Iyaleta Research Association met delegation of researchers from The Ubuntu Center at Drexel University in Bahia for scientific dialogues on Health, Black Territories and Climate Change
From March 23rd to 30th, 2024, Iyaleta Research Association met the delegation of researchers, professors and activists from The Ubuntu Center on Racism, Global Movements & Population Health Equity, at Drexel University, on a mission to Bahia and promoted scientific diasporic meetings. The activities between the researchers took place at the association office, at Hub Salvador, as well as in the Institute of Public Health (ISC/UFBA) and at Terreiro Ilé Òrìṣà Nlá Àṣẹ Ọbalodó (Sitio da Paz). The dialogues brought back memories of collaboration between the institutions and advanced the possibilities of scientific cooperation for the following years.
“Welcome to the capital of Bahia. We hope you feel welcome in our country and be connected to Salvador, this solar city. It is important to remember that in October and November of 2023, we, from Iyaleta Research Association, were on a mission at The Ubuntu Center, in the United States. Now, on this return, we continue the cycle of sisterhood with the expectation that we could bring even more sisters in the upcoming years”, announced Emanuelle Góes, senior researcher and leader of the “Justice and Gender Equity” research line at Iyaleta Research Association.
“We are so happy and grateful to be here. This moment happened in circularity, and this is quite powerful. We are excited to be here in Bahia and to have this opportunity for community learning,” said Sharelle Barber, professor at the School of Public Health at Drexel University and inaugural Director of The Ubuntu Center.
The activities of this exchange between The Ubuntu Center and the Iyaleta Research Association are part of the technical and scientific cooperation plan of the two institutions in the areas of Research, Training, and Academic Support. Both institutions have been promoting meetings on the agendas of racial inequalities, territory, reproductive justice, racism and health and climate change.
Alongside the Director of The Ubuntu Center Sharrelle Barber, were present in the mission at Bahia Jennifer Ware, Deputy Director, Tommy Caison and Rachel Mayes, Ubuntu Movement Fellow Students, Tanisha Barnes, Administrative Coordinator, Jessica Whitley, Program Manager and Research Coordinator, Nina Sun, Director of Article XXII and member of Ubuntu’s Strategic Council, Ashley Gripper, Researcher and Professor in the Department of Community Health and Prevention at Drexel University, as well as Ahaji Schreffler, Senior Director of Education Abroad at Drexel University and Idris Robinson, PhD candidate at Drexel School of Public Health.
The partnership between The Ubuntu Center and Iyaleta Research Association has advanced on important results for research on Racial Inequities and Racism and Health, such as the Policy Brief “Making the Invisible, Visible: Race, Racism and Health Data – Lessons from countries of Latin America” and the Pan Diaspora project: Data Initiative for the Analysis of Racial/Ethnic Health Inequalities in the Pan American Region.
Climate Change and Reproductive Justice
Through the institutional partnership between the Iyaleta – Reasearch, Humanities and Sciences and The Ubuntu Center, in 2023, started The Ubuntu Global Series, a series of global transatlantic dialogues on Reproductive Justice and Climate Change, which also included a partnership with Article XXII (USA). The action has been expanded by the incidence that the two institutions carried out in partnership at the Conferences of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC): COP27, in Egypt, and COP28, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Since 2022, The Ubuntu Center has also been a partner in the Spring Iyaleta, a program of free course, of Iyaleta Reasearch Association, which annually offers preparatory courses for the COP.
At COP28, the Iyaleta Research Association invited researchers of The Ubuntu Center (USA), as well as from Cabo Verde, Mozambique and Portugal, for dialogues in the panel “Climate Adaptation: a gender perspective. Voices of women from Africa and the Diaspora”. The panel was a joint action of the Iyaleta Research Association and Drexel University, via The Ubuntu Center, both observer organizations at UNFCCC. The activity highlights research efforts and exchange of experiences in climate negotiations.
Academic Support and Development
While strategic partnership dialogues for academic development were taking place between The Ubuntu Center and the Iyaleta Research Association, the visiting exchange of the US researchers also involved dialogues about the historical and political processes of the Black Brazilian population.
In the itinerary agenda, there was also a visit at Terreiro Ilé Òrìṣà Nlá Àṣẹ Ọbalodó (Sitio da Paz), in Lauro de Freitas, sacred territory under the led by Bàbá Alcides de Oxalá, scientific advisor of the Iyaleta Research Association. At the meeting, aspects about territories, spirituality and resistance were addressed as confluent points for close scientific work that reaches Rights and ways of life.
“This meeting give us the possibilities of converging in horizontality with the Sciences that place us in the Humanities in the 21st century, in face of global and territorial commitments, of living in cities in nature and eliminating the inequities that deepen the lives of Black diasporic populations”, explained Diosmar Filho, senior researcher and leader of the research “Inequities and Climate Change” at the Iyaleta Research Association, in the dialogue held at Iyaleta Research Association office in Hub Salvador, located in the Comercio neighborhood, in the structures of the Port of Salvador in Baía de Todos os Santos.
As part of the scientific meetings, the researchers from The Ubuntu Center were invited to participate in a lecture on the subject of “Epidemiology, Race and Racism – theoretical and methodological aspects”, a curricular component offered by the Postgraduate Program of the Institute of Public Health (ISC/ UFBA), led by Dr. Dandara Ramos, Dr. Andrêa Ferreira and Dr. Emanuelle Góes, senior researchers at the Iyaleta Research Association.
“As a researcher of both institutions, we welcome you all to this diasporic territory, called Bahia. This connection has been a great experience and I see with enthusiasm this confluence that is just beginning” reported Andrêa Ferreira, senior researcher and leader of the research line in “Segregation, Housing and Health”, postdoc fellow at The Ubuntu Center at Drexel University.
During the lecture at ISC/UFBA, the dialogue highlighted the importance of collecting and qualifying information on the race/color data in Brazilian Health Information Systems of Brazil, as well as the experiences of other diasporic territories.
The exchange program between The Ubuntu Center and the Iyaleta Research Association unfolds in construction of studies and research on Climate Change, Reproductive Justice, Health and Territory. During the delegation’s meetings in Bahia, new cooperation began to be designed. The goals are to influence and promote research, exchanges among researchers and collective work in the scenario of international negotiations.
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