On June 2, at 2 pm, the School of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences (FFLCH) of USP will hold the graduation ceremony of the title of Professor Emeritus to Kabengele Munanga, professor of the Department of Anthropology. The event will be held in the University Council Room.
Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Professor Kabengele Munanga is Brazilian by naturalization since 1985. He began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at the Official University of Congo, where he worked from 1969 to 1975, and began his postgraduate studies with a scholarship received from the Belgian government, at the Catholic University of Louvain, where he stayed from 1969 to 1971. During this period, he was a researcher at the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren, Brussels, and specialized in the study of traditional African arts. Due to the military dictatorship installed in his country, Munanga had to return before completing his doctorate.
In 1977, he completed his doctorate in Human Sciences, in the area of Social Anthropology, with a scholarship granted by USP. Entitled The Basanga of Shaba, An Ethnic Group of Zaire, General Anthropology Essay, his doctoral thesis was published in 1986 by FFLCH-USP.
Munanga became a professor at FFLCH in 1980, where he taught until 2012, focusing mainly on the areas of Anthropology of Africa and the Afro-Brazilian Population. At USP, he was Director of the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, between 1983 and 1989; Deputy Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, between 2002 and 2006; Director of the Center for African Studies, between 2006 and 2010; and is currently Senior Lecturer at the Center for African Studies at FFLCH. The Faculty recognizes Kabengele Munanga for his exceptionality in all the fields in which he worked at the university, which range from teaching at undergraduate and graduate levels, to training researchers, conducting research, publishing, cultural activities and management both academic and institutional.
He was also a professor at the University of Montreal, in Canada, between 2005 and 2010, visiting professor at the State University of Southwest Bahia, at the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia, at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, at the Fundation School of Sociology and Politics in São Paulo, at Cândido Mendes University, at the School of Sociology and Politics in São Paulo, at Eduardo Mondlane University, in Mozambique and at the Center for Afro-Asian Studies.
Author of numerous publications, which total more than 150 books, book chapters and scientific articles, Munanga's legacy is the contribution of a lifetime dealing with topics such as racism, anti-racist policies and discourses, blackness, black identity versus national identity , multiculturalism and education of ethnic-racial relations. His organization's book Overcoming Racism at School, published in 1999 by the Ministry of Education, was the first to introduce the racial issue into the transversal themes of the National Curricular Parameters.
“Kabengele Munanga's life was marked by the struggle against racial oppression and the conquest of black rights in Brazil. His performance, in a country where structural racism shames us to this day, deserves to be highlighted ”, emphasizes Professor Dr. Heitor Frúgoli Júnior, Head of the Department of Anthropology.
In 2012, Kabengele was honored by the Association of Professors of the University of USP (ADUSP) for his contribution to overcoming racial inequalities in Brazil. He received numerous awards and honorary titles, including: the Commendation of the Order of Cultural Merit, by the Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil; Degree of Officer of the Order of Rio Branco, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Itamaraty Palace; the Benedito Galvão Award, from the São Paulo State Bar Association; the Black Race Trophy, for Afro-Brás and Faculdade Zumbi dos Palmares; Homage as Dean of Anthropological Studies, by the Department of Anthropology at USP; Tribute from the Association of Professors of the University of São Paulo, ADUSP; USP/2017 Human Rights Award. In addition, in September 2016 he received the title of Bahian citizenship by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Bahia and, more recently, the Roquette Pinto Medal, granted by the Brazilian Association of Anthropology.
The award event takes place on June 2, at 2 pm, in the University Council Room, at Rua da Reitoria, 374, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo.