Nature, Agriculture, and Black Space-Making in Serra dos Tapes, Brazil

In this work, I focus on how Quilombolas in southern Brazil create territorial conceptions and practices. Contemporary quilombos constitute complex forms of social organization composed of different collectivities and political subjectivities whose ancestors resisted colonial slavery by creating free communities in urban and rural spaces. In Serra dos Tapes, rural Black Quilombola communities have struggled with geographic dispossession, socioeconomic inequalities, and everyday racism. At the same time, they have created space-making practices, thinking of their territory as a lived space. Agriculture plays an essential role in this process, articulating knowledge, creativity, and a unique relationship to nature. Black people in Serra dos Tapes consider the cultivation and their relation to nature meaningful in the constitution of their identities, food security, and autonomy. Results of this study were gained through the life history method. Taking Quilombolas’ practices, narratives, and trajectories seriously in their political and epistemological importance, this article aims to offer some insights to advance discussions concerning the entanglement of race, nature, and environment within geographical studies.