Between history and law

Originated in the context of a slavery regime in Brazil which lasted up to 1888, quilombo communities were an expression of resistance against such a system of oppression and through its existence faced marginalization and in were forced to secrecy, which imposed several challenges to the legal recognition of such remaining communities in the last decades. They were first referenced to in official documents of the Portuguese Empire dating back to 1559, all the same not being seem as subjects to rights. Brazil’s first Land Law from 1850 effectively deprived quilombo communities of rights over the lands they inhabited by excluding forms of land occupation other than purchase or granting by the State from legal recognition. It is only by the 1990’s that the public authorities’ commitment to legitimate and issue land titles for remaining quilombo communities is finally set through legal dispositives. This paper aims to reflect on the developments on recognition of quilombola communities in Brazil through listing and examining legal provisions published in the last decades regarding the subject matter.