THE IMPORTANCE OF CELEBRATING NOVEMBER 20

According to professor and researcher Hélio Santos, the commemorative date of November 20th (Black Consciousness Day) is born from a very large and long-standing dissatisfaction that the black movement had with the history of slavery, which concerns May 13th. 1988.

PhD in Philosophy, Helena Theodoro also reinforces that Quilombo dos Palmares, through the Memorial Zumbi project at the University of Alagoas, by professor Zezito Araújo and Oliveira Silveira, in RS, proposes to transform the date of Zumbi's death into Black Consciousness Day.

The Palmares Group in RS proposed the idea of changing May 13th to this date, which gained enormous repercussion across the country. “It could have been another quilombola leader, Pacifico Licutan or Manoel Congo, but the movement decided on Zumbi.”

The name Black Awareness Day was only adopted in 1978, when the MNU was formed. In one of his meetings, activist Paulo Roberto dos Santos suggested this name inspired by the film Wattstax, where Reverend Jesse Jackson says: “This is the day of Black Awareness”.

According to historian Zezito Araújo, the greatest symbol of the Brazilian hero is Zumbi dos Palmares, as he fought for freedom, while all official Brazilian heroes from the Empire and Colonial Brazil periods were genocidal.

It is very important to have references to be able to claim our rights, which is why November 20th should be a national holiday. “It is important to understand how necessary it is to keep our roots, our origins and the political struggle alive.”

This entire movement managed to transform the 12 months of the year into months of black consciousness, which peaks on November 20th. In this way, young black men and women were able to become aware of their blackness and the literacy essential to overcoming racism.