Abstract
This paper reflects on the political disputes around the memory of slavery and its abolition in Brazil, analyzing the publications made on the website and the official social media of the Fundação Cultural Palmares (FCP) in May 2020. In these texts, the FCP, led by Sérgio Camargo, seeks to reiterate the legacy of Princess Isabel as the author of abolition and denounce the mythological character of Zumbi dos Palmares. The consolidation of “places of memory” (NORA, 1993NORA, Pierre. Entre memória e história: a problemática dos lugares. Projeto História, São Paulo, v. 10, p. 7-28, 1993.) is neither a natural nor an inexorable consequence of historical processes, but the result of social and symbolic conflicts and disputes (LE GOFF, 1990LE GOFF, Jacques. Memória. Enciclopédia Einaudi Memória-História. Campinas: Editora Unicamp, 1990.). In this regard, this article investigates the symbolic and historical elements mobilized by the current FCP management to disqualify and dismantle the recent racial equality policies based on the reconstruction of symbols, heroes, and ephemeris of Blackness which emerged following redemocratization in the 1980s.
Keywords
Racial relations; memory; abolition; Fundação Cultural Palmares; Zumbi dos Palmares