A África é aqui: uma análise da simbologia do cabelo na construção da identidade

Abstract

This paper aims to evaluate teacher training, which took place in a municipal school in Belo Horizonte, for the valorization of the Afro and Afro Brazilian cultures, and to combat the racism and ethnic-racial prejudice that exists today in public schools. This discussion is anchored in current legislation, due to the enactment of Laws 10.639/03 and 11.645/08, which turned the above themes into mandatory curriculum content. The training had a total of five lectures, and took place during the teaching time of the school teachers. If at first times it was only for teachers, at times it was attended by students, such as the lecture on 'hair' given by the institution “Mostra Barreiro Alforriado Matias” (MABAM). We realize how symbolic hair is in the construction of Afro identity, and how it is a strong element of discrimination and prejudice against Afro-descendants, that is, how much hair is constituted as language in the affirmation or ethnic negation of black students. The change in the school curricula and teacher training is necessary and urgent if the goal of education is liberating and combating all forms of racism and prejudice.