The search

When I think about identity, I question myself: who am I in fact?

I have got a first name, a middle name and a surname, I have got a father, mother, brothers and sisters, children and grandchildren; I was born to a certain nation (and I think myself as this nation’s child); I have certain physical characteristics (which as most of the rest change with time) - I have a job, some abilities, a little of what is called knowledge... But who am I?

The identity of a man or a woman cannot be reduced to that which constitutes him or her within a limited time and space – it goes beyond it – it goes, perhaps, to a point that cannot be reached.

But, I see my identity – I identify and recognize myself – as a result of countless generations who duplicated, and duplicated, and once more duplicated – till they reached me – myself – unique - a container of numberless stories, a result of innumerable (and still unfinished) trials to define a HUMAN identity.

From this thought comes this feeling that my ancestors are the very structure of who I am, and I, on the other hand, at present (and temporarily), the reason of my ancestors’ existence.

If they are so essential to me, it is important that I know about them – who they were, where they came from, the things they did, how they lived, how they “developed”, in what they believed, of what they died.... Part of what I know is history, part is memory and part is made of “tales”, “fables”, and creations of human mind – but all the same, they are a recollection of my story – a register of who I am.

And it is in this line of thought, this path of life, that I am ready to rescue some aspects of Brazilian black people’s history – those whose ancestors were brought to this land in a social condition of slavery – but were not slaves as a fact. Each black individual was unique and duplicated, and once more duplicated until they reached the Brazilians of today – men and women whose identity shall be recognized and respected as from the moment they know their own history: the walking paths of their ancestors.

This is the very essence of this project.


Maria Lígia Conti