“In Front of the World”: Translating Beatriz Nascimento

Abstract

This collection translates some of the work of the influential Black Brazilian thinker and activist Beatriz Nascimento (1942-1995) for the first time into English, in collaboration with her only daughter, Bethânia Gomes. Historian, poet, theorist and organiser, Beatriz Nascimento was a key figure in Brazil's Black Movement until her untimely death in 1995. She dangerously wrote at the height of Brazil's Military Dictatorship (1964-1985), and theorised extensively on the Black condition in Brazil; the unique experience of Black women; and quilombos-Brazilian maroon societies that she imagined as spaces of both historical and contemporary fugitivity. Following Alex Ratts, this introduction outlines her contribution to radical geography, in particular Black geographies, territoriality and embodiment. It also positions Nascimento within the transAtlantic Black radical tradition. We present two of Nascimento's essays in translation here. The first, "The Concept of Quilombo and Black Cultural Resistance", introduces a crucial strand of her scholarly work, on the history and socio-political significance of quilombos (maroon communities). The second, "For a (New) Existential and Physical Territory", shows Nascimento in a different mood: philosophical, reflective and iconoclastic. In addition, two of her poems-"Dream" and "Sun and Blue"-are also translated here for the first time. Resumo: Esta colec ßão traduz, pela primeira vez para o inglês, e com a colaborac ßão da sua unica filha Bethânia Gomes, alguns dos trabalhos da intelectual e pensadora negra brasileira Beatriz Nascimento (1942-1995). Historiadora, poeta, te orica e ativista, Beatriz Nascimento foi uma figura-chave do Movimento Negro no Brasil, at e sua morte prematura em 1995. Corajosamente ativa no auge da Ditadura Militar do Brasil (1964-1985), ela escreveu e teorizou extensivamente sobre a condic ßão do negro no Brasil; a experiencia unica das mulheres negras; e o quilombo-que ela retratou como espac ßo de fuga hist orica e contemporânea. Seguindo Alex Ratts, na introduc ßão descrevemos a contribuic ßão de B. Nascimento para o a geografia radical, procurando situ a-la na tradic ßão radical negra transatlântica. Em seguida, apresentamos dois dos seus ensaios: o primeiro, "O conceito de quilombo e a resistência cultural negra", apresenta uma vertente crucial do seu trabalho acadêmico, centrado na hist oria e no significado sociopol ıtico dos quilombos, com uma abordagem anal ıtica e hist orica; e no segundo, "Por um territ orio (novo) existencial e f ısico", B. Nascimento apresenta uma abordagem diferente: filos ofica, reflexiva e iconoclasta. Afinal, apresentamos tamb em de forma in edita, dois poemas da intelectual vers atil B. Nascimento-"Sonho" e "Sol e Blue".

Landscape semaphore: Seeing mud and mangroves in the Brazilian Northeast

“…Nascimento was an Afro‐Brazilian activist, poet, and historian from Sergipe, a few hundred kilometres south of Recife. She was a scholar of the history, sociology, and politics of quilombos – communities of escaped, formerly enslaved people – in both African and Brazilian manifestations (Smith et al., 2021). Ôrí is a poetic exploration of the profoundly unfinished project of Black liberation in Brazil.…”

History and philosophy of geography III: Global histories of geography, statues that must fall and a radical and multilingual turn

“…It is worth noting that, likewise dealing with transnationalism and translation, new contributions are trying to correct the initial emphasis on ‘great men’ such as Castro and Santos which characterised the rediscovery of Brazilian critical geographies in English-speaking literature. It is the case with interviews to São Paulo female forerunners of critical and radical geographies (Ferretti, 2021f), and with a project by Davies, Christen Smith and Bethânia Gomes to translate the exceptional works of Brazilian Black feminist Beatriz Nascimento (Smith et al, 2021).…”

Positive Racial Identity of Black Brazilian and Colombian Adolescents Amidst Systems of Educational Oppression

“…Their stories may be small, but they are rich and captivating (M.B. Nascimento, 1988; translated by Smith, Davies, & Gomes, 2021, p. 305).…”

“…Many scholars have studied how race and racism are silenced in Latin America (Monk, 2016; Paschel & Sawyer, 2008; Telles, 2004; Wade, 2010). In Brazil and Colombia, racially democratic and multiculturalist national agendas have been adopted as a sociopolitical mechanism to shift discourses of racism to ideologies of human equality and cultural diversity (Moraes da Silva and Paixão, 2014; Smith et al., 2021; Urrea Giraldo, Viáforo López, & Viveros Vigoya, 2014). Multiculturalism is defined as a sociopolitical ideology that recognizes the value of ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity to benefit the social and economic advancement of a nation state (Jupp, 2011; May, 2009).…”