Lélia Gonzalez a descolonização do saber: matriarcado africano, epistemologia e resistência da mulher negra.

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the historical devaluation of Black women from an Afrocentric and decolonial perspective, taking Lélia Gonzalez’s contribution as the central axis for the reconstruction of philosophical and social knowledge. The research is based on Cheikh Anta Diop’s reflections on African matriarchy, demonstrating that many pre-colonial African societies were structured in ways that placed women in central political, social, and symbolic positions. It is argued that European colonization, through processes of Christianization and Islamization, imposed a patriarchal model responsible for the weakening of female leadership and the marginalization of Black women both on the African continent and in the diaspora. In this context, the philosophy of Amefricanity, developed by Lélia Gonzalez, is presented as a critique of the coloniality of power and knowledge, highlighting the centrality of Black experience, especially that of Black women, in the formation of the Americas. The study also engages with the contributions of Sueli Carneiro, Angela Davis, and Beatriz Nascimento, emphasizing the resistance of Black women as an epistemological, ethical, and political axis. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative and bibliographic approach, seeking to value Black women as epistemic and political subjects and to reaffirm the need for a philosophy committed to ancestry, collectivity, and the decolonization of knowledge.