Tramas territoriais e tessituras multidimensionais das comunidades quilombolas do Território de Identidade do Sisal-Ba.

Abstract

The resistance of the black population in the hinterland region, in various contexts that formed living territories – such as quilombola communities – has recently been reexamined with more critical perspectives, including in geographical science, particularly in research that takes agrarian and cultural approaches as theoretical-methodological support. It is in this perspective that this analysis is situated. This study aims to understand the territorial threads and the socioeconomic and cultural dynamics of quilombola family farmers in the Sisal-BA Identity Territory and how the influence of the regional profile of rural production and agrarian issues are revealed in these traditional territories. In this sense, the study seeks to analyze the territorial threads and the multidimensional weavings of the 23 quilombola communities recognized by the Palmares Cultural Foundation (FCP) in this identity territory. For this understanding, it was necessary to analyze the land structure of the Identity Territory of Sisal, relating it to agricultural production in these municipalities; to understand the importance of family-based agricultural production for the quilombola communities and to what extent the limitation of access to land can promote the search for complementary local activities or in other municipalities and states in Brazil by the quilombolas; to comprehend the challenges and possibilities of these communities, highlighting the movements and social organizations that work on strengthening family agriculture and in seeking strategies to improve production in the field, as well as the networks of solidarity and social relationships present in these territories; and to promote thematic workshops for the construction of social maps of the quilombola communities, recording the challenges and possibilities of these traditional territories. The approach is made from the situations of the present time and the local scale, but without disregarding the broader scales. The methodology used was field research, with participant observation and semi-structured interviews, in which it was identified how families organize themselves to carry out different activities, such as planting and harvesting various products (cassava, corn, beans, among others) and the significance of this production for these individuals and the maintenance of their traditions, in the face of a scenario of extreme land concentration. Thematic workshops were also conducted in all communities participating in the research to map, based on the new social mapping, the quilombola communities recognized by FCP in the Sisal Territory. The research aimed to utilize socio-spatial phenomena as mediation instruments to understand the studied phenomena in their real existence, referring to the strategies for social reproduction of peasantry, in the conflict of class struggle and the strategies for confronting agrarian issues through family-based agricultural production and complementary activities in these small territories. The analysis of the agrarian issue was essential for interpreting the social, cultural, and political references of these territories.