Insights into the institutional denial of Afro-diasporic practices

Abstract

This article analyzes the historical connection between terreiro communities and health promotion in Brazil, highlighting that, prior to the creation of the Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) in 1988, terreiros were central spaces of care, especially for black and poor populations. We sought to highlight certain advances in the field of public policies regarding the guarantee of rights for these communities. However, based on the revocation of Joint Resolution SMAC/SMS No. 02/2025 in Rio de Janeiro, we discuss the dynamics of racism that permeate Brazilian institutions, preventing the advancement of agendas. The text articulates reflections by authors such as Lélia González, Fanon, Kilomba, and Mbembe to discuss the coloniality of knowledge and the suppression of Afro-indigenous epistemologies. It proposes to understand health in a broader way, based on the terreiros, among the herbs, rituals, songs, and axé, inspired by Afro-indigenous civilizational values and interculturality that point to paths based on the affirmation of countercoloniality. It concludes that, despite institutional attempts of suppression, terreiros continue as territories of resistance, production of life, and continuity, reaffirming the centrality of ancestral epistemologies for the thought and practice of other Brazils.