“Possibilidade nos dias da destruição”: pandemia e a continuidade da vida entre remanescentes quilombolas do Cumbe – Aracati/Ceará

Abstract

Reputed to be the producer of the best brandy in Ceará, between the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Cumbe today has another fame: it is known for its natural landscapes made up of dunes, mangroves, inter-dunes lakes, beach and river, but also for the community quilombola represented by its association. It is due to this biocultural diversity that Cumbe has been inserted in what we call socio-environmental conflicts. These conflicts began with the privatization of the so-called natural resources and strategic areas of the territory. This quilombola territory was impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic and thus I theoretically discuss the methodology used for the research I undertook, during and after the pandemic - emphasizing that I will write beyond the pandemic. I discuss quilombos in Brazil and the concept of quilombo, based on a response to a contesting opinion about the quilombola identity of the interlocutor community and I make the first notes about the quilombola biointeractive way of life and ontological conflicts, as well as political conflicts, internal to the community, arising from the opposition of non-quilombolas to quilombolas. In one of the chapters, I return to the theme of the coronavirus pandemic, focusing on the pandemic daily life of the Quilombo do Cumbe, on the actions and strategies put into practice by the interlocutor community in the face of the pandemic context. I also talk about the social organization of Cumbe, bringing fundamental elements to understand the local reality, such as internal conflicts, kinship relations, the presence of LGBTs, the party spirit of the quilombolas, etc. I also comment on the relations of the quilombola with their territory, what we call ‘nature’, as well as the relationships I developed with the quilombolas and their territory. I talk about fundamental issues of daily life in Cumbe, such as religious belonging, cultural manifestations, gender relations and quilombola autonomy. I conclude the thesis, emphasizing issues such as politics, the pandemic, my relationship with the interlocutors and their biointeractive way of life. In short, I intend to discuss the close relationship that the quilombolas of Cumbe maintain with the river, the mangroves, the dunes, the beach and the sea, not only in the sense of productive activities, but focusing on the organic knowledge mobilized in daily practices, techniques, in the affections and memories of the quilombolas. This is I call a biointeractive way of life, based on Santos (2015), of the quilombola of Cumbe. The defense of this way of life is what I call the continuity of quilombola life.