The quilombo as praxis: meanings and discourses of the Manga Iús territoriality in the Cerrado of Piauí

Abstract

The article analyzes the territoriality of the Quilombola Community of Manga Iús, located in the municipality of Batalha (Piauí, Brazil), based on the concept of territory as praxis, understood as a historical, relational, and discursive process produced through material, symbolic, and political practices. Although recognized by the Palmares Cultural Foundation in 2005, the community remains without land titling and is subjected to a prolonged condition of institutional waiting. In this sense, the present study aims to understand how the symbolic, discursive, and everyday practices of the Manga Iús community sustain and update its territoriality amid the legal indefiniteness of the territory. The research adopts a qualitative approach, combining Oral History and Critical Discourse Analysis, with emphasis on social practice, based on interviews, field observations, and the analysis of technical-institutional documents. The findings show that territoriality is grounded in ancestry, orality, places of memory, and agroecological practices, constituting a collective identity in tension with juridical-administrative discourses marked by exclusionary epistemologies. The study concludes that territorial disputes represent confrontations between antagonistic discursive regimes, demanding an epistemological shift in land regularization protocols.