1In recent years, Brazil has experienced a period of social and political effervescence and turbulence. Shaken in 2013 by mobilizations of unprecedented scope on the eve of major sporting events (2014 Football World Cup, 2016 Olympic Games), it also experienced an enormous rise in reactionary rhetoric, against a backdrop of economic and political crisis, culminating in the election of Jair Bolsonaro to the country's presidency in 2018 (Vidal 2018). The city’s favelas were heavily impacted by the introduction of “pacifying police units” (Unidade de Policia Pacificadora, UPP), the return of mass eviction policies (Magalhães 2013, Faulhaber and Azevedo 2016, Magalhães A.F. 2016) and in some cases by tourism and gentrification dynamics. This context gave rise to a renewal in activism within the favelas, driven by a new generation of actors, sometimes outside the more traditional circuits of resident associations, grassroots movements and their electoral representatives (Goirand 2000, Vidal 1998, Freire 2011). Reflecting the global transformation in forms of protest, and notably the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, the historical causes defended by favela movements such as opposition to evictions or police violence were reshaped by the new repertoires of activism and new frameworks (Goffman 1991, Snow and Benford 1992) with a strong protest dimension and emphasis on anti-racism.

1. Introducing a new chapter in favela politics

a. A history of resistance and accommodation

3Although Carioca favelas often, but not always, grew out of the illegal occupation of areas where construction was outlawed, they have gradually developed a close and ambivalent relationship with public authorities. For a long time, they were considered a “problem” requiring a “civilizational” response, and from the outset were regularly the target of various eviction attempts. While the first demonstrations by favela residents date back to the turn of the century (Mattos 2012), it was after the Second World War that a real turning point occurred in terms of collective organization, with the creation of resident associations. Under the combined influence of the progressive French church (Vidal 1998, Freire, Gonçalves and Simões 2010) and community development models promoted by international organizations (Valladares 2006), these associations set out to bring assistance to favela residents and improve their living conditions. They also contributed to demographic control over these populations by organizing censuses (Freire, Gonçalves and Simões 2010). Following the policy of mass eviction implemented under the dictatorship (over 130,000 people were evicted between 1960 and 1974), resident associations, whose model has since spread (Freire 2011), emerged as key instruments of resistance to eviction projects, which they even in some cases were able to stop (by boldly forming human chains and blocking the passage of demolition equipment) with the support of activist politicians and lawyers, and of the Catholic pastoral committee. In 1963, the associations formed the Federation of Favelas of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAFERJ), the first body coordinating the political action of favela residents on a supra-local scale.

4Racial issues were at the time largely absent from the discourse and demands of FAFERJ. The Brazilian Black movement was growing elsewhere and around other themes: while claiming to be a legacy of the slave revolts of colonial times, it first found expression in the press and in artistic and cultural events aimed at giving visibility to Black populations (Domingues 2007). Led by intellectuals, politicians, teachers, artists and religious leaders with a wide range of ideological affinities (Saillant 2007), the movement has long remained separate from the traditional forms of political organization, such as trade unions and political parties from which the favela associations and FAFERJ depend. It was not until the late 1970s, when the Movimento Negro Unificado (United Black Movement) was created in 1978 in response to the civil rights movement in the United States, that it took a new direction and adopted a far more radical discourse against racial discrimination (Agier and Carvalho 1994). Embracing a differentialist and liberating stance, the movement sought to give greater access to Black people and develop their political power. This was followed in the 1980s and 1990s by a rapprochement with political parties and trade unions, in which Black activists sought to combine the revolutionary fight against capitalism with the struggle against racism (Domingues 2007).

b. Two activist trajectories: Jorge and Matheus

6To analyze the driving forces behind this break with the usual forms of favela politics in our respective fields, we propose to begin by examining the trajectories of two resident activists, who each have contributed to a large extent to this reconfiguration and who have given a more contentious tone to their postures and discourses.

10In 2015, Jorge joined forces with some of his neighbors in Babilônia, ran for president of the residents’ association, and unexpectedly won the election. His aim was to use the Babilônia association for activism purposes, contrary to the views of his predecessor, who considered it an instrument for implementing local public policies. Along with these activities, Jorge has been engaged in many protest campaigns: demonstrations against electricity prices in the Santa Marta favela, a series of conferences on gentrification, and support for movements in the city's West Zone against the creation of a golf course and the eviction of residents of the Vila Autódromo and Providência favelas. These events regularly bring together a variety of people: favela residents, left-wing activists, university researchers and students, NGO volunteers and, when invited, some officials from public institutions, with some overlap between these categories.

11Matheus. Born in 1989, Matheus grew up in the upper section of the Providência favela. The son of a Northeastern mother of German origin and a Black father born in the favela who was involved in drug trafficking, he lost both parents at the age of seventeen. Since his teen years, he has taken part in many projects organized by NGOs in the favela. When he was eighteen, he contributed to the work of photographers JR and Maurício Hora, who displayed gigantic photographic portraits of female residents on the walls and staircases of Providência (the Mulheres project). He has many fields of interest: he studied law for one semester at the Benett University Center, was involved in theater with Spetaculu, an NGO based in the port area, took English courses and studied to be a tourist guide while training to become a pastor with the Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church. The wide range of skills he acquired were put to good use in his activism: his eloquence in public speaking, his good understanding of associations and NGOs, and his solid knowledge of human rights.

12In 2011, Matheus was deeply affected when his brother involved in drug trafficking was killed by the police. That same year, the Rio de Janeiro City Council announced the first evictions from the favela as part of the Morar Carioca program. A total of 832 homes were targeted and the building where Matheus was living was also threatened with demolition. That is when he joined the “Residents’ Committee against Evictions”, which grew out of the Port Community Forum, an organization that brings together members of the local cultural scene, city officials, academics and anarchist activists.

14The trajectories of Jorge and Matheus share obvious similarities: both were involved in campaigns against the Morar Carioca program, both have contacts with activists in the university and in left-wing and far-left parties, both have experienced police killings in their close family, and both have re-formulated their commitment in anti-racist terms. Their circles of relations overlap, and they know each other without being close friends. Their attitudes and discourses are similar in voicing vigorous and critical protest within the favela against the established order in contrast with the traditional forms of favela politics, known for its habits of co-optation and different forms of negotiation with the State, drug traffickers and politicians. They have not only adopted a position of head-on opposition to public power but have generalized their formulations to represent a critique of society as a whole. However, their paths diverge notably because of the specific local configurations in which they operate, which determine the impact of urban policies and the relationship of elected officials with the parallel power of drug traffickers. To understand both their similarity and their differences, it is important to examine both trajectories in light of the different contexts that allow us to understand them: first, the major transformations of the 2010s that contributed to this emphasis on protest, and second, the spatial and relational environment that nurtured it, at the crossroads of several social worlds and at the triple intersection of local inter-knowledge networks, activist circles and the university.

c. A historical timeline conducive to protest

15Matheus and Jorge’s trajectories are inextricably linked to the broader processes at work in the 2010s that strongly affected both the dynamics of social movements and the social life of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas.

17The second major change was the development of the Internet and new technologies. The spread of social media represented a significant turning point in communication within the community and in the growth of anti-racist movements. In 2020, 97.7% of Black movement activists named the Internet as their main means of communicating and disseminating information (Pereira 2020). These new digital technologies offered the possibility of reaching a much wider audience than ever before, of having one’s campaigns massively relayed and reposted on other pages, and of live streaming what was happening in the field. New collectives born in the favelas in this context were active in denouncing police brutality and the consequences of UPP presence: initiatives such as Ocupa Borel and Ocupa Alemão (in the Borel and Complexo do Alemão favelas) emerged in 2012 in this context, followed by creation of Papo reto, a collective of media activists, which belonged to the FJRJ in which Matheus was active. The widespread use of smartphones offered a remarkable new tool for denouncing police violence: it was now possible for any resident to film the different abuses committed and to share publicly what used to remain within local boundaries, and therefore could more easily be kept invisible. The Nós por nós application created by the FJRJ, in which Matheus was involved, was precisely designed to encourage this type of denunciation.

18The third possible explanation was the overall transformation of protest movements in response to the changing international context. The impact in the media of the organization of major sporting events was the opportunity to give an international audience to the fight against evictions and police violence. Several activist groups and associations, often tied to academia, decided to defend these causes and provided considerable material and logistical support to favela residents: this was the case for many national and international NGOs (Amnesty Internacional, IBASE, Global Justice, Witness, FASE), some left-wing and far-left parties such as the PSOL, and a myriad of more anarchist-leaning collectives or media activists, which grew considerably in the aftermath of the major demonstrations of June 2013. These included the World Cup and Olympics Popular Committee, one of the most active groups in denouncing the harmful consequences of major sporting events, and which included many researchers. On a global scale, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement from 2013 onwards helped bring the issue of racism and police violence to the forefront, and had a strong impact in Brazil where the slogan was immediately adopted and translated into Portuguese (Vidas negras importam) (Escobar 2022). These movements had a particularly noticeable influence on the trajectory of Jorge and Matheus, not only via social media, but also through international exchanges: Matheus and some members of the FJRJ went to New York in 2015 as part of a trip organized by the NGO Witness, and several activists from the Black Lives Matter movement travelled to Rio de Janeiro the following year in return.

d. Favelas, activist circles and the university: the linked ecologies of protest and their jurisdictional conflicts

19The concept of “linked ecologies” proposed by Andrew Abbott seems effective for examining the relationships that have contributed to the development of new forms of protest within the favelas. The concept of linked ecologies invites us to consider both the system of relationships (of alliances, overlaps and competition) between the many “adjacent ecologies” among which individuals circulate, and the effects of these relationships on each of the ecologies involved (Abbott 2005). During the period studied here, a wide range of activists were engaged in formulating demands and claims to public authorities, in voicing the favela’s concerns in the media and documentaries, in denouncing the arbitrariness of the UPP or police killings in the favelas. Their scope varied, and they sometimes collaborated, and other times came into conflict.

21The specific configuration of this campaign was certainly due to its geographical location at the very heart of the port district and the historic center of the city –a local legitimacy that the Port Community Forum sought to confirm by its name. It was strongly influenced by the local activist ecosystem to which it belonged (members of the cultural scene, popular education groups, activists from the homeless occupation movement in the port area) and its links with academic circles. These linked ecologies were fraught with tension: PEG activists encouraged the residents’ commission –in which Matheus later became a key figure– to gain independence from the PCF, considering that the most active members of the PCF did not give enough voice to the residents and made important decisions in their stead.

22In Chapéu Mangueira and Babilônia, where protest activities focused on other issues, the linked ecologies took on a different shape. This was due notably to the way the Morar Carioca program was implemented, with far fewer demolitions and evictions than in Providência. The activities of Favela não se cala, Jorge’s collective, come to focus on the issue of gentrification. In Chapéu Mangueira and Babilônia, located not far from Leme beach, at the limit of the famous Copacabana district, tourism was exploding at the time (seventeen new hostels had opened), encouraged by police pacification and urban improvement construction work (concrete roads, new lookouts and public parks). Favela não se cala was part of the ecology of several South Zone favelas that were campaigning at the same time on these issues. The collective participated along with others in the event Fala Vidigal (“Speak, Vidigal”) organized in the favela of that name, where rents were rising at a staggering rate. Researchers, journalists and association presidents attended this cycle of four conference-debates on the gentrification of favelas, initiated by the NGO Comunidades catalisadoras and several local collectives.

23Jorge’s activist trajectory and the changes in his discourse are inextricably linked with the different relationships he forged over the years with various members of NGOs and academia, and with activists in political parties such as the PSOL, with which he was particularly close. His activism was also influenced by local power relations in Chapéu Mangueira and Babilônia. Jorge reaped the benefits of the good reputation of his grandmother, an important local figure, and at the same time, gained the support of young people in the favela who considered him a possible ally in opposing some of the effects of pacification (bans on funk carioca, more frequent police checks, etc.). This allowed him to garner enough local support to become president of the Babilônia residents’ association, replacing a president who had been in office for over twenty years. A similar change happened two years earlier in the neighboring favela of Chapéu Mangueira: a well-known local youth, Ben, five years younger than Jorge and a former trafficker who took his first steps in politics with the campaigns against the demolitions of Morar Carioca, succeeded in being elected president of the association with the support of the local drug dealers and of the evangelical church. These two electoral victories marked a clear break with the associations’ traditional policies and their more moderate, conciliatory rhetoric.

24In this context, new forms of protest were growing in the favelas at the crossroads of different social environments, which sometimes overlapped: the favela, with its local political power relations; the university, with its politically engaged researchers and off-campus teaching facilities; and the political and activist organizations, which largely straddled these different worlds. As they came into contact, questions of prerogatives arose: who was entitled to denounce the situation in the favelas and to publicly voice the demands of their residents? Who was allowed to choose the words used for this protest or decide on the means of action to be preferred? The linked ecologies of protest in this context were caught in what Andrew Abbott calls “jurisdictional conflicts” (Abbott 1986). In this respect, the anti-racist framework, which was redefining the historical favela causes (against evictions and police violence), also represented a demand for autonomy for these movements from the other actors of these linked ecologies. Some of the concepts (“protagonism” and “place of speech”) or slogans (Nós por nós) regularly used by the collectives in which Jorge and Matheus were engaged (FNSC and FJRJ) expressed this desire for autonomy. To understand this new turn in favela movements, the intellectual environment must be analyzed along with the network of relationships. The linked ecologies of protest cannot be studied without examining the ideas and theories that serve as references within activist circles (Belorgey et al. 2011).

2. The new categories of favela politics: anti-racism and “protagonism”

a. Towards a socio-racial redefinition of the favela spaces

25Anti-racist references progressively became central in the discourse of both Jorge and Matheus. As we have seen, these references were drawn from the international context of the Black Lives Matter movements that began in 2013, with which they were in frequent contact. In this context, racism was considered both a key for understanding the situation of oppression experienced in the favelas, and a means of collective identification with a hybrid subject self-defined as both “Black” and “favelado.”

26Influenced by his contacts with members of the FJRJ, Matheus increasingly adopted anti-racist frames of thought, describing their discovery as a true awakening that led to a strong sense of revolt:

• 12 Matheus, Facebook post, April 26, 2018.

When I began to understand my color, my class, and all these things we discuss, like racism for example, it gave me even more rage against these direct oppressors [the policemen who commit murders in the favela], and I can’t hide the fact that in my heart I was celebrating their death.12

27This experience redefined the personal tragedies of Matheus and Jorge and the stories of the many relatives of victims they had met in the context of their respective collectives. It placed all these tragedies in a broader picture where they were added to the thousands of killings that happened every year. And the staggering number of police executions (Amalric and Sisternas 2018) confirmed the understanding of the phenomenon in racial terms.

• 16 Jorge, Facebook post, September 3, 2014.

My Black brothers, we must give up our lamentations and move on to organization: only by organizing in BLACK organizations will we find the conditions to confront the NECROPOLITICS and the Genocide of the Black people here in Brazil.16

30Similarly to what Jorge expresses here, the frames of thought of Quilombism (Nascimento 1980), already mentioned above, which can be summarized as a Brazilian synthesis of Pan-Africanism and revolutionary Marxism (Guimarães 2002), encourage a close association between identifications in terms of social class and those in terms of “race.” Refusing the myths of “racial democracy” and miscegenation, Abdias do Nascimento defined being Black as being of African ancestry, and he rejected intermediate notions (“mestizo” or pardos in Brazil, one of the official census categories) that obscure the understanding and denunciation of racism in Brazilian society. Forming an “oppressed majority”, the “Black people” correspond to the Brazilian “people” as a whole, as opposed to the white elite.

31This racial identification of the people is reflected in Matheus and Jorge’s regular association of the terms “Black” and “favelado,” which were often linked in phrases they used to identify themselves individually or collectively (“as Blacks and favelados”). The use of the term “favelado,” with its strong negative connotations, was intended to reverse the stigma and go against the tendency among favela movements in previous years to use the more euphemistic term “community” (Birman 2008). By regularly defining themselves as “Blacks” and “favelados,” Jorge and Matheus used the favela space as the foundation of a socio-racial identity fundamentally marked by oppression.

32The same connections were also present in their historical narratives: for example, the Providência favela, the city’s first favela, was systematically relocated by Matheus, in his guided tours, in the larger space of “Little Africa,” a group of neighborhoods with a strong African presence, that once stretched from the port area to the Cidade Nova district. In these same neighborhoods, the Valongo wharf, where slaves were unloaded in the early 19^th century, was rediscovered in 2011 during construction work designed to revitalize the port area. It was also the location chosen for a ceremony in tribute to Abdias do Nascimento, held seven days after his death on May 31, 2011. Jorge insisted again on the importance of this link with Africa, which needed to be renewed, while at the same time engaging in a requalifying operation by “blackening the favela”:

• 17 Interview with Jorge on October 19, 2015.

With the FNSC movement, we are planning to open the Sankara library in Babilônia. Sankara was an African revolutionary leader […]. Our idea is to open a library filled exclusively with African literature and Black authors. To quote Malcolm X, “only a fool would let his enemy educate his children.” Not that white people are our enemies… Our enemy is white supremacy. With this Sankara library, we want to blacken the favela and rediscover the culture it produced, the traditions of African origin. And it's a way of fighting the gentrification process.17

b. A quest for autonomy: from “Nós por nós” to the quilombo political model

33In this context, anti-racism and Black identity are not just a reference point or a frame of thought: they correspond to a political attitude in its own right, centered around the claim to exercise a certain “protagonism.” This term refers to the need to be the main actor of a social movement (the protagonist, in other words), rather than being kept in the background, while the important decisions are mostly made by white, middle-class activists. It implies a distinction between those who are directly “concerned” and those who are “allies.” The latter are not excluded from any participation in the struggle, but are expected to play only a supporting role, like secondary characters in a plot. The Blacks or the favela residents must be the ones to lead, drive and direct the struggle against the oppressions of which they are victims. This is the meaning of the expression Nós por nós, which translates as “for ourselves, by ourselves.” This expression used for many years in hip-hop culture and in rap and funk lyrics (Gonçalves 2017) became a slogan for the FJRJ, which also used it as the name of the app it created for denouncing police violence.

36The initiative “What and for whom does favela research serve?” organized by FJRJ activists raised the same questions. These round-table discussions and debates were usually held in the favelas. Panelists included residents, members of NGOs and academia, and discussions focused explicitly on the relationship between researchers and the favelas. Throughout the meetings organized from 2016 onwards practically every month, two main issues were denounced. The first is a certain fascination in the academic world for the oppressed and for favela residents (while studies carried out in affluent neighborhoods are rather rare), which corresponds to a form of “anthropological fetishism” imbued with a “colonial attitude”. The second is the lack of positive effects of research on residents, who are only rarely associated in defining research topics. In contrast, participants pointed out the presence of a rich “epistemology of the favela” and the capacity of the residents themselves to produce knowledge and hold a discourse based on their experience (once again, this reflects the themes of the “standpoint theory”).

37While these types of meetings were held at the interface between the academic world and the favelas, the FJRJ, with the slogan “Nós por nós,” considers itself an autonomous space that aims to remain relatively preserved, in the eyes of its activists, from the hierarchies that divide society, and from the forms of domination exercised by means of their discourse by the educated, white, middle classes, and thus a space where local activists can regain their right to speak. Leandro, an FJRJ activist who shared housing with Matheus for a time, describes the collective’s atmosphere in these terms:

• 20 Interview with Leandro on July 25, 2017.

The FJRJ was one of the few political spaces where I didn’t feel smaller [menor] because I didn’t have a degree, because I didn’t have status, mainly in activist terms. None of my feelings were disparaged or relativized. I could cry. I could say what I felt. I could say what I thought without being afraid to say what I thought, because I didn’t know. Because it doesn’t make any sense that we don’t know […]. We don’t need a doctor [doutor, ambiguously referring here to the “bourgeois” or the “PhD holder”], a master [holder of a master’s degree] or I don’t know what, to tell us what oppression is or, I don’t know, to validate our words, a doctor to talk to us, to teach us what oppression is.20

38In Leandro’s discourse, the violence of social hierarchies is embodied in the academic world and its “degrees”, regardless of the social engagement academics express in their discourse. FJRJ members regularly mention the benefits of their meetings in terms of “self-confidence” and “mental health”. But the presence of these preserved spaces does not in any way mean that the collectives are autonomous in their operations and conditions of existence: they continue to rely on the support of left-wing organizations, to maintain links with the activists of these organization, and to take full advantage of the resources in finances, communication and organization provided by parties and NGOs (the Nós por nós app was launched with the help of a partnership with the NGO Witness and with the support of IBASE). Thus, they remain imbedded in the complex interplay of the linked ecologies of favela protest.

Conclusion: Is a window of protest closing?

40The new chapter in favela politics, that opened in the context of the social movements of the 2010s and of the major urban policies implemented in preparation for the major sporting events, saw both the emergence of a new generation of activists and the renewal of the historical causes of opposition to evictions and police violence. The context of police pacification policies (which were not only repressive but also carried aspirations in terms of access to citizenship), the development of the Internet and digital technologies (which provided new possibilities for denunciation and dissemination), and the development of anti-racist movements on an international scale (especially the Black Lives Matter movement) all marked a break with the more traditional forms of favela politics. This renewal took place at the interface between several linked ecologies: the social world of the favelas with its internal power relations, left-wing and far-left parties and social movement organizations, NGOs and the academic world, in addition to student activism networks. The combinations formed by their members gave rise to tensions and jurisdictional conflicts, raising the question of the autonomy of favela movements and the ability of residents to claim the role of protagonist in the struggles that concern them. In the new anti-racist framework, the quilombo is becoming a new symbol of struggle, and the favela a space of resistance that must be viewed through a socio-racial prism that combines identifications as “Black” and “favelado.”

41On March 14, 2018, Black city council member Marielle Franco was killed in her car as she was leaving a debate on the topic of “Black Women Moving [Power] Structures!” (Mulheres negras movendo as estruturas). A week before her murder, she had spoken out against the violent actions of the Acari military police battalion. Jorge and Matheus, who both knew her personally, were deeply affected by what seemed for all of them to be a political assassination and a gesture of intimidation against favela activists committed to similar causes. More broadly, this event symbolizes the deep change in the political atmosphere: after 2015, the country went through both an economic crisis (a recession) and a political crisis (the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff), which were especially acute in Rio de Janeiro. The State of Rio de Janeiro went bankrupt and was no longer able to pay the salaries of law enforcement officers. This led the federal government to call in the army in early 2018 to handle security within the city. The same period saw the rise of a conservative wave that culminated with the election of President Jair Bolsonaro at the end of that year and was characterized, among other things, by a head-on rejection of anti-racist discourse and anything associated with minority rights.

42These events seem to show that the historical moment described in this article is coming to an end. Protest activities in Providência, Chapéu Mangueira and Babilônia have subsided against a backdrop of almost daily armed clashes, signaling the failure of the pacification policy. Most of the activist networks formed in the wake of the June 2013 protests are slowly disintegrating. The trajectory of Jorge and Matheus seems to follow this ebb and flow of social movements. Jorge who until now had refused any collaboration with political parties, now works for the Workers’ Party (of current president Lula) and has adopted the traditional role of electoral agent (cabo eleitoral) at the service of a Workers’ Party candidate. Matheus, who became a pastor, has decided to give a more religious tone to his activist discourse, which has moved in the direction of Christian universalism. He nevertheless is pursuing his activities as a socially engaged tourist guide and has also embarked on a tentative career in professional politics, running (unsuccessfully) for State deputy in the 2022 elections, also in the Workers’ Party. While the context of opportunity has profoundly changed, the cause of protagonism and anti-racism has continued to advance within social movements, and has found political outlets. The number of Black federal deputies has risen by almost 10% between 2018 and 2022, and has continued to increase between 2014 and 2022 from 19% to 26% of the Chamber of Deputies –a general increase also noticed in the Rio de Janeiro State Legislative Assembly and the city’s municipal council. It remains to be seen how far this political renewal and these new forms of protest, experimented in a specific political and social context, were able to infuse favela society and leave a lasting impact on registers of identification, political representations and the modes of action of a young generation.