Percepção comunitária sobre problemas ambientais e saúde em territórios quilombolas na Ilha de Maré: uma perspectiva racializada.

Abstract

The discussion regarding environmental issues has been growing over decades from environmental movements and fortifies, particularly with the understanding that it is essential to conciliate economic development with nature's carefulness. In Brazil, social-racial injustices resulting from enslavement endorsed the need to deepen the discussion about environmental racism in the country, correlating racism with poverty. This correlation has been comprehended through the debate of the “center-periphery” of the capitalist system, which exposes an exploration organization of countries and regions underdeveloped for the spatial expansion of the economic center industry to the periphery. The quilombola people's territory is an example because, in addition to the continual struggle for land demarcation, having their domains severely exploited generates serious physical and subjective consequences. This study, therefore, intends to concur with the knowledge production about the environmental challenges faced by the quilombola population, ascertaining the meaning that an ancestral territory has for the quilombolas of Ilha de Maré. Aiming to analyze, from a racialized perspective, the relationships between environmental problems, racism and living and health conditions in three quilombola communities located in the territory of Ilha de Maré based on the resident's understanding. It is qualitative research based on semi structured observation interviews (in a complementary way) with records in a field diary and carried out in quilombola communities in Ilha de Maré. The survey included people over 18 years old; with activist ties or not; both female and male considering possible differences in the narratives of fishermen and shellfish gatherers. Seven persons were interviewed, five women and two men aged between 18 and 63 years, and ethical precepts involving research with human beings were utterly respected. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and the analysis was carried out in the light of the Interpretive Anthropology of Cultures, understanding the context in which the narratives were extracted and situated. Two topics of analysis were built: 1) Environmental problems in the Quilombola territorial space: community perceptions; 2) Imbrications between racism, environmental problems and illness processes. The interviewees reported having a very positive dynamic with the territorial space of Ilha de Maré since the island transcends the aspect of beauty and acts as a place of survival, being the place that, in addition to being a source of food, is also where they come from sustenance. However, contamination has been deteriorating the ecological environment since the implication of environmental problems in the air, marine and terrestrial fauna and flora is perceptible, generating a socioeconomic impact for the quilombolas. It's evidenced in the interviews the massive exploitation of the territory by the private fixed without positive return for the communities. Residents highlighted the illness processes caused by contamination, such as respiratory and skin problems and alterations in exams regarding the presence of chemical components. Some interviewees tell in their speeches, the symbolism of the territory and the ancestral subjectivity that involves, even if unconsciously and already shaken for some, the tradition between the relationship of nature, health and spirituality as part of their identities. The subject's perception of the invisibility of his neighborhood in the face of exploitative companies and especially the State, which despite complaints made, remains indifferent to the community's health problems, reveals institutional racism as the primary problem residents confront.