1231. Election Observation in Mozambique (1994) 2. Festival of Iemanjá (Goddess of the ocean in the Afro-Brazilian religion) in Salvador, Brazil (2018) 3. National Archive of Angola (2024)14SOPHIA MAGAZINE Vol. 18On world maps printed in Japan, Africa is positioned on the far left and South America on the far right. If you connect the map on both sides, you realize that these two continents are surprisingly close. However, most Japanese people—including Yazawa at one time—often imagine the two to be “far off and unknown lands.”“From the time I was young, the two continents seemed very far away when I looked at the map. It fascinated me to imagine what kinds of people lived in Africa and South America and what the cities in these two regions were like. Compared with what we learn about North America, Europe, and Asian countries, there were few opportunities to learn about the two continents in ju-nior high or high school classes, so I decided I would study them when I entered university.”Professor Yazawa, however, could not find a department that would allow him to study both regions together. He started learn-ing about African political history at university but could not shake his interest in Latin America. He thought about finding a way to study both regions simultaneously.“The answer I arrived at was to explore the perspectives and atti-tudes of black Brazilians towards Africa. Brazil is a country with one of the largest Black Diaspora (descendants of African slaves) populations. African-derived culture, such as Samba, has become part of Brazilian national culture. I decided to investigate how Brazil and Africa interacted, focusing on the first half of the 20th century.”As his primary sources, Yazawa concentrated on black newspapers written in Portuguese by black people for black people. Publication of these newspapers in Brazil began in the early 20th century, triggered by black protest movements against racial dis-crimination. The newspapers were microfilmed around the 1970s and are still available today.“Twenty-three black newspapers published in São Paulo in the 1920s and 1930s, totaling 333 issues, have been microfilmed. The originals, however, are not well-preserved and are often faded due to sun exposure and difficult to read. Missing words have to be guessed at to decipher meaning.”Rather than general news, articles in the black press at the time were focused more on topics of interest to black Brazilians – black awareness promotion and information related to protests against discrimination. Through these newspapers, Yazawa works to dis-cover connections between Brazil and Africa.“I found that black newspapers published in Brazil were read in Mozambique, a Portuguese colony in Africa. A letter from an African in Mozambique in one of the issues, for example, stated, ‘We are seeking to improve the rights of Africans in the colonies. We want to know more about your activities.”That such relationships existed between Africans and blacks in the U.S., and in the British and French Caribbean, was well known. Black intellectuals in the U.S., and in the British and French Caribbean frequently interacted with African elites under colonial rule, becoming a driving force for independence move-ments. After colonies in Africa gained independence, such re-lationships also inspired the civil rights movement in the U.S. to abolish racial discrimination. Blacks across the Atlantic were stimulating each other to action.Studies on those relationships, however, have mentioned little about the Lusophone world such as Brazil and Portuguese Africa. The articles I found are from the first half of the 20th century, but further research shows similar interactions existed even back to the 1970s. Independence for Portuguese colonies in Africa came a bit later, in the 1970s. During that period, Brazil was under military dictatorship, making it difficult to raise voices against racial discrimination. However, inspired by the independence of Portuguese African colonies, blacks in Brazil began movements to restore their dignity.”
元のページ ../index.html#14