The collective titling of quilombola lands and the conflicts for territorial rights in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

Abstract

The collective titling of the lands which belong to the remnant communities of quilombos has been configured as one of the policies that represent the territorialization of the State power and the exercise of power by quilombolas. The purpose of this article is to discuss the collective titling of quilombola remnant lands, highlighting the impasses, the processes development and the territorial conflicts in Rio Grande do Norte. The period of analysis starts in 2003, when the Decree 4.887 was promulgated to regulate the right and title of quilombola lands, up to the current year. After bibliographic research, secondary data were collected from federal agencies and semi-structured interviews with quilombola leaders and the Incra anthropologist were performed. The results pointed to factors that delay the progress of the processes, such as bureaucracy and the lack of resources to hire technical support to map the areas and conflicts that have arisen both among the members of the communities themselves, as well as these members and external subjects to the communities who claim lots of land in some territories.