Printing Ideas: Intellectuals and Racial. Mobilization in Post-War Brazil (1945-1955)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the publication Quilombo and the expectations of intellectual sectors and integration projects in Brazil immediately after World War II. We argue that this periodical – published by the Black Experimental Theater group (Teatro Experimental do Negro; TEN) between 1948 and 1950 – became the main voice for a democratic political movement with an anti-racist orientation, particularly spearheaded by Black intellectuals with the support of other segments of Brazilian society. This political movement – especially its news outlet – became an ideological hub that sought to forge a new hegemony on the racial discourse of the time (HANCHARD, 2001), but it is also true that it did not articulate one but many voices, multiple discourses and a variety of ideologies. As Bastide has observed (1951:50), several alternative publications represented the uplift of individuals in specific social segments, and it could be said that the creation of Quilombo also indicated a desire for inclusion, participation and visibility for Black intellectuals in a given national plan. And it is possible to suggest that certain trajectories and biographies of intellectuals, political institutions and events have assisted with the analysis of narratives on race, integration, citizenship and miscegenation.

Keywords: Afro-brazilian, race, black press, intellectuals, diaspora.

Submission date: 2013-03-10

Acceptance date: 2013-12-08