Aquilombar the city: women of the favelas and city-making in Rio de Janeiro

This paper explores the concept of aquilombar as a paradigm for understanding the city-making practices of women living in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Drawing on Afro-Brazilian historian Beatriz Nascimento's conceptualization of the quilombo, I argue that aquilombar—the act of creating quilombos—engages with Afro-diasporic cosmologies and shapes the everyday practices of city-making among favela women. Situated within a broader decolonial and feminist framework in urban studies, these practices are understood as a pluriversal-izing form of urbanization—that is, as part of the multiple social imaginaries and worldviews shaping urban transformations. Through an extensive examination of the historical origins of the terms kilombo, quilombismo, and quilombo, with a primary focus on Nascimento's scholarship, I first propose a working definition of the verb aquilombar. Drawing on key examples collected during my most recent 2025 fieldwork, alongside my longer engagement with the favelas, I then connect Nascimento's understanding of the quilombo with favela women's own interpretations. In doing so, this paper highlights the specific gestures, actions, and ways of knowing through which women in the favelas actively shape their city, despite living within an often-hostile urban environment.