Brazil now has quotas for blacks and a law requiring the teaching
 of Afro-Brazilian History in school. These measures are obviously
racist. Besides, the history of Africa is the history of tribal warfare
and slavery, stoning to death for adulterers, sexual mutilation
as custom. This will bring no contribution to Brazilians' self-esteem.

Janer Cristaldo

Until very recently, black activist groups always fought for the elimination of the item "color" in identification documents in Brazil. With the unfortunate quota legislation devastating college education these days, black students insist in putting down their color when registering for vestibular (college entrance exam). These same black groups have always deemed any supposedly scientific criteria to establish a person's color as racist. The question becomes, then, Who is black, for legal purposes? In the case of the Rio de Janeiro state law and the federal legislative bill, the criterium is self-statement. A person is pardo(a) (brown) or negro(a) (black) if he or she says so, even if they look white.

Well, in this country of the "Gerson law" (always look for the benefit to be gained), not a few whites claimed to be blacks in the last UERJ vestibular (Rio de Janeiro State University), the first Brazilian public university to establish the quota system. Then came the cry from the black leaderships: let's determine scientifically who is white and who is black, and sue the whites who have declared to be black. Conclusion: words of command from afrodescendants are more changeable than the clouds. Clouds, however, change in every direction, while these words change in one direction only, which is the direction of obtaining advantages for blacks, not only by dispensing with merit but also by trampling over the eventual merits of those declaring to be whites.

Our current President is far from being the first ignoramus to take office in this country. Both the House and the Senate are full of juridical illiterates who understand nothing about lawmaking and can't even distinguish major from minor laws. Loaded with stupid words of command usually originated in the United States, they create irresponsible legislation with the tranquility of one who doesn't have to report to anyone. Such is the case of the quota law. Only now, after the UERJ vestibular and a torrent of lawsuits, astute analysts have found out that the notorious law goes against article 5 of the Constitution: "all are equal before the law, with no distinction of any nature".

As if we needed more than this gross juridical error—which will now serve only to further clog the already clogged courts and generate handsome profits for lawyers, who are the real beneficiaries of the quota law—the President, scarcely in office, sanctioned the law requiring the inclusion of Afro-Brazilian History and Culture in the official elementary to high school curriculum. The classes will cover everything from history of Africa and Africans to the black struggle in Brazil.

Such legislative measure is obviously racist. And why not the history of Portugal and Portuguese struggle in Brazil? Or the history of Italy and the struggles of the Italians? Or the history of Japan and the struggles of the Japanese? Brazil is a melting pot of cultures and the African contribution to its development is far from being the only one, or the most important one. The study of Afro-Brazilian history has, however, its complications. For the chiefs of the black movement, it is not enough to tell the story of Afro-Brazilian culture; we need to embellish it. That's what one infers from the prohibition of the book Banzo, Tronco e Senzala (Blues, Stocks and Plantation Slave Quarters), written by Elzi Nascimento and Elzita Melo Quinta, in the Federal District schools, by order of governor Joaquim Roriz, upon request from petista Senator Paulo Paim (PT—Workers Party).

A boy is said to have been deeply affected by the information contained in the book saying that "Negroes lost their human condition as soon as they were imprisoned in Africa and became mere merchandise at the disposal of whites" and that to imprison blacks was not difficult. "Especially after the merchants started getting help from traitor blacks who imprisoned people of their own race in exchange for tobacco, cachaça (sugar cane rum), gun powder and guns".

"What is the self-esteem of a black child when he or she receives a book saying that if these people have one day been slaves, it's the fault of blacks and not of the Europeans of the time, merchant of slaves?"—asks Paim. The Senator seems to ignore—or purposefully omit—the fact that slavery was not an invention of the Europeans. It is as old as the Bible and neither prophets nor patriarchs condemn it. Not even Paul, the reformer of the Old Book, condemned it. It ruled in Greece before Europe even existed. Centuries before the first European slave ship entered port in the African continent slavery already existed, with no interference from the West.

The President of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, is the first one to admit it. Commenting on the claims of black activists, he identified himself as a descendent of a rich family of slave owners and asked if anyone was going to ask him for reparation money. Good thing he didn't ask that question in the newspapers of the Brazilian Federal District, or he would be censored by Governor Joaquim Roriz.

That black tribal chiefs eased the merchants' task, selling slaves from other tribes, isn't ignored either. They did sell, and they are still selling them now, in the 21^st century. In Mauritania, Sudan and Ghana, in Benin, Burkina Fasso, Mali and Niger, slavery still persists, just like in the times of slave ships. Last year, cable TV GNT showed European whites buying slaves in Sudan. These buyers were not merchants—these were representatives of European NGOs, buying blacks in order to free them. The purpose might be noble, but demand generates supply and the only thing that these NGO dollars was doing was to stimulate slave trafficking. This is the history of Africa. And if any author relegates slavery to past times, the book is outdated.

The new law signed by the President adds to the school calendar the anniversary of the death of Zumbi (November 20^th) as National Day of Black Conscience. This patriotistic ambition for heroes, typical of underdeveloped countries, has led black politicians to elect Zumbi as a hero of the race. Well, the black hero was also a slave owner. Where do we stand now? Will the authorities censor any book attesting the status of Zumbi as a slavist?

By defending quota systems in universities, Brazilian blacks have fallen into a clumsy trap. They may find it easier to obtain a diploma today, but tomorrow who will hire the services of a professional who entered college through the back door? By demanding the inclusion of African history in the curricula, they have fallen into a more sophisticated trap.

The history of Africa is the history of tribal warfare and slavery, stoning to death for adulterers, physical mutilation as punishment and sexual mutilation as custom. Democracy, human rights, freedom of the press and female emancipation are unknown institutions in that continent. Six thousand girls have their clitoris extirpated every day in twenty countries, in the Middle East and Africa. This is done by local barbers or midwives, with instruments that are not sterilized.

Africa, to this day, tends more to Idi Amin Dada than to Mozart. More towards Bokassa than towards Einstein. To study its history, past or present, helps no child with no self-esteem.

Janer Cristaldo—he holds a PhD from University of Paris, Sorbonne—is an author, translator, lawyer, philosopher and journalist and suffers São Paulo. His e-mail address is cristal@baguete.com.br

Translated by Tereza Braga, email: tbragaling@cs.com  

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