented.

“The anti-racist agenda has always been part of CONAQ’s agenda”

Anti-racism is intrinsic to CONAQ’s philosophy and practices

The anti-racist agenda has always been part of CONAQ’s agenda. According to Marleide, CONAQ has always had this concern and has always focused heavily on issues of identity. agenda.

“Not all quilombolas are black, and not all black people are quilombolas”

She stated that “we know that not all quilombolas are black, and not all black people are quilombolas, but we also know that race, class, and gender intersect,” crossing all territories, and “not just our quilombola territories.”

Anti-racism is also reflected in quilombola educational practices.

Brazilian Law 10.639 enables educators to work and bring the discussion of identity into schools, considering the specificities of quilombola school education. CONAQ’s National Education Collective works from the perspective of ethnic-racial education, as it is still today the gateway for quilombola people to enter the discussion of quilombola school education in many territories. For example, Marleide’s state, Ceará, ‘we have already created the State Collective for Quilombola School Education.’ Quilombola school education collectives work to highlight the importance of this modality.

The CONAQ education collective organises itself and tries to influence public policies. Marleide reported that CONAQ’s National School Education Commission (CONEEQ) participated in the national education forum, where they discussed quilombola school education and the importance of having a multifunctional room for our children with disabilities in quilombola schools. Thanks to the leadership of this education collective, it is now possible for many quilombola schools to have multifunctional rooms. In addition, this collective has also discussed the education of quilombola girls. Givânia da Silva created the National School for the Education of Quilombola Girls in 2022, and since then, ‘they have been working hard on this issue of education because CONAQ is very involved, especially in the struggle for territory’ (Marleide Nascimento).

Marleide Nascimento explained that “the education collective has played an important role not only in issues of education and territory but also in all these areas, such as health,” because they are interconnected: for adequate medical care to reach the quilombos, it is necessary to understand the specificities of the quilombola people.

“Today I see that education is one of the doors for us to achieve other things”

Marleide understands that for the quilombo movement to “achieve, push for and ensure that public policies are implemented,” the quilombo people need to insert themselves into spaces of power, and “the education collective has been doing this […] today I see that education is one of the doors for us to achieve other things.”

The importance of ancestral knowledge and community spirit in overcoming challenges

Marleide highlighted the importance of collaborating with other collectives and movements to share experiences in forming partnerships and emphasised the need for democratic engagement. CONAQ’s activities are a collective effort that aims to address public policies on quilombos in Brazil, especially through the construction of collaborative partnerships in various states and municipalities across the country.

The education collective and its networks prioritise facilitating discussions on educational resources and leadership training, considering the need to create other collectives at the state and municipal levels to connect and build agendas that support the national collective struggle.

Marleide acknowledges that there are still many challenges and various instances of negligence in the application of Law 10.639, ranging from teacher training to the desire of many to take action and bring this discussion of quilombola school education to the Education Departments of municipalities that have quilombos. In the state of Ceará, ‘there are few municipalities that actually implement quilombola school education’ (Marleide Nascimento). She added that “we need teaching materials, we need to see ourselves in public spaces (schools), we need teachers who understand our specificities and bring our territory into the school.” Aware of all these challenges, Marleide understands that Law 10.639 is still a way for the quilombola people to be able to act in schools: “as it is law, schools need to apply it in some way, but this is a great challenge for us.”