Letters to inspire, to challenge and call to fight: afrocentricity on Geledés virtual platform

Abstract

Thinking about pedagogical practices from an Afro-centered perspective means challenging centuries of cultural experiences that have supported knowledge located in the global north and naturalized the image of the white European man both as a producer of socially validated knowledge and as responsible for it. From an Afrocentric perspective, challenging racism, discrimination, and Eurocentrism is a founding element, as is the valorization of cultures and knowledge constituted in diasporic experiences. In this sense, the prefix “afro”, in “afrocentricity”, not only refers to the African continent itself, but also to the flow of black men and women around the world, which has been labelled as the African diaspora. In the context of anti-racist struggles in Brazil, Geledés digital platform is the starting point of this study and is regarded as an Afro-centered space where different points of view are intertwined through images, texts, documents, demonstrations, creations, positions. Founded on April 30, 1988, Geledés has operated in different dimensions, with the central purpose of empowering and reinforcing black narratives. In this article, 10 letters published between 2020 and 2023 were selected, and the main aim is to discuss how an Afro-centered perspective is inscribed in the broad universe of production of meanings and affections in the letters. The methodology, with a qualitative approach, involved the discursive analysis of the selected letters, particularly considering the ancestry and focus on the experience of the diaspora, the valorization of agency and black perspectives, the challenge to Eurocentrism, and the denunciation and struggle against racism.