Brazil's anti-racism education initiatives are picking up pace

France 24

25-05-2025

In the courtyard of the Yuri Gagarin school in Bomsucesso, in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, loudspeakers at full blast cannot hide the cries of happiness from the 300 or so pupils gathered in the pouring rain to see a concert by MC and teacher Allan Pevirguladez, who is revered as a rock star.
Pevirguladez leads the children in singing songs celebrating Brazil in all its diversity.
'My hair is very pretty, it's Black power. And Joao's is very pretty too, blond and straight. Vitoria's is so sweet, it's in chocolate braids,' sings a chorus of Black and mixed-race children between 5 and 12.
Anti-racist hits at the playground
Musica Popular Brasileira Infantil Antirracista – or MPBIA, as it is known – has become a phenomenon on social media. Created by Pevirguladez two years ago to combat racism from an early age, it was while teaching his pupils that he came up with the idea of a song about Brazil's ethnic diversity. Enthralled by the project, the city of Rio de Janeiro gave him permission to tour the schools that requested him to perform, but without paying him.
He says his "carefree" songs "make it much easier for children to understand very serious themes and concepts".
"I have parents who call me or write to me every week to say thank you, 'Thank you for doing this for our children, we never experienced anything like it ourselves'." A rousing success that was unthinkable just 20 years ago.
As a young teacher in 1996, Luciano Braga asked his primary school pupils to draw themselves. The result: slender nostrils, blue eyes, blond hair and white skin.
He was shocked. Although most of the children were Black, they had all drawn themselves as being White. Braga realised that young Brazilians had no Afro-Brazilian artistic or cultural references at school. Given relatively free rein in his profession, he decided to teach them Afro-Brazilian painting and music by introducing them to the tambor drum, the predominant instrument in Brazil.
'As soon as my colleagues heard the drumming rhythms in the school, they went straight to the management to protest. They accused me of inciting children to convert to Umbanda or Candomble, religions with African roots, as if I wanted to pervert them. But it's their history, our culture.'
For Braga, the state school may be secular, but most of the teachers there are evangelical or Catholic and see Afro-Brazilian religions as a "demonic" influence on young minds.
He says this is proof of the widespread ignorance of teaching staff, who remain 'contaminated by the Judeo-Christian history of the European colonists'.
A first textbook on the history of Afro-Brazilians
When the law to officially include Afro-Brazilian history and culture in the school curriculum was passed in 2003, Braga saw it as a glimmer of hope. But law doesn't necessarily translate into action in Brazil. Since no textbook gave space to Black writers, poets and artists, Braga took up his pen and in 2010 wrote the first "Manual of African and Afro-Brazilian History", which is still widely used in the public school system in the state of Sao Paulo.
'It was important to teach these young people their own history, and that of their grandparents, so that it wasn't just dealt with through suffering but also with a positive approach, so that they would be proud to say, 'My great-great-grandmother was a slave' instead of being ashamed,' says Braga.
However, 22 years have gone by since the law was passed and public schools, governed by municipalities, are still under no obligation to apply it. According to a survey carried out in 2024 by the Instituto Geledes & Alana, only 29 percent of state schools in more than 1,800 municipalities had a programme for teaching the country's Black history. Another 53% had a few scarce measures in place but 18% had none at all. In private schools, the figure was even lower.
'Seeing yourself in books, recognising yourself in paintings or films, hearing yourself in songs, is the only way to combat racism from an early age,' Braga says. According to the latest survey entitled "Perception of racism in Brazil" and carried out by the Brazilian Intelligence and Strategic Research Centre, 38% of Black Brazilians questioned claimed to have been victims of racism at school or university.
Towards an anti-racism seal
Zara Figueiredo, Brazil's secretary for education, diversity and inclusion, hopes this will now change. She has made this law a personal battle, and a decree to implement it was finally signed on May 14.
'In Brazil, we have what is known as federative autonomy. We cannot control what is taught in municipal or state schools, but we can encourage them by funding concrete projects such as the opening of 50,000 new teaching posts, the creation of an anti-racism seal to reward good schools, and the hiring of 1,500 implementation officers to help schools apply the anti-racism protocol."
In her view, it is now a matter of 'making up for 10 years of educational backwardness'. Despite the actions taken by the federal government in the past, which "have not had much effect so far'.
While waiting to reap the rewards of 2 billion reals (over €300 million) in investment, teaching children from an early age through singing is working. Though he is exhausted by going back and forth between the school where he teaches in the centre of Rio and his concerts between 12-2pm at schools around the region, there is no stopping Pevirguladez. His Instagram profile includes a waiting list of some 400 schools. After publishing three books, he is releasing a new album at the end of May and will give his first concert in Duque de Caxias, a city on the northern outskirts of Rio where most of the residents are Black.
With 400 fans, children and parents expected to attend, it appears Brazil's anti-racist initiatives are finally taking off.