Urban Quilombo by Sebastian Liste
Posted by Adriana Teresa in FV FeaturesTuesday, September 7th, 2010
Salvador de Bahia, Brazil’s, housing deficit leaves thousands of families without homes, living on the streets. Most of these families are descendants of slaves. Since 2003, the Movimento dos Sem Teto da Bahia (The Homeless Movement) has been seeking farms, factories and abandoned buildings as a way to provide homes for these people.
Seven years ago sixty homeless families occupied the Galpão da Araújo Barreto, an abandoned chocolate factory. These families were looking for a decent place to live and a more prosperous future for their children, away from the dangerous streets of Salvador de Bahia. After seven years of occupation they are losing hope, that they will ever get out of this situation. It’s hard to fight every day against a political and economic system to end overcrowding, poverty and hardship. The government offers no dialogue or alternatives for these families. This type of living situation is common in Brazilian history. At the time of slavery, slaves who escaped from the plantations fled to the quilombos. Back then, the quilombos were places of freedom, resistance to oppression and inhumane living conditions. Today, unfortunately, history repeats itself.
Since the 40s, when the city of Salvador experienced very high population growth, social inequality became more apparent. Once again, the most disadvantaged people are coming together and creating new living spaces like the abandoned chocolate factory. The quilombos were located on the outskirts of the city. Today the urban quilombos are spaces of resistance and hope inside the city.
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