Presentation

Thinking about national projects associated with the processes of independence has been a recurring theme in historiography, history teaching, literature, journalism, cinema and the visual arts; among others. The forms of representation of this event can be found in several national experiences, with more frequent clippings and emphases in political, economic, military and/or diplomatic history. Some dimensions of the independence processes, such as the problem of education of the populations, are often explained as an effect of this constitutive policy of historical knowledge, when they are not completely neglected. Based on this perception, the International Seminar on Independence and Education in America and Africa - history, memory and formation was organized¹, held between 11 and 20 October 2020 at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, with the participation of researchers from Spain, Portugal, Mozambique, Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay, United States, Argentina and Chile. The present dossier, therefore, consists of one of the written records of this activity² which, in general, started from a complex questionnaire, namely:

How were independence processed in American countries?

What relations were established between the nation projects and those for the formation of populations?

What initiatives have been taken in different countries and regions to consolidate complex national experiences?

How did the processes that promoted the self-determination of specific regions and their populations occur?

How has the theme of emancipation marked (and marks) the history of countries and the instruction/education of peoples?

The proximity of the bicentenary anniversary of Brazil political independence, to take place in 2022, raises these important and complex issues that, far from being restricted to the event of emancipation and its celebrations, contribute to define, organize and reconfigure the geopolitics of education and pedagogy on a national and transnational scale.

In this dossier, the centrality of the reflection revolves around the problem of the formation of the people in emancipatory processes, considering different strategies mobilized to constitute the notion and feeling of common belonging in terms of language, currency, frontiers, displacement of people and products, defense, diplomacy, education and instruction; for example. In this way, we work with the debates and initiatives regarding education present in the projects organized in three countries in America. These are the cases of Brazil, Chile and United States. With this, we hypothesized that, despite the differences, it is possible to find similar markers when it comes to national projects and educational measures. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed local policies, the action of literate leaders, celebrations and the representations of the emancipation processes contained in printed and other materials produced in the three countries studied.

In the case of American countries, the focus of studies allows to perceive intriguing homologies, even though, at times, they appear described as specific phenomena, exclusively national.

In the case of Chile, Pablo Toro-Blanco discusses an episode to promote nationalism and patriotism in the Chilean education system, through which he analyzes the initiatives developed to construct aesthetically and emotionally the patriotic feeling in the context of the celebrations of the Centenary of Chile Independence (1910). These initiatives had the characteristic of integrating the internal dimensions of the school space into the public space through acts of public content, parades, marches and other devices designed to affect students and the public, galvanizing the conviction in the role of the school as a response to national identity crisis and the social issue.

In the case of the USA, Jerry Dávila analyzes moments in the history of civil rights during the period of slavery and in the post-abolition period, considering the role of the judiciary and its links with issues of access and equality in education. The article also discusses the ways in which the positivist notion of a continuous advance of rights has coincided with projects to commemorate, memorialize and romanticize the slavery past, as well as figures linked to the defense of slavery and racial segregation.

The Brazilian experience, in turn, is dealt with in 4 articles in which the authors return to general aspects of the questions referred.

Sonia Araujo reflects on independence and education in Brazil from the history of the region of Grão-Pará, which occurred between 1755-1840. The author recognizes that these multiple stories produce realities that resulted in asymmetric political, economic and educational conditions, which are fundamental for understanding a “lost independence”. In view of this, it focuses on the ideas of the “cabano” movement, considered a late War of Independence, and an important event in the renewal of political freedom that did not take place homogeneously in the vast territory that was wanted to be national.

Lucia Bastos focuses on the proliferation of political pamphlets and periodicals, intervention instruments, designed as a new public space, designed to host and foster debates between the different currents of opinion present in pre- and post-independence society. Thus, the main objective of the printed materials was to transform individuals into citizens, so that, after drafting a Constitution, they could act in the young country. Therefore, when they were read, privately or aloud, in a civic pedagogy. In this article, the author sought to identify the meaning of the messages they carried, relating them to the political languages in vogue; to evaluate the possible resemantization of the key concepts they employed; clarify the rhetoric of the arguments they used to direct the conduct of those they considered to be people and, finally, point out the factors that limited or made the reach of these forms between 1821-1824 impossible.

José Gondra locates and monitors the writings of the Viscount of Cayru, in order to understand the tones and counter tones of the debates regarding the direction of the project for the construction of the Brazilian nation. In this article, he explores one of his manifestations, which appears diffusely throughout his production, but which gains centrality in two of his books: In these two documents, José da Silva Lisboa, the Viscount from Bahia, reinforces the thesis of the State religion, making of history a kind of teacher of life, source of the arguments in favor of the articulation and indivisibility between science and revelation, a condition for reaching a higher civilization, whose best example, for the enlightened and state man, could be verified in the experience of Great Britain. For him, granted the Constitution of the Empire of Brazil, in 1824, it was necessary to establish and expose the solid bases of the “Moral Constitution and Duties of Citizens”, a necessary condition to form good customs, verified in all peoples with a considerable degree of civilization. Therefore, it was up to him to offer reliable tools so that the Brazilian project to which he joined did not run the risks he perceives in the French and Haiti experiences.

In the last article, based on the Brazilian experience, Carlos Eduardo Vieira analyzes the relationship between the concepts of independence, democracy and education in the discourse of the Brazilian Education Association (ABE). He takes as sources documents produced by the aforementioned association, especially the annals of events promoted by the entity between 1927 and 1945. ABE represents the first national entity specifically organized to debate and propose projects for national education, with a leading intellectuality representing the most outstanding names of scientific, pedagogical and literary culture. The author considers the ABE events to be privileged moments to capture the educational discourse, since these meetings were national in scope and brought together some of the main protagonists of this debate, whether they were consecrated characters or without notoriety in the educational field. Nevertheless, although in different positions, these linguistic actors interacted in the process of producing a language game, which characterizes and defines the main issues in dispute in the educational field in the first half of the 20th century. Operating from the perspective of the history of concepts and linguistic contextualism, seek to evaluate how the terms national independence and democracy were articulated to the issue of the formation of the Brazilian people. Finally, it works with the hypothesis that the defense of national independence, supported by the civic and patriotic formation of the Brazilian people, was not related to the formation of a conscience and a democratic society for the country.

The set of investigations gathered here analyzes relevant points and inflections processed during the independence process in the three countries studied and, in particular, what is promoted in the field of education with a view to organizing, ensuring, legitimizing and maintaining national projects in course, in which the rhetoric of civilization, morals and progress seem to have guided actions in the countries studied, even though the evolutionary logic contained in these pillars came up against obstacles and projects marked by profound inequalities in terms of genders, races, beliefs and social conditions and cultural aspects of the people cradled (and deceived) by the rhetorics of equality and emancipation.