The Warrior Babassu Breakers of Brazil

Subversion Diaries
Written By The Gender Security Project

By Kirthi Jayakumar

Source: ISPN

Over three decades years ago, Dona Beliza Costa Souza and a group of women – all quebradeiras de coco babassu – or babassu nutbreakers, began their movement to stand up to land owners who were rapidly buying up forestlands and destroying the tree cover to expand their cattle ranches in Brazil (Coimbra, 2015). In the thirty-odd years that followed, the women have continued to resist the encroachment of their lands, creating a powerful grass-roots movement that changed the law and takes on government plans to expand agricultural endeavours into their lands. They have resisted in the face of extreme poverty, violence, and even the COVID-19 pandemic.

Starting out

An integral part of the local diet and a major source of revenue for communities living by the banks of the Tocantins River in Brazil, the babassu has been a staple for generations (Coimbra, 2015). Babassu, like coconut, is a fruit that can be used in its entirety. Milk can be produced from babassu nuts, flour from the fruit, coal for cooking from the peel, and oil from babassu nuts (Foodtank, 2021). Of these, babassu oil is the most significant source of revenue.

The extraction of the babassu nuts to produce oil has been carried out by indigenous populations for several generations using techniques that have been passed down all these years. The key technique involves beating the fruit with the help of a wooden shaft, until the babassu breaks apart. The technique is passed down through generations, but only by the women. Thus, they are called the “nut breakers,” or quebradeiras (Foodtank, 2021). For generations, babassu seed extraction has remained a group activity, where women work in groups, sing songs, walk together, and sit around their straw baskets with the babassu, beating the shells until they crack open (Foodtank, 2021).

Using every part of the babassu fruit – be that for medicinal, oil production, or food purposes – these women also practice sustainable consumption that does not extract from the land or leave large swathes of waste behind. Oil that is roasted is sold, and oil that is not roasted is used to make soap, the shell is used to produce charcoal – and occasionally for its medicinal properties in addressing gastritis and stomach pain, and the flesh is used to make bread (If Not Us Then Who?, n.d.). To the quebradeiras, babassu is the wealth that unites them. When sold, each woman gets a percentage. The women are now working to diversify production using sustainable techniques and preserving the forest in the process, while making sure that whole families have a means of livelihood. Several groups sell to a program called “Buy Direct,” which provides school lunches.

Resistance to Restoration

From the 1990s onward, the quebradeiras began to receive support from non-profit organizations that worked to support traditional rural communities in Brazil. With this, they began to form breakers associations and cantinas distribution centres that doubled up as marketplaces for the quebradeiras to sell their wares at fair prices (Foodtank, 2021).

Around this time, there were efforts by landowners who started buying up forestlands and destroying babassu to expand their cattle ranches (Coimbra, 2015). The women’s resistance to land grabbing by large landowners and government plans to appropriate land for agricultural projects that will destroy their babassu crop has been met with resistance. In the beginning, vested interests began to appropriate the land, destroying babassu in the process. A fence was erected, prohibiting the access of landless women to the babassu. The women who tried to access babassu faced violence as a warning and/or in retaliation, in the form of assault, rape, sexual violence, and the destruction of whole communities and their animals.

Recognizing the scale of violence, the women began to gain knowledge and mobilize. Women joined forces across the states of Piaui, Maranhao, Imeratriz, and Baixada, and discussed the creation of a movement at the regional level. In 1991, the first meeting of the Interstate Breakers Babassu led to the creation of the “Coordination of Women Breakers Babassu,” which then became the “Interstate Movement of Babassu Breakers” or MIQCB (If Not Us Then Who?, n.d.).

In 1997, the women’s sustained resistance culminated in the establishment of the Free Babassu Law across 17 municipalities, which protected the babassu forests, and gave landless babassu gatherers free access. This law has helped them plan for their futures. The law protects the babassu, the environment and forests, and the Amazon as a whole (If Not Us Then Who?, n.d.).

However, the law remains fragmented in its application – as women still face fencing and gates that keep them out. Most lands remain concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy farmers who prevent access for these women (Pontes, 2015). In 2014, women began to work toward mapping the lands with babassu forests, to identify areas that need to be protected. Babassu lands are increasingly being bought up for mining, and the cultivation of soy and eucalyptus – effectively destroying babassu, and in the process, traditional communities and their ways of life. To sell its campaign, the government claims that the babassu lands where the quebradeiras live and work as the “last frontier” for agricultural expansion in the world – claiming that it will expand the rural middle class, introduce innovation and technology to the region, and bring “development” to the areas (Pontes, 2015).

Nutbreakers as Warriors

The quebradeiras consider themselves warriors who fight and speak up in the face of oppression and land appropriation. Their fight to protect their babassu forests is an act of preserving cultural and traditional knowledge, relying on food sovereignty to resist land grabbing, appropriation of territory, and erosion of means of sustenance and livelihood (If Not Us Then Who?, n.d.). Generations of nutbreakers provide for their families and sustain their lives through their work with the babassu fruit. The women see their efforts as significant endeavours to preserve their ancestors, a force they believe helps them and holds their hands to say, “Do not fall, arise” (If Not Us Then Who?, n.d.). Today, over 400,000 babassu breakers work to protect 18 million hectares of Brazil’s forests.

Resisting extractivism, land grabbing, the destruction of the environment, and the erosion of their traditional heritage, these women also work hard to preserve their traditional knowledge and community. Sustaining whole families and preserving the integrity of the ecosystem, the efforts these women invest hold powerful lessons for sustainability, community mobilization, and respect for indigenous practices (Pontes, 2015). The women’s efforts also clearly affirm that there are healthy and non-extractive ways of engaging with the environment, and using technology as a tool to enhance their work rather than to erode it altogether in the name of development. Using GPS technology to map forest areas, these women are relying on technology to identify areas they should protect through their efforts.

References

The Gender Security Project
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