Quilombo Maria Conga Magé, Metropolitan Region
In the city of Magé, along the railway line that runs through the city, is located Quilombo Maria Conga. In this space, is a community that has sought, through their cultural practices make visible the historical trajectory of the group as part of the struggle for possession of the lands they inhabit.
In the center of historical memory, is shared the narrative between the group around Maria Conga. Born in 1792, in Africa, Maria Conga and his family came to Brazil through the slave trade in 1804, landing in Bahia. Only in 1810, aged 18, Maria Conga reached Magé. Around 1854, she was freed and at the age of 35, formed a Quilombo where they were headed fugitive slaves from local farms.
Besides a warrior images about Mary Conga define her as someone who cared for the refugee slaves through healing with medicinal herbs, performing delivery and practice of conciliation when conflicts occurred between the Maroons. Currently, the strength of this image favors the spaces where the leader lived, fought and died acquires monument status for the group. In 1988, the legitimacy of the former slave occurs through its proclamation as a heroine of the municipality. In 2007, the community of Maria Conga was recognized as remaining Quilombo; since then, the group has been fighting for outright ownership of the land where their ancestors lived.
Indeed, this challenge has been faced with dynamism by Ivone de Mattos Bernardo, 50, president of the Association of Community Maria Conga. Along with others in the group, she has endeavored to bring to light the historical trajectory of the group for the new generations. In this sense, the cuisine involves a multiplicity of affections.
In Ivone's kitchen, were Dejeni Martins de Barros, 57, Alcinéa de Souza Silva, 57, and Glauce
The delicacy, a kind of stew, is intrinsically related to childhood games like Ivone said: "Oh, as if playing in the yard, we would say: Let's do a delicacy today [...] took things in each others' home ; then, they would come: Oh, my mother gave me this ... [...] one gave something, we took what we had when we had meat, but most times we did it all without meat "yet on this process, Alcinéa completes:" We took those stones and would put around. Old piece of brick that had too. Sometimes was not nice and spilled "Finally, with nostalgia, Ivone concludes:" People does nothing, but it was so good.”
