This is Brazil by the Numbers, a weekly digest of the most interesting figures tucked inside the latest news about Brazil. A selection of numbers that help explain what is going on in Brazil. In this week’s special edition, we’re looking at racial issues around the country as Brazil observes Black Consciousness Day.
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Brazil celebrates Black Consciousness Day on November 20, the generally agreed date of death of Zumbi dos Palmares, a 17th-century slave-resistance leader and national icon who led the Quilombo dos Palmares, a community of runaway slaves in northeastern Brazil. Immortalized in Brasília’s National Pantheon, Zumbi symbolizes the anti-slavery struggle in Brazil.
The date was included in the national school calendar in 2003, but only in 2011 was a law issued to officially institute Black Consciousness Day nationwide. Though not a national holiday — observed in only a small number of states — the date is seen as a day of reflection on the anti-racism struggle in Brazil, and a celebration of the life of Zumbi dos Palmares.
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