Brazilian quilombola - maroon remainders - communities received official recognition in the 1988 Constitution, article 68, which guarantees them ownership over their land. It raised socio-economic, spatial, juridical, and cultural issues showing what quilombola communities represent in the current Brazilian society. Based on the observation of schools in two quilombola territories - São Miguel dos Pretos and Kalunga, respectively in southern and middle west Brazil - and taking into consideration the regional differences and similarities, we analyze knowledge production in and out of the educational institution. A new perspective on the real insertion of Afro-Brazilian people into the formal educational system - either as students and receptors or as producers of institutionalized knowledge - is urgent, since the history of this people is set aside from Brazil’s historical process, thus reducing their importance in the civilizatory process of the nation.
Maroon’s remainders; Quilombo; Educational system; Territory; Self-esteem; Identity