The Earth Gives, the Earth Wants

This book by the late Brazilian activist and quilombo leader Antônio Bispo dos Santos offers an original perspective on ways of living and relating to other people and to the land that is rooted in quilombo cosmovision — the polytheistic, confluential, countercolonial worldview of the quilombo people of Brazil. It presents a fresh critique of capitalism and colonialism that emerges organically from an indigenous perspective. Bispo's key concept is 'counter-colonization' – dismantling colonialism by using its tools against it. This is, as he argues, the only way to restore the earth to its necessary balance. Denouncing 'cosmophobia', the fear of the cosmos that underpins the monotheistic Euro-Christian worldview, Bispo lays out a set of terms and concepts that he developed over his lifetime, based on the ancestral knowledge of the quilombo people. He argues that the hyper-individualistic, capitalistic, colonial approach to cultivating the earth sees the land as subservient its desires. A quilombo cosmovision understands that our desires are always in dialogue with the wants and needs of the earth – we must live in harmony with the earth, animals and people, and if we take from the earth, we must also give to the earth. This remarkable book introduces a fresh perspective into the debates about the destructive consequences of capitalism and colonialism and will be of interest to anyone who wants to think about how we can live less violently as humans on earth.