Studying Quilombola practices of resistance on instagram

Abstract

This article analyzes how semiotic practices and subjectivities are performed on the popular image-based social media platform Instagram by Djankaw, a Black trans resident of a quilombo [a settlement founded by descendants of formerly enslaved African-Brazilians]. We aim to observe how, through Djankaw’s posts, they perform their subjectivities on the platform, focusing on the intersections of race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality they produce online. The community where Djankaw lives faces many problems as their territory has been under dispute in court with Swabian landowners and the capitalist monoculture business they practice. It took considerable legal action for the quilombolas to be given back part of their ancestral territory. Bearing these legal disputes in mind, we turn to Djankaw’s performances on the Internet and how these performances instigate a productive debate over the African-Brazilian quilombola identity itself and resonate with the struggles of marginalized groups to reclaim their diverse time-spaces in the interior of Brazil. Djankaw’s posts and their embodied practices operate as sites to question the meanings of what it means to be Black, trans, and quilombola [an inhabitant of a quilombo]. The complexity of Djankaw’s subject positions is further increased by their connection to different religions; they incorporate different spiritual practices that also orchestrate discussions on race, sexuality, and gender. When Djankaw performs their selves on the internet, they mobilize and re-shape these social marks while both engaging in semiotic practices of resistance against the historical erasure of quilombola cultures and claiming space on social networks.