Comunication and activist Fashion in the Amazon-Amapá: Zwanga African Fashion

Authors

  • Lúcio Dias das Neves Instituto Federal do Amapá image/svg+xml
  • Otacílio Amaral Filho Federal University of Para image/svg+xml
  • Eudes Mata Vidal Salvador Municipal Secretary of Education

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5965/1982615x19482026e0006

Keywords:

Amapá-Amazon, communication, decoloniality, activist fashion, Zwanga

Abstract

This research analyzes the clothing brand Zwanga African Fashion as an insurgent Afro-entrepreneurial, aesthetic, and communicational experience, conceived by Rejane Soares, a Black, overweight, Amazonian woman. The brand acts as a counter-narrative to Eurocentric fashion standards, promoting the valorization of ancestry and Black identity through clothing and performative actions. The study aims to understand how Zwanga articulates aesthetics and activism in the construction of a symbolic language of resistance in the Afro-Amapá context. A qualitative, descriptive, and interpretative approach is adopted, based on a semi-structured interview with the founder conducted in 2021, combined with observation of the brand's digital presence and documentary analysis. The theoretical framework includes dialogue with decolonial and Afrocentric authors. The results indicate that Zwanga redefines fashion as a political and pedagogical territory, incorporating the Black, overweight body as a legitimate expression of beauty and social struggle. It is concluded that the brand operates as a counter-hegemonic communication strategy and an agency device for black Amazonian women.

 

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Author Biographies

  • Lúcio Dias das Neves, Instituto Federal do Amapá

    Professor at IFS and PhD from PPGCOM/UFPA

  • Otacílio Amaral Filho, Federal University of Para
    Otacílio Amaral Filho (1951) is a Full Professor at the Federal University of Pará, researcher, and advisor in the Graduate Program in Communication, Culture, and the Amazon. He holds degrees in Advertising and Journalism from the Federal University of Pará, a master's degree in Communication and Contemporary Culture from the Federal University of Bahia (2002), and a doctorate in 2008 with a thesis on the Amazon brand, from the Graduate Program in Sustainable Development of the Humid Tropics at the Center for Advanced Amazonian Studies (NAEA) (Federal University of Pará). He currently teaches at the School of Communication and the Graduate Program in Communication, Culture, and the Amazon, working with research and advising in communication, and more specifically in advertising, media, culture, and entertainment. He published the book, *Amazon Brand: Marketing of the Forest*. (Text provided by the author)
  • Eudes Mata Vidal, Salvador Municipal Secretary of Education

    Holds a PhD from UFBA and is a teacher for the Salvador Municipal Government.

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Published

2026-10-19

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 48 (2026): Variata

Section

Variata

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Lúcio Dias das Neves, Otacílio Amaral Filho, Eudes Mata Vidal

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How to Cite

Comunication and activist Fashion in the Amazon-Amapá: Zwanga African Fashion. ModaPalavra e-periódico, v. 19, n. 48, p. 01–29, 19 Oct.2026.