Biko: Exploring Black Identity in Brazil Through a U.S. Lens

Abstract

This article analyzes how Black Consciousness and Citizenship (CCN), a curriculum produced at the Steve Biko Cultural Institute (Biko) in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, is influential to the production of a Black identity. In addition, I assess “the relationship between Black identity and education” at Biko through the lens of Zirkel and Johnson’s strengths-based narratives as a counternarrative to anti-Blackness and Afrophobia in Brazilian society. CCN is elevated in analysis as a culturally representative model of education for Afro-Brazilian youth in Salvador and the city’s periphery. Culturally representative education here refers to a racially, culturally, and socially inclusive educational mode. Zirkel and Johnson’s recommended approaches are parallel to those employed through CCN to produce a positive identification with Black racial identity which counters anti-Black and Afrophobic sentiment.