TERRAS DE PRETO NO MARANHÃO: reflexões sobre o vale do Munim

Abstract

In this article we discuss the question of the land’s property titles to the remainders of the communities of quilombolas (runaway slaves who took refuge in hidden places), once the 1988’s Brazilian Federal Constitution, in its article 68 of the Transitory Provisions Act, recognized the right of these communities to the property of their lands. Starting with this premise, we will make a reflection about the called terras de preto (black people lands) in the State of Maranhão, Brazil, bearing in mind that many of these communities’ pertaining dominions had not been entitled yet. This fact leads us to investigations about the process of legalization of the territorial possession to such communities, searching to understand what the impediments for such question are, as well as the alternatives found for quilombolas to supplant them.