“Aquilombada resisto. Forjemos um mundo novo!“. Escrevivências de mulheres negras ativistas do campo da saúde da população negra da Bahia.

Abstract

“Aquilombada. I resist. Let's forge a new world!” This is a passage that echoes throughout the writing of this thesis. It comes from a song that is part of my process of becoming an activist and our form of organization: aquilombadas. Writing about black women activists comes from the desire to reverence our ancestry, to make visible the experiences that break with the destiny organized by anti-black racism, and to empower the existence of women builders of a new world. Activism, in this sense, is a crucial strategy for confronting anti-black and racist society. The work of black women activists revolves around network collaborations in the process of consolidating Well Living. Forging new (and reclaiming already organized) ways of life is a challenge for all groups that believe in social justice. In view of the rescue of knowledge from the black community, the political and epistemological stance we adopted in this work is from an intersectional lens. We examine social reality through the intersectional phenomenon because it allows us to responsibly and coherently address health inequities, such as how racism produces neglect and which bodies are rendered invisible and susceptible to death. Moreover, the intersectional lens enables collective empowerment, removing the veil of invisibility and proclaiming loudly and clearly: we are powerful women, we are thunderous women! With that said, the objective of this thesis is to analyze the trajectories of black women whose actions (in the state of Bahia) have contributed to the production of knowledge, public policies, and/or ancestral care practices focused on black population health. To achieve this, we employed a feminist and anti-racist methodology, using the tool of Escrevivência coined by writer Conceição Evaristo. The Escrevivências encompassed trajectories - with their singularities and shared experiences - that involve becoming activists, protagonists, and references in the field of Black Population Health, existing and resisting for Well Living, sowing ancestral care practices, as well as the paths taken towards the construction of an anti-racist Collective Health. Consequently, I sought to broaden the perspective of Collective Health on its own battle and history, aiming to give visibility to the many women who also fought for the Unified Health System (SUS) and Sanitary Reform, as well as social justice. Collective Health needs to recognize other voices and subjects who were at the forefront but were silenced and made invisible due to the fact that the white racial group is primarily recognized as the protagonists in the field. Therefore, this work is both a historical reparation and a change in perspective. The Escrevivências told here mark territories of struggles, stories, powers, existences, and bodies that still resist despite all adversity, and they resist because there is circularity, there is collective, there are refuges and survival strategies necessary to exist in this world. The wheel keeps turning. “[...] smiling while fighting is a way to confuse the enemies”, informs us Sérgio Vaz in his poetry. Smiling is one of the weapons against racism, living is a powerful weapon! Is Well Living possible? We do not have answers. But as long as we do not normalize genocide, daily death, as long as we denounce the necropolitics that structure the death project of this country, as long as we are fighting for a world without racism, we will continue this utopia. We resist together. Let's forge a new world!