Social organization and black women at quilombo Lagoinha- Paraiba/Brazil: life, work and community trajectories

Abstract

The fieldwork that gave rise to the reflections present in this text were carried out in the remaining black community of Quilombo Lagoinha, located in the rural area of ​​the municipality of Serra Branca, region of the cariri, Paraíba - Brazil. We take as a guiding principle of the research “to be there”, a challenge proper to ethnographic work. Our look turned to the life stories of women in the quilombola community of Logoinha-PB / Brazil, as our objective was to understand what the role of these black women is in the process of organizing that community. Therefore, we operate with the categories of gender, race and work based on the intersectionality axis. Methodologically we seek through oral history to reveal the relationship between the social history and individual trajectory of each black woman and thus understand how they built their identities. Throughout the research, we dialogued with black intellectuals such as Sueli Carneiro, bell hooks, Djamila Ribeiro, Carla Akotiene, Joice Berth, Lélia Gonzalez, among others. The field research process also revealed the bonds of solidarity, collectivity and kinship, important dimensions for understanding the social organization of the community, since women start to organize themselves socially in view of their specific cof being black quilombola women, building a network of solidarity, a strategy evidenced by the historic struggle Black Feminist Movement in Brazil.