Prison quilombo: affection and resistance of family members of incarcerated Black women

Abstract

This article analyzes the resistance strategies and emotional connections of family members of women prisoners in the largest women's penitentiary in Latin America, the Sant'Ana Women's Penitentiary (PFS) in São Paulo. Based on narratives and observations made in July 2023, it highlights the daily lives of black families who, through weekly visits, face the abandonment imposed by the state and resist the practices of control and dehumanization. In this work, I propose the term “prison quilombo” as an initial idea to understand the current form of social organization and black resistance led by these families. Based on reflections by Beatriz Nascimento, Sueli Carneiro, and bell hooks, the text discusses how these practices of care and affection, especially led by mothers, become forms of struggle against the annihilation of black sociabilities. It also discusses how these family members, by nurturing both women prisoners and dreams of freedom and black futures, challenge the genocidal logic of the Brazilian prison system. Finally, it argues that these visits constitute political strategies of subversion and resistance that reaffirm the dignity and continuity of black life.