The history of quilombola farmers is inseparable from slavery. For centuries, their ancestors were exploited as a key workforce for Brazil’s economic development. After the formal abolition of slavery, there was no land redistribution, financial reparations, or effective reintegration policies. The state’s absence perpetuated a cycle of exclusion, forcing entire communities into disputed territories, often invisible in public debate.
This legacy weighs heavily today: the descendants of those who materially built the country’s economic and cultural foundations still face barriers to accessing resources, securing territorial rights and achieving social recognition.
Marginalization takes the form of racial prejudice, cultural devaluation, and inadequate public policy. Quilombola farmers are often portrayed as “backward” or “illegitimate occupants” of land. In reality, they are guardians of an ancestral heritage of land stewardship and community organization. Instead of guaranteeing protection, the state frequently acts ambiguously, favoring large landowners, mining companies, or land grabbers. As a result, quilombolas are turned into “outsiders” in their own territories, as if they were not legitimate parts of the nation they helped build.
The weight of knowledge and tradition
Quilombola agricultural knowledge was born out of the need to survive under adverse conditions. It is a body of knowledge built collectively, combining farming practices with environmental preservation, principles now echoed in contemporary agroecology and regenerative agriculture.
What today is widely celebrated as Agroforestry Systems (SAFs) has its practical and cultural roots in quilombola and Indigenous traditions, which for centuries have integrated crops with tree species in sustainable ways. Yet this heritage has been largely appropriated by predominantly white academic and technical sectors, who codified the concepts, produced manuals, and circulated them without due recognition of their historical roots.
This process represents an ethical betrayal: the appropriation of knowledge that did not originate in research centers, but in the daily struggle of communities resisting slavery and abandonment. The injustice lies not only in denying quilombola authorship but also in profiting and gaining prestige from practices developed in the context of cultural and productive resistance.
The condition of quilombola farmers exposes a historical omission:
- The difficulty in securing land titles reveals the state’s delay in enforcing constitutional rights.
- Exclusion from family farming support programs reflects structural prejudice.
- Environmental racism is clear: quilombola territories are among the hardest hit by dams, mining, agricultural expansion, and lack of basic infrastructure.
Despite these barriers, quilombola farmers continue to produce, preserve biodiversity, uphold traditions, and make vital contributions to Brazil’s food security.
Their marginalization is an open wound in the country’s social fabric. They are descendants of enslaved people who, instead of receiving historical reparations, continue to face prejudice, violence, and the denial of their rights. Recognizing this struggle is not just about land or agriculture, it is about social justice, historical repair, and cultural value. To keep these communities on the margins is to perpetuate the contradiction of a nation built by their ancestors’ labor, while denying dignity and a sense of belonging to their descendants.
The future requires more than words: it demands firm public policies, recognition of cultural and social diversity, and above all, the courage to repair historical wrongs. Among these reparations is the explicit acknowledgment that practices celebrated today as “innovative, such as SAFs, are rooted in quilombola traditions, and that erasing this origin is a profound injustice. Only by restoring this ethical recognition can Brazil build agriculture that is truly fair, sustainable, and inclusive.
*Afonso Peche Filho, is a scientific researcher at the Agronomic Institute of Campinas
