Memória histórica da Comunidade Quilombola Timbó de Garanhuns.

Abstract

This report aims to endorse the scientific research that has been developed by researchers, anthropologists and historians, José Maurício Arruti, Jhonny Cantarelli, Janine Primo Carvalho Meneses and José Eduardo da Silva on the Quilombola community of Timbó. A cultural heritage living under the threat of losing its historical identity, due to absence of governmental investments to maintain its existence. Forgetfulness, faced by many researchers who study the Quilombos in Brazil, reminds of the designed neglect to bury the past that insists on staying alive, mirrored by the Church of Nossa Senhora de Nazaré, built by the Quilombola community itself and it remains a symbol of resistance, a cultural heritage that deserves protection as a way of maintaining national cultural diversity. According to Munanga (1996) Brazilian quilombola peoples originate from Angola and Zaire, mainly from the Lunda, Ovimbundu, Mbundu, Kongo and Imbangala groups. Gomes (2015) recorded the appearance of quilombos in 1575 in Bahia, in sugarcane fields and sugar mills. Carvalho (1996) highlighted that enslaved people, angry with forced labor and mistreatment by their masters, fled to forests, used as hiding places. In this scenario, the historical formation of the Timbó community has as its main characteristic the arrival of José Vitorino and the image of the saint who protected him, when he settles in the vicinity of Garanhuns he starts a new family by marrying a native woman, together they raise children, and they welcome other fugitive captives giving rise to a Quilombo. Like so many others spread across Brazilian territory, they resist oppression in search of freedom. Religion, territoriality, ancestry, memory, resistance and commitment to freedom, make up the legend of the Timbó Community. The narratives of Cantarelli, Emerson Araújo da Silva and José Carlos Lopes da Silva revealed that the quilombolas face the absence of public policies for education, health, conservation of cultural history, little by little the history kept in the memory of the elderly is being forgotten as they die and young people are unaware of their origins and sometimes do not even identify themselves as quilombolas. Therefore, the elaboration and dissemination of the Booklet, product of this research, made available in physical format and online, aims to contribute in maintaining the memory of Quilombo of Timbó alive.