ENGAGEMENT IN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND THE FIGHT FOR JUSTICE: A STUDY ON THE NARRATIVES OF BLACK MOTHERS

ABSTRACT This article discusses the narrative practices of a Brazilian social movement whose members are the mothers and relatives of young people victimized by police raids into Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. By analysing the narratives produced by activists, we explore how grief is converted into political fight. As we look into how mothers intertwine their individual pain with political activism, we examine (i) how emotions and suffering are organized in their narratives; and (ii) what discursive strategies are used in the process. Data was generated during public demonstrations, and the analysis suggests that it is by turning the pain of a losing a child into political insurgence that mothers narratively organize their emotions. As stories get told, events surrounding the murders are recontextualized and experiences are collectivized. Mothers’ stories become narratives of resistance, which oppose institutional racism, but also narratives of re-existence (SOUZA, 2009), which recast the deaths of their children as an effect of a necropolitical logic of state organization.