Salvador is HOT!

Everything about Salvador de Bahia is HOT!  The sun (extremely, as we all unfortunately found out), the sand, the atmosphere AND the people!  I love this city!  It was where the Portuguese explorers first landed and was the original capital of Brazil.  The city is absolutely beautiful and one of the only places left that still has the original architecture from the colonial era.  And I really need to find a place in NYC to learn capoeira - so amazing.

Salvador is also almost completely opposite of Sao Paulo and the south in almost every way.  For one thing, whereas the south of Brazil contains a very white population, the north is very black.  And poor.  And you can tell almost immediately.  It is also filled with so much more culture (in my opinion anyway - Sao Paulo was just like NYC, but with less culture - like I said - my opinion, don't hate!)  Specifically it is the center of the Afro-Brazilian culture of Brazil.  In the United States during the time of salvery, the slaves were well taken care of in order to keep them alive (and working) as long as possible.  The slaves of Brazil were worked to death (literally) and there was a constant influx of slaves into the country to replace them.  Because of this constant replenishing of slaves, the African culture stayed alive, whereas in the U.S. the slaves became more Americanized and lost much of their heritage. In another way to look at it, in the U.S. salves were seperated from their families, so many blacks in America have no idea who their ancestors are and what tribe or country they came from.  In Brazil, salve families were kept together, so even now, most black people of Brazil can trace back their ancestry.  Because of all this, the African culture has stayed very much alive in the state of Bahia.

After spending the morning exploring the old city of Salvador and taking in its rich culture, we visited two organizations that specialize in the black movement of Brazil.  The first was CEPAIA - a research center and "think tank" at UNEB - the State University of Bahia, that specializes in research about the indigenous and people of African descent.  The second organization was the Steve Biko Cultural Institute (Steve Biko was a black activist in South Africa during Apartheid who was killed by the police.  He wanted the blacks of South Africa to be free, but he also wanted them to be free from self oppression.)

One of the on-going projects of CEPAIA is to study the impact of affirmative action programs on the students, as well as the strategy they are taking to complete their degree.  Many of the students admitted to university through the affirmative action programs are the first in their family to attend school, so its a huge deal!  The other project described to us was studying the use of Africa and Afro-Brazilian history in the classrooms.  In 2003 a law was passed making it mandatory for Afro-Brazilian history to be part of the curriculum in elementary and high schools, but many of the teachers do not have enough of a background in this to teach it properly, and there is also an extreme lack of resources in the public schools.  So to make up for this CEPAIA also trains teachers in this area.

Different from all of the schools we have heard from so far, UNEB actually uses a quota system as their form of affirmative action.  Prior to affirmative action programs being in place, blacks were a clear minority on campus.  Now, blacks/mixed races are 50% of the student population.  As I've mentioned previously, I am not sure quotas are the right way to go about things, but when you look at USP, that only has 2-3% blacks on campus, and then see that UNEB with 50%, you start to question if maybe there should be quotas.  To be fair, Bahia's black population is also probably around three times that of Sao Paulo's, so the numbers are always going to be skewed.  But that doesn't mean that USP can't do a better job of getting them there.

There have been many arguments against affirmative action at the universities in Brazil.  One being that the entrance of blacks in university would lower the quality of the school. (remember that phrase I mentioned in another post - Anything done by a black is not done well.)  Luckily research has shown that this is not true at all.  In fact, much research has shown that the students admitted to university through affirmative action programs have performed better because they work harder.  Many people also argued that due to the miscegenation of Brazil, how do you decide who is black?  But almost every person we have spoken to says that "if you ask a police officer who is black and who isn't, believe me, they know."  And although the government says they support affirmative action, they will do things like schedule an open forum for everyone to discuss the issues, but hold it on a Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. when everyone needs to be at work...

The Steve Biko Institute was formed because they realized there was very little representation of the black community in Salvador and throughout Brazil.  Although blacks are the majority in Brazil, the government is run by the white minority.  According to a flyer given to us, "The institute arose out of the concerns of young black activists in the fight against racism.  Coming from black communities themselves, one of their concerns was the absence of students of African descent in universities.  These young people recognized the university as a space of power to be occupied by black people, as a way of interacting critically with the hegemonic knowledge circulating in the academy and thereby ensuring the community's more dignified, equal insertion in Brazilian society."

We met with George who was a former student of Steve Biko, and received his degree in economics from UFBA.  He told us the institute helped him in two ways:

1. He was helped tremendously in studying for the vestibular.

2. It also helped him with his own black consciousness.  He is now ok with saying that he is black, and that it is ok to have black features. 

I loved everything about the Steve Biko Institute.  This was the first organization we've met with that is trying to do so much more than just help black students with the vestibular.  I strongly believe that you can not just help someone get into school and then leave them stranded once they get there.  There should be support for them throughout their journey in higher education.  So many times, even in the United States, students have no idea how to navigate the experience once they get there, and drop out soon after. Here are some of the programs that are available at Steve Biko:

• Education through Social Movement - they realized that many of the students who come to Steve Biko do not have cultural access, like going to the theater or museum, so this is available to them through the institute.
• They have a program called Open Door - for students who are already in university to help them prepare for going into the workforce, offering programs like interview skills and resume writing.
• They noticed that many blacks were going into "softer" subjects, like humanities and teaching, and not many in areas like medicine/physics/math.  This is due mostly to the insuffiicient teaching in these areas in elementary and high school.  So Steve Biko has started a group to help funnel students into these areas, offering after school programs for supplemental learning.

Carnival is also a huge aspect of Brazilian life, but even this seems to be segregated.  There are many roles within the Carnival experience, and even here, the blacks are the ones holding the ropes; i.e. doing all the hard work, while the whites are dancing on the float. So Steve Biko created there own float where everyone of all colors can take part in all aspects of Carnival. 

Unfortunately funding has been an issue.  Many large companies do not agree with affirmative action and would prefer to give donations to the arts and dance companies.  The vestibular in Salvador costs about $R150-200 per month for 10 months.  Since they couldn't get any donations last year, they had to charge the students $R50, but this year they have been able to provide the course for free.

The institute also prioritizes students they feel will be able to do well once they get into university.  Therefore, they require the applicants to interview, as well as take a mini test. 

I cannot say enough about this Institute, but feel like I am going on and on.  So I am going stop here, and hope that the other places we visit in Salvador will impress me just as much!