Who teaches the silenced? Black intellectualism and afro-referencing as historical reparation

Abstract

This article analyzes the challenges and potentials of Afro-referencing in Brazilian education, understanding it as a policy of affirmation and historical reparation against epistemicide and the erasure of Black intellectualism. The research stems from the observed underrepresentation of Black faculty in graduate programs and the hegemony of academic whiteness in curricula, highlighting persistent structural inequalities. Grounded in authors such as Sueli Carneiro, Lélia Gonzalez, Nilma Lino Gomes, Cida Bento, Renato Noguera, and Abdias do Nascimento, the study mobilizes concepts of insurgent Black curriculum, Black pedagogies, and Amefricanity. The methodology combines a literature review with data analysis from institutional reports (ANPEd, CAPES, and IPEA) regarding racial composition in graduate studies. The results indicate that Afro-referencing transcends the pedagogical field, establishing itself as a political-epistemic project that challenges Eurocentric logics of domination. It concludes that valuing Black intellectual production is an essential strategy for curricular justice to build anti-racist and equitable education, requiring structural transformations to overcome the narcissistic pact of whiteness and promote historical reparation within the academic environment.