Advisement to the City Council and social organizations of the Marajó Archipelago
In partnership with local governments and local social organizations, the Program offered workshops on Anthropology, Archeology and History to resident teachers from municipalities located in the western Marajó Archipelago to produce two textbooks published in 2011 and 2012. The project had as objective the training teachers as authors of didactic texts of the public network and elaboration of educational publications for use in the schools of the archipelago. All the publications produced were distributed to the public (municipal and state) schools.
Indigenous stories production workshops
At the invitation of the indigenous peoples of the Arapiuns and Tapajós Rivers, workshops were held to produce stories and memoirs in the city of Santarém. The project lasted five years and counted on the partnership and encouragement of the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) and the Tapajos Arapiuns Indigenous Council. The results obtained include the production of two books, entitled "Indigenous Peoples in the Tapajós and Arapiuns Rivers", which will be distributed to collectives, indigenous schools and municipal and state public schools, along with the book produced with the results of archaeological research (2010-2014) entitled "One Port, Many Stories: Archeology in Santarém". The indigenous leaders of the Arapiun, Borari, Cara Preta, Maytapu, Timbira and Tupinambá peoples participated in the project.
The Brazil-Africa House and its Social Contributions
The Brazil-Africa House (CBA – Portuguese acronym), currently coordinated by Professor Hilton P. Silva, was proposed by the first NEAB of the Amazon, the Afro-Amazonian Studies Group (GEAM) and created through Ordinance No. 3313/2006, being linked to the Pro-rectorate of International Relations of the Federal University of Pará (Prointer).
The CBA allows students, researchers, teachers in the public and private high school, elementar and higher education, as well as to various segments of the Amazon population, access and production of new knowledge in place of stereotyped and prejudiced views on black people and their origins. In addition, the CBA is a space that allows the black population and the student community to interact and address diverse issues within the framework of ethnic-racial relations and transatlantic relations, contributing to the elimination of prejudices and discrimination of all kinds.
The promulgation of Law 10.639, of January 9, 2003, amended the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education (LDB), including in the official curriculum of the Teaching Network the obligation of the theme "African and Afro-Brazilian History and Culture". The Law establishes that the program content to be developed by the schools should contain the study of the History of Africa and the Africans, the struggle of the black people in Brazil, the Brazilian black culture and the black individual in the formation of the national society, rescuing the contribution of the black people in the social, economic and political areas pertinent to national history.
Brazil maintains important cooperation with African countries, with the highlight on the Undergraduate Agreement Program (PEC-G). An activity of Itamaraty, whose objective is the training of highly qualified human resources, in order to enable citizens of developing countries to undertake university studies in Brazilian Higher Education Institutions. At UFPA, these students are welcomed and supported by the CBA to succeed in their academic objectives, so, in the future, they may collaborate to improve their native countries and simultaneously with their African life experience, by interacting with teachers and students of the public network they have contributed to the goals set forth in Law 10.639 / 03 in the State of Pará. In addition, there is considerable interest in researching African and African-related issues in Brazil, which is also supported by the CBA. The sum of efforts of Brazilian teachers and African students has been stimulated in the perspective of transforming the dominant view on the African continent in our region.
Since its founding, the CBA has been working with representatives of social movements in support of the struggles against prejudice and racism suffered by Africans and Afro-descendants, as well as providing greater visibility to studies on Africanities in Brazil. Through its activities (lectures, seminars, workshops, courses, exhibitions, publications, websites and social media) the CBA has contributed to promote the dissemination of the contemporary reality of Africa; for the production of educational material through the availability of free content via the World Wide Web (www.casabrasilafrica.org www.casaafricabrasil.blogspot.com.br/ on the African continent; for the training of teachers to include the racial issue in basic, basic and secondary education; and to subsidize the creation of pedagogical projects that make the school curriculum more democratic and offer elements for understanding the contribution of African peoples in the formation of modern Brazil.