AMEFRICANITY ON THE BRAZIL-BOLIVIA BORDER: A LOOK AT THE PHENOMENON IN THE TWIN CITIES OF GUAJARÁ-MIRIM (BR) AND GUAYARAMERÍN (BO)

Abstract

The general objective of this article is to reflect on aspects of the shared experience of struggle, ancestry and cultural production that connects Brazil and Bolivia at the border represented by the twin cities of Guajará-Mirim/BR and Guayaramerín/BO. As specific objectives, we seek to: 1) Reflect on the intercultural relations established on the Brazil-Bolivia border, in the State of Rondônia; 2) Summarize the main cultural expressions of musical profile expressed in that locality and 3) Problematize the profile of identity expressed in that territory. For this purpose, we proceed to bibliographic-documentary and field research. As results, it can be said that Brazil and Bolivia, in addition to sharing the same continent and a border territory of more than three thousand kilometers in length, share a colonial past marked by similar historical experiences, which explain, to a large extent, the challenges of citizenship they face in the present, among which the overcoming of racism and the positivity of the rights to equality and difference, rights that have traditionally been denied to Afrodiasporic populations (and their descendants): Africans and indigenous people. It is considered that the progressive affirmation of an Amefrican identity in the analyzed territory marks a new moment of appreciation of the presence and African/Afro-descendant and indigenous culture in the two countries and strengthens the struggle for rights, in addition to keeping alive important cultural expressions of African matrix, such as samba and bolivian saya.