The Afrofeminist activist Epsy Campbell (pictured) said this Saturday (15) that she hopes to see a black president in Brazil. Vice President of Costa Rica from 2018 to 2022 and currently President of the Permanent Forum of People of African Descent of the United Nations (UN), Epsy participated in the Latinidades Festival, which takes place this Saturday (15) in Rio de Janeiro.
“This is going to be a reality. The question is when do we want this to be possible, sooner or later. But the future is written. I hope to come to the passage of power for the first black female president in Brazil”, said Epsy. “It could change the power structure and priorities,” she said.
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Epsy, who is also an economist, was part of the event’s opening panel, along with Mexican Senator Susana Harp; the ambassador of Barbados to Brazil, Tonika Thompson; and Brazilian writer Conceição Evaristo.
She was Costa Rica’s first female chancellor, in 2018, and the first black vice president in the country’s history.
“I am totally convinced that younger women, and black women fundamentally, will transform power structures. We have to work and collectively begin to blacken and feminize power. We have to increasingly break down the limits of identity that have been imposed on us”.
Susana Harp spoke about her fight for the recognition of the Afro-Mexican population in her country, which, according to her, is still “wearing diapers” when it comes to fighting racism. For Susana, for many years, Mexico did not recognize the existence of this population, treating them only as mestizos.
In addition, Mexican historiography hid heroes like Yanga, a black man who fought for the country’s independence in the 17th century, and sought to lighten, in the images of history books, the skins of other important black characters such as José María Morelos – one of the leaders of the struggle. for independence in the 19th century, who wore a cap to hide her hair – and Vicente Guerrero, second Mexican president.
“In politics, we want to balance the participation of Afro-Mexico people. In the Senate of the Republic, there are 128 male and female senators. Only one is of African descent. In the Federal Chamber of Deputies, there are 500 people and there are only three male and female deputies of African descent.”
Only recently has the picture begun to change, and in 2019 the Mexican Constitution recognized Afro-Mexican peoples and communities as part of the multicultural composition of the nation.
black feminism
In her participation in the opening panel, the writer Conceição Evaristo, author of books such as Poncia Vicencio It is water holeshighlighted the importance of a black feminism.
“We and the black women who came from a popular stratum and who knew the experience of working in madam’s houses know how these white women also influenced our view of black men. When, in the process of enslavement and signing of the Lei Áurea, black men lost their jobs, and we black women continued on the farms – and this later became a maid – a stereotype of the lazy black man was created. This stereotype was built through white women, the bosses, asking the maids what their men did. And many times these men were unemployed.”
Educator and writer Helena Theodoro highlighted that black men and women need to walk together, since both are targets of discrimination in society.
“We need each other. The war that our black men receive from society at large is enough,” he pointed out. “Men and women, due to our ancestry, have different roles but they are together because the discrimination is the same”.
Created in 2008, the Latinidades Festival, considered one of the main events about black women in Latin America, seeks to develop dialogues about confronting racism and sexism and promoting racial equality.
In its 16th edition, this year the festival started in Brasília, last week, and will also pass through São Paulo (21st to 23rd) and Salvador (29th and 30th).
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