A network of us
Network is a word that can say many things. For a moment, we can think of a hammock, a fishing net or even an internet connection. All of this is networking, and it has a reason for existing. To make it clear, let’s agree here that a network is the entanglement of things that, when intertwined, form a whole. Its texture is made up of meeting points that intersect and unite through us. Networking can also be done by organisations and that’s what we’re going to talk about.
There are infinite reasons that can make organisations connect, such as institutional strengthening and knowledge sharing. However, among all the reasons for weaving ties, the biggest is the collective dream – something that mobilises hearts and bodies and makes people meet, strengthen each other and walk side by side to build something together. Added to this, the constellation of actors united for a common benefit has a much greater impact than individual action, expanding the scalability of their actions and the sustainability of organisations.
As the song goes:
a dream you dream alone, it’s just a dream you dream alone, but a dream you dream together is reality [1]
The wefts of an organisational network cannot be woven alone. It takes many hands to bring about significant change in society and overcome complex social problems. This text deals with the six organisations that participated in the GWGAB project, observing the historical seams that they have been stitching together so that gender and race issues become a transversal agenda in the construction of the country.
One thread intertwines with another
Joint work is not something new for the Brazilian black movement. When looking back, it is possible to remember the persistent and tireless struggles for social justice and racial equity [2]. Brazil has black authors who are invaluable for the construction of the country that have gone through history safeguarding ancestral knowledge, kept cultural manifestations alive and did not succumb to social abandonment.
Each of the six participating organisations built, over time, their own network, weaving their path with different actors and guiding relevant themes in different ways. If we are going to talk about an articulated struggle that crosses history, we can mention the Quilombola Association of Conceição das Crioulas (AQCC). If the theme is the representation of the black struggle and the breaking of borders, we could invite Geledés. On the claim of occupying academic spaces and doing science, there is the Brazilian Association of Black Researchers (ABPN) and Dandaras no Cerrado. If the agenda is political advocacy and the conquest of rights, it is impossible not to mention the Luiz Freire Cultural Centre (CCLF) and Elas no Poder.
However, even before the GWGAB project provoked a meeting between these organisations, some of them were already part of each other’s network and had been woven together for some time. Briefly, we can give two examples: the fight for quilombola education carried out jointly by the AQCC, the CCLF and a few other organisations and the close relationship and long work between ABPN and Geledés for the propagation of investigations carried out by black researchers. These connections are not surprising. As has already been said, the black population has always stuck together, been connected and responsible for the country’s major changes – structural, economic and social.
From thread to thread, an extensive network is being formed. Each bond formed between the organisations holds essential elements for the fabric of dreams: sharing and dedication. The ultimate purpose is always to find joint answers to collective challenges. The most interesting thing is that when they connect, they bring with them all the baggage of their experience and the entire network that has been built over time. And so, from thread to thread, from knot to knot, from knots to knots, they expand their fights.
A network of us
Although a long path has already been trodden together, not long ago, the six organisations met through the GWGAB Call and were able to share their experiences on the projects they developed with black girls in lower secondary education. By intersecting these two factors in their guidelines and in their model of action, they do what Angela Davis tells us: “when the black woman moves, the entire structure of society moves with her”. This statement was based on the awareness that the social challenges imposed by gender and race are not an individual problem and cannot be overcome in isolation.
There is something very powerful when women come together to care for the future of young girls. As Katiúsca Ribeiro (2020) tells us, ancestry “makes it possible to recognise and continue a legacy that is born at all times and remains alive in the pulse of our existence materialised in various actions and oral readings”. Here, in addition to talking about the network of organisations that have a common dream, we can talk about the network that is sewn by time, made by black women who paved the way for other black women.
Network is made of us. We who are ties, we who are people, we who sew the future. The will to change the structures of an exclusionary system breaks down barriers, crosses time, brings people together, brings women together. Conquering a space of equity is the duty of society as a whole, which needs to be done hand in hand, in a network.
We are network. Network is made of people and people are made to shine!