The EPISTEMIC ERASING OF THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION IN THE TEACHING OF HUMAN RIGHTS BY MAIN BRAZILIAN UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

The Haitian Revolution (1791-1803) forged the first nation-state founded on the radical overcoming of colonialism and slavery, and was a pioneer in recognizing the full humanity of all human beings and guaranteeing social rights for men, women and children, challenging racial and gender hierarchies designed by Eurocentric modernity/coloniality. This historical process of liberation and recognition was erased and silenced by hegemonic humanist narratives, constructed by Western thought, which privilege the study of the historical affirmation of human rights from the Declaration of Independence of the United States and the Declaration of Human and Citizen's Rights, from France, prioritizing the specific experience of emancipation of the metropolitan bourgeoisie, condescending to colonialism, slavery and the inferiorization of women. Through a qualitative and quantitative methodological approach, with bibliographic and documentary procedure, we initially carried out a theoretical reflection on the concept of human being developed from the Haitian historical experience, in contrast to those prevailing in the West, to demonstrate its humanist and decolonial potential. Then, we carried out a documentary research of the Human Rights discipline syllabuses in the twenty Brazilian universities, and the two from Sergipe, top-ranked in the last Folha University Ranking (2019), which proved the existence of an epistemic erasure (which is also ethical and political) of this historical process in the teaching of human rights in Brazil.