Quilombo is the name given to the places where people who were fleeing from slavery in Brazil used to go in search of shelter, ending up leading to the creation of autonomous communities that survived in a profound ecological relationship with the territory. Today, just like the territories that have been preserved by indigenous peoples, they are places that still retain many of their important practices and provide valuable knowledge for living autonomously and in a state of non-destructive reciprocity with the planet.

António Bispo dos Santos is a writer, a Quilombo-master, and a farmer, trained by master craftsmen and women. He lives in the Quilombo of Saco-Curtume (São João do Piauí), in Brazil, and is the author of articles and poems, as well as the books Quilombos, modos e significados (2007) and Colonização, Quilombos: modos e significados (2015). A political activist and a militant of high standing in the Quilombo social movement and in the movements acting in defence of the land, he is a member of the State Coordination of the Qulilombo Communities of Piauí (CECOQ/PI) and the National Coordination of Rural Black Communities (CONAQ).