Fearing the Mangue: Contaminated Landscapes and Politics of Trust in Recife
A guest lecture by Professor Marta-Laura Haynes.
Abstract:聽 In Brazil鈥檚 precarious socio-political landscape, where systemic violence, racism, and historical inequalities converge, trust emerges as a fragile yet pivotal axis in the interactions between police and civilians. Drawing from over six years of ethnographic research in Recife and Rio de Janeiro, my book Untrusting: In Pursuit of Democratic Policing in Brazil interrogates the intricate dynamics of trust and its cultural, gendered, and racialized dimensions. Focusing on a chapter that examines Recife鈥檚 favelas and development projects in the urban mangroves, this talk will explore how these contaminated landscapes serve as an extension of the Black body. In a city divided into wet and dry, contaminated and pure, Black and white, the racialization of nature is a lingering legacy of tropical medicine and hygienization that continues to shape public policy and policing. By positioning the mangroves as a site of mistrust and radical possibility, this talk interrogates how the intertwined processes of environmental and racial marginalization impact sociality and policing. Ultimately, untrusting becomes a lens to rethink security and democracy as sites of both exclusion and care.