Writings of a Black Woman from the Countryside

Abstract

In this text, the first author presents her experiences as a black child and woman from the countryside. She narrates the daily experiences of learning and the construction of knowledge transmitted by her ancestors. It is possible to identify the perversities that appear in the course of the narrative about color, hair, aesthetics, ruralities, speech and customs that were linked to discrimination. The story intertwines learning on the farm and in the school of the countryside and, in this dynamic, there is a movement of writing of oneself (with remembrance and identity experiences): the writing of life and the written life, a writing that is not only hers, but that reveals the history of so many other black women from the countryside of Brazil who, through the trails of life, found the assumption of self to (re)exist. The narrative was constructed from a conversation with black intellectuals whose itinerancies connect with that of the first

author. Carolina de Jesus, Lélia Gonzalez, Glória Anzaldúa and Conceição Evaristo are the guests for this dialog. Without the intention of concluding any of the discussions, the first author, as a researcher in the field of education and educator, lives in a movement of “aquilombação” with teachers from different places of the country and, mainly, from the hinterland of Bahia, interweaving belonging, sowing acceptance, remembering, narrating, existing, and writing.