The right to dream

Afro-Brazilian politician and social activist Benedita da Silva spoke at Lamont Library last week. The former governor of Rio de Janeiro discussed the postcolonial challenges facing Brazil in its efforts to create a government and society that include traditionally disenfranchised groups such as blacks, women, and the poor. “When I was a kid,” said da Silva, “and lived in Chapeu da Mangueira hill, a slum in Rio de Janeiro’s south zone, very close to Copacabana Beach, no black children had even the right to dream of a life different from the ones led by their mothers and grandmothers.” The event was co-sponsored by the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.