IDENTIDADE TERRITORIAL DE JOVENS NEGROS NO QUILOMBO URBANO LIBERDADE- SÃO LUÍS-MA

Abstract

Youth is a social category situated in dynamic processes, marked by historical time and geographic space, bringing spatial differentiation and the production of territories as important in the field of Geography. In this debate, we pay attention to spatial differentiation, since the conceptual representation considered universal gains distinctions from the singularities formed at different scales, whether in the countryside or in the city, as well as in cultural, religious and economic aspects, making it necessary to talk about youth in its different spaces and contexts (ABROMO, 2005). This research proposed to analyze the elements of construction of the territorial identity of young black residents of the Quilombo Urbano Liberdade in São LuísMA, having as spatial cut the neighborhoods of Liberdade, Camboa and Fé em Deus. The methodology of the work is centered on semi-structured interviews, participant observation and Social Cartography, the set of these actions helped in the development of the research objectives. When analyzing the spatial reality experienced by young people, we observed the intersections of racism in the construction of black identity, which is read as a central element in the construction of the territorial identity of these subjects, considering that blackness involves the historical category of black people in the racist universe and not just biological (MUNANGA, 2012). We also identified the agencies that construct the identity of young subjects, dealing daily with the tensions between the zone of being and the zone of not being. On the one hand, we have structural racism (read as the imposition of the zone of not being) present in the territory and outside it, acting as a catalyst for negative stereotypes and prejudices, subtly shaping the way these young people are perceived and, consequently, how they perceive themselves. However, on the other hand, it is in the construction of the identity subjectivity of black and quilombola youth that the agendas of struggle and resistance become central aspects. One of the founding elements of this understanding is the reinterpretation of the meanings and senses of being black and quilombola based on the insertion of young people in cultural groups, traditional and contemporary practices in the territory. These assimilate the quilombo Liberdade based on resistance and insurgencies, being fundamental in the construction of a positive ethnicracial identity (black-quilombola), working on autonomy, self-esteem and valuing the cultural and visual elements of the black community. The recovery and history of this perspective of resistance makes us recognize in the urban quilombo Liberdade the recreation of the “zone of being” for young people.