FROM THE FIELD: Threatened Brazilian activist fights for slavery descendants' rights

26 March 2020 Human Rights

A Brazilian activist who regularly receives threats of violence says he will continue fighting for the right of people of African descent to access land and property in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Damião Braga is a quilombola leader, a term which originally referred to enslaved African people and which is now used to describe the descendants of these populations.

Mr. Braga leads Pedra do Sal, one of the main urban quilombola communities, which has been fighting a long-standing judicial and administrative battle to obtain ownership of properties in central Rio, now owned by the State and claimed by the Catholic Church.

Read more here about how Damião Braga is fighting for his community and the rights of African descendants of the slave trade.

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