Brazil Renews its Commitment to Memory Preservation
By Leonora Souza Paula*
On December 18, 2024, I participated in the ceremony held at Itamaraty Palace, where a joint ordinance was signed by the ministers Margareth Menezes (MinC – Culture), Mauro Vieira (MRE – Foreign Affairs), and Esther Dweck (MGI – Management and Innovation) to reestablish Brazil’s National Committee for UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program. Led by Arquivo Nacional (National Archive), the initiative is a pivotal step in safeguarding cultural heritage and is an unequivocal gesture towards memory preservation, epistemic justice, and the right to memory. Moreover, the initiative demonstrates Brazil’s leadership in the global effort to preserve and promote the memory of marginalized groups, including Afro-descendants, Indigenous communities, and other groups whose memory has been historically erased from mainstream narratives.
Memory Preservation Against Epistemicide
At the ceremony, Ana Flávia Magalhães Pinto, Director of the National Archive (AN), delivered a powerful speech underscoring the vital role of memory in building a more just and equitable world. As Pinto stated, “It is essential that we understand the role of memory in building a world where life can be lived with dignity and respect, free from the threats of silencing and criminal forgetting. Forgetting is part of humanity, but it cannot be legitimized by acts of genocide, epistemicide, and necromemory.”
Pinto’s words highlighted the urgent need for public policies that address the silencing of marginalized histories through epistemic reparations — the process of acknowledging and rectifying the colonial project of knowledge dispossession that gave rise to dominant Western cultural identities and societal norms. These identities and norms continue to thrive on the production of necromemory, a deliberate distortion or erasure of Afro-Brazilian cultural memory. Necromemory involves the selective shaping of historical narratives, determining what is remembered and how that selective remembering constructs a future in which Black identities and histories are severed from their past, as Vandelir Camilo explains.
Preserving documentary heritage, the primary mission of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program (MoW), goes beyond identifying and preserving records. It’s about protecting the various memory systems that shape our understanding of the world. In addition to traditional archives, these memory systems exist in and are maintained by communities in written, oral, performative, and territorial forms and belong to the public, as Pinto reminded us.
Also at the ceremony, Ambassador Marco Antonio Nakata, Director of Instituto Guimarães Rosa, emphasized that memory preservation is not just about safeguarding historical documents but also about ensuring that these materials contribute to a broader understanding of the historical injustices that are constitutive of Brazil. Nakata stressed that collective memory should not only be protected but actively celebrated and respected -and understood as part of the overall process of reparatory justice, I would add.
Thus, the reassembling of the National Committee is meant to support memory preservation across public, private, and community institutions, broadening participation and inclusivity in this effort.
Brazil’s Memory of the World Program Then and Now
Brazil’s National Committee for UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program was created in 2004 but closed in 2019. The program supports the preservation of documentary heritage and promotes transparency, accountability, and an inclusive approach to protecting historical records. Between 2007 and 2018, 111 collections were added to the National Register of Brazil’s MoW Program, including works by prominent Brazilian intellectuals and records of social movements that have built the country’s history.
The first step in reestablishing the Committee will be the launch of a call for proposals on January 13, 2025, to select representatives from teaching and research organizations, public archives, and community collections for the National Committee, which will have an Advisory Commission made up exclusively of representatives from civil society. This initiative aims to increase the participation of organizations and members of society and raise awareness about the right to memory.
The creation of a new Committee reflects the commitment of various institutions in Brazil to a people-centered framework for memory preservation. It proposes that memory be accessible to all, enabling society to engage with knowledge preservation systems in a meaningful and transformative way.
The Right to Memory: A Cornerstone of Epistemic Reparations
The right to memory is a fundamental element of epistemic justice. In the history of colonialism, slavery and the subjugation of peoples, entire systems of knowledge have been dismantled, if not eliminated, depriving populations of the ability to create their own narratives. When respected, the right to memory can structure processes of epistemic reparations, as it makes it possible to recognize historical violences that continue to shape contemporary power structures and offers avenues for self-representation.
In other words, the model of epistemic justice challenges the dominance of the colonial narrative that still prevails in today’s worldviews and proposes a model of representation rooted in self-determination, prioritizing the recognition of collective memories.
UNESCO’s Role in
Epistemic Reparations
UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program can play a key role in the global movement for epistemic reparations. By encouraging global engagement with the legacies of colonialism, slavery and other forms of historical violence, the program invites human rights advocates to take reparative action for these and other harms.
Therefore, collaboration between UNESCO, national governments, museums, archives and civil society is essential to avoid silencing, forgetting and necromemory, which continue to perpetuate historical injustices.
A New Decade for
Epistemic Justice
On December 17, 2024, the United Nations announced the Second International Decade for People of African Descent, with the theme “Recognition, Justice and Development.” This declaration presents a unique opportunity to expand the model of reparative justice and to strengthen programs that recover the collective memory of the African diaspora. It provides a vital opportunity to directly confront the enduring legacies of enslavement and colonialism. The re-creation of the National Committee comes at a favorable to address the systemic epistemicide that has affected the largest African diaspora in the Americas.
By investing in the preservation of memory and promoting broader social participation, Brazil has the chance to contribute significantly to a global effort that acknowledges past harms and to promote models of representation in which silenced narratives are recognized and protected.
*Leonora Souza Paula is Assistant Professor of Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University. Her current research examines the role of Black spatial imagination in claiming literature and culture as a form of heritage preservation and epistemic reparation. Leonora is a Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, and Vital Voices Global Partnership.
This article was written for issue 150 of the WBO newsletter, dated January 17, 2025. To subscribe and receive free weekly news and analyses like this, simply enter your email in the field provided.
