Brazil’s census includes Quilombola communities for the first time

CONCEPT OF CRIOULAS, Brazil – “If I could choose where to be born, I would choose Conceição das Crioulas,” Antônio Crioulo told UNFPA, the United Nations agency for sexual and reproductive health.

Conceição das Crioulas is the home of Mr. Crioulo. It is where he took his first breath and where his mother, siblings and children live. It is also the home of about 4,300 other people who, like Mr. Crioulo, are Subscribe to – Members of Brazil’s traditional black communities whose ancestors survived or escaped slavery between the 16th and 19th centuries.

In Brazil, Afro-Brazilians have long struggled with structural discrimination and its devastating consequences. Poverty rates among black and brown Brazilians were twice as high as among white people in 2021, and Afro-Brazilian women face a much higher risk of dying in childbirth.

At the same time, there is a lack of disaggregated national data on Subscribe to communities has increased and exacerbated their social and political exclusion.

“Not being counted means becoming invisible and, as a result, not being served,” said UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem in a statement on World Population Day 2024. “The most marginalized communities are still underrepresented in the data, and the consequences of this profoundly affect their lives and well-being.”

“To realize the rights and choices of those marginalized in our society, we must take them into account – because everyone counts.”

Achieving inclusion

Some eight decades before the abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1888, the land that would become Conceição das Crioulas was bought by six free black women who raised the money to buy it by growing cotton. Today it is one of an estimated 6,000 Subscribe to Areas across the country – many of which are characterized by disproportionately high rates of poverty and exclusion.

“One of the greatest losses of enslavement is the ability to dream, to feel human, to feel part of society,” Crioulo said. “Brazil was structured on the basis of the strong work of black people, but the importance of promoting public policies for them was never recognized.”

Policymakers need data to develop and implement effective initiatives that support communities and leave no one behind. Yet for decades, data collection tools such as the census collected little or no information on Subscribe to communities.

“Whenever we talked about the need for specific government measures, the authorities claimed they did not have enough information about the quilombos to plan them,” said Gilvania Maria da Silva, a founding member of the Coordenação Nacional de Articulação das Comunidades Negras Rurais Quilombolas (CONAQ).

But in 2022 everything changed: After extensive cooperation with CONAQ, UNFPA and Subscribe to Brazil’s national statistics agency IBGE updated the census to allow respondents to identify themselves as Subscribe toFor the first time, Brazil’s population has been officially determined; it is 1.3 million people.

“The census is a first step that underlines the importance of this tool to ensure that all voices are heard,” said Ms. Maria da Silva. “From now on, the narrative ‘we don’t know where the quilombos are or how they work’ no longer applies, because we have concrete data that is essential for shaping public policies.”

The power to be counted

Data is a right – one whose fulfillment improves access to health, education and opportunity. Specific information on Brazil’s Subscribe to The composition of the community, including its age range and gender ratio, has significant implications for policy-making in the areas of public health and education.

“I am a hopeful person, but living in a historically racist and sexist country is not easy. The two go hand in hand and directly impact the lives of black people, especially black women,” said Ms. Maria da Silva.

“My hope is that every day we can access more data and improve our public policies to repair the damage of the country’s slave-holding past.”