Brazil:Truth Commission for Black Slavery

By adminadmin on November 7, 2014

The Bar Association of Brazil (OAB) approved the creation of a Truth Commission for Black Slavery in Brazil, last November 3th, with the aim of rescuing the history and ascertain injustices that occurred during that period.
The commission will work as a historical review of the period of the taken people in Africa, displaced  and enslaved in Brazil from the first half of the sixteenth century until 1888, when slavery was officially abolished.
The Commission will assess responsibilities and show the importance of affirmative actions in the society as a way to repair for the black population.
This is important because 126 years after the end of slavery in that country,  it can be still observed echoes in the Brazilian society – as the example of an institutional racism that excludes the black population of economics, political and social power in despite of affirmative actions  entitled.
“Brazil has two categories of citizens” said the vice president of the Bar, Humberto Adami. “Understanding what happened in the past will put Brazil in front of itself”, he said .
The repair is not supposed to be financial, but especially for a redress of intangibles such as the discovery of their own culture and their own roots”, said Adami.
The idea of founding a commission to study and establish the facts that occurred during this period was inspired by the National Truth Commission, created by the government of Dilma Rousseff, to investigate crimes committed during the military dictatorship in the country.

By Ana Alakija