Gabriel Marques Camargo (University of Manchester) "Mobile Quilombos: The Making of Black Territories in the White City"

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Abstract: This paper examines the concept of “mobile quilombos” through an analysis of Afro-Brazilian religious occupations of public space, exploring how the circulation of axé produces forms of territory, embodiment, and collective life. I develop a framework linking axé, body-territory, and quilombo to examine how religious communities and activists organise, inhabit, and transform urban space. The paper understands quilombo not simply as a fixed territorial formation, but as a spatial and political practice that can emerge through movement and collective presence. It argues that the circulation of axé enables forms of territorialisation that articulate a politics of Black life beyond formal institutional and territorial boundaries. Gabriel Marques Camargo recently completed his PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester.