Afro-Brazilian Congresswoman Benedita da Silva
Receives Warm Welcome, Cites Political Objectives
| Delivering an
impassioned speech about the racial discrimination and political disempowerment of the
poor in Brazil, Senator Benedita da Silva, the first Afro-Brazilian woman to be elected to
Brazil’s National Congress, received a warm, homecoming-like reception at Howard
University on November 13, 1997. |
Afro-Brazilian Congresswoman Benedita de Silva |
Hosted
by the Bunche Center and the University of Maryland’s Committee for Africa and the
Americas, da Silva talked about her fight to make a difference for "my people"
in Brazil, where, she said, 70 percent of the 165 million people are of African descent
and poverty prevails among them.
Despite da Silva’s poor background, she built her
career on public service, eventually becoming Rio de Janeiro’s Senator. Though
well-known throughout Brazil, Da Silva stressed the fact that her interest in politics is
"acting as a voice for the voiceless."
Da Silva included Washington, DC as part of the last leg of
her two-week speaking and book promotion tour, which included California, Connecticut,
Georgia, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. Her hope, she asserted, is
to "use political clout" in a determined effort to "gain access to power
for groups that have traditionally been locked out."
Both da Silva’s lecture, entitled, "The Myth of
Racial Democracy in Brazil," and her book, "Benedita da Silva: An Afro-Brazilian
Woman’s Story of Politics and Love," not only highlighted her rise to political
prominence on a platform of protest against institutionalized exploitation of the poor and
the Afro-Brazilians, but also seemed to echo the race and gender discrimination
African-Americans in the United States historical-ly have faced.
Many attendees agreed with da Silva that disenfranchisement
on a general scale is a problem that touches much of the African diaspora. Maisa Medonca,
coordinator for Global Exchange’s Brazil Program in California said, " We can
learn from Blacks in America and they can learn from us." She continued, " The
context might be different but the reality is the same."Chinese
Business Delegation
in Consultations with SBDC at Howard
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