Black Feminist Activism in Brazil: from the black women’s movement to intersectional feminism

Abstract:

This article analyzes the political trajectory of black feminist activism in Brazil and its discursive repertoires with respect to the intersections between gender, race and other social categories in three historical moments. The article is based on two research projects conducted between 2013 and 2019. The data presented in this article were collected through internal and journalistic documents from the Black Women’s Movement, government documents, informal conversations and semi-structured interviews with Black women activists from Belo Horizonte. The article is divided into three sections. First, we focus on the autonomization process of the Black Women’s Movement in the 1980s and analyze the discursive repertoires expressed in the Nzinga Informativo. Then, we analyze the movement’s institutional advocacy strategies in the 1990s and early 2000s. This period was characterized by an attempt to establish formal channels of political participation for Black women within the state bureaucracy and international organizations. Finally, we discuss the resurgence of street demonstrations in the 2010s, along with two emerging scenarios of political mobilization led by young black women activists in Brazil: (i) the rise of a generation of young black feminists who are reformulating and/or creating new discursive and confrontational repertoires in the streets, on the internet and in political representation; and (ii) the growing presence of black women exercising legislative mandates, which we interpret as a movement of “occupying politics”. By analyzing these discursive repertoires, this article contributes to a better understanding of the various strategies of political mobilization that black feminists employ in the early 21st century and the socio-political impact of these strategies.

Keywords:
Social movements; Black women; Black feminism; Intersectional feminism; Political activism; Discursive repertoires