Norris, Adele N.Farias da Silva, Brenda2026-07-152026-07-152026https://hdl.handle.net/10289/18454This thesis examines the persistence and reconfiguration of colonial structures in Brazil’s northern region, focusing on the state of Amapá – a critical borderland of Amazonian modernity. With a particular focus on Quilombos (formerly-enslaved Black settlements), it addresses the central argument that coloniality, understood as the enduring matrix of power, race, and knowledge established during the European conquest, continues to shape the present. While state and corporate narratives portray the Amazon region as a site of sustainable progress, this study aims to demonstrate how colonial logics of isolation, extractivism, and silencing persist under the banner of development and conservation. A decolonial and interpretive methodology combining qualitative semi-structured interviews was employed to answer three interrelated questions: (1) How have colonial structures of racial, spatial, and epistemic domination persisted and been reconfigured in Brazil’s northern region, particularly in Amapá? (2) How do Quilombola women from Amapá experience and resist intersecting forms of racialized labor and territorial dispossession? (3) How do decolonial frameworks enhance our understanding of the relationship between racial capitalism, gendered violence, and the afterlives of slavery in northern Brazil? Participants’ narratives, practices, and silences were analyzed as contributions to theorize coloniality, survival, and epistemic disobedience. The findings reveal that racial capitalism in Amapá operates not only through extractive economies but also through established colonial regimes that devalue subaltern knowledge while maintaining racial hierarchies. The legacies of historical servitude and land dispossession persist through bureaucratic omission and policy frameworks that privilege private and corporate interests over collective rights. In response, communities articulate diverse forms of resistance that merge political action, cultural continuity, and strategic silence. Ultimately, this thesis argues that decolonial practices are not abstract ideals but lived behaviors emerging from the endurance and creativity of those who continue to resist distortion and erasure. Research findings contribute to decolonial theory by reterritorializing coloniality within the Amazonian frontier and advancing a decolonial research praxis grounded in ethical rigor, linguistic fidelity, and co-produced knowledge. Findings offer critical insight into how racial capitalism and epistemic domination are contested through localized acts of survival, reinterpretation, and creation.enAll items in Research Commons are provided for private study and research purposes and are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.colonialityracial capitalismepistemic disobedienceAmapáQuilombolaterritorial dispossessionBrazilian AmazonThesis