Pan Africanism : Black Brazilians learn from Biko

panafrica

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The Diaspora
Steve Biko sought to set black South Africans free from oppression and he died for it.
He probably never imagined that 30 years on, his message would be setting free the minds of young men and women thousands of kilometres away, in Brazil.

The Steve Biko Institute in Salvador, the capital of Bahia state, aims to help black Brazilians achieve what many never dared to dream of - to enter university.

Brazil boasts some of the best universities in Latin America, but passing the country's tough university entrance exam, the vestibular, is not an option for most black Brazilians.

They make up almost half the country's population - far more than that in Bahia state - and the majority live in poverty.

"Here in Bahia, 70% of the population is of African descent, but more than 80% of those who graduate from university are white, so you can see clearly there is a situation of exclusion," explains Lazaro Passos, a young mechanical engineer who is the institute's project co-ordinator.

Redressing the balance

Mr Passos says the poor quality of state primary and secondary schools means black students end up with only a remote chance of passing the vestibular.

Many white students, on the other hand, not only grow up in the private school system, but can also afford expensive one-year courses that prepare them for the exam.


Paradoxically, it is mostly these students who secure the coveted places in Brazil's federal universities, which are funded by the federal government and charge no fees.

The Biko institute aims to redress the balance, offering cheap courses to prepare black students.

"Biko is a reference for us because of his activism as a student, and above all, because he saw education as a weapon against oppression", explains Mr Passos.

The institute's T-shirts bear Biko's words: "The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."

The message has changed the lives of hundreds of students, like young mother Karina de Souza, who attended a course at the institute and is now a university student specialising in literature.

"We grow up seeing only white people having success as professionals. We learn at history lessons in school that black people were brought as slaves, and all they left as a legacy is traditional foods, and dances like samba or capoeira," she says.

"Here at the Biko institute we learn about many blacks who succeeded through education."


Salvador, the capital of Bahia, was at the heart of the slave trade
All the students at the Biko institute attend lessons in "citizenship and black consciousness", where they learn about great black Brazilian engineers such as Andre Rebouca or Teodoro Sampaio.

"Black people need to learn about these figures and many others. It is part of the process of raising their self-esteem," says Mr Passos.

"We realised if we don't work at this very deep level, students never aim to be doctors, or engineers, because they believe they can only apply for less prestigious courses."

Bahia was at the heart of the slave trade that shaped Brazilian history. It is estimated that four million slaves were sent across the Atlantic to shed their sweat and blood in the fields of Brazil, eight times the number of slaves shipped to the US. Their legacy is alive in every corner of Bahia.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4552119.stm
 

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