This municipality in the State of Roraima stands out for works that portray the Roraima savanna and the historical influence of Guyana, uniting the history of territorial disputes with the bucolic poetry of the savannas and the daily life of the border.

The Margins That Write: The Literary Scene of Bonfim, Roraima

Bonfim, a municipality bordering Guyana in the Tacutu Valley region, experiences a peculiar reality: it is a city that pulses on the border, but on the Brazilian literary map, it remains almost invisible. The capital, Boa Vista, concentrates editorial production and events, and small inland towns rarely appear in national anthologies.

However, the absence of large publishing houses and bookstores does not mean silence. In Bonfim, literature is born from the need for documentation—of indigenous memory, pedagogical practice, and academic research that insists on looking at its own territory. This report is a dive into this discreet, yet fundamental, production.

1. Roots and Tradition: The Territory as a Literary Matrix

The literary tradition of Bonfim, as in much of Roraima, does not begin with the printed book but with the orality of the indigenous peoples. The region has historically been inhabited by the Macuxi and Wapichana, whose mythical narratives, founding legends, and ritual songs constitute the oldest and deepest layer of local literature.

This tradition has recently gained academic contours with the production of works that seek to systematize knowledge about the municipality itself. In 2013, the Publishing House of the Federal University of Roraima (UFRR) published "Bonfim: um olhar geográfico" (Collection Amazonian Landscape and Territory, Volume 1), organized by researchers from the Institute of Geosciences. Although it is a scientific work and not strictly literary, the book represents a milestone: for the first time, Bonfim became the subject of a formal publication, with the ambition of describing its landscape, its history, and its social dynamics.

This work, still available for consultation at the library of the IFRR's Amajari Campus, paved the way for other—more poetic and subjective—perspectives to emerge.

2. The Contemporary Scene: Classroom, Village, and Research

Bonfim's literary scene today is inseparable from the school and the university. Given the absence of a consolidated local publishing market, educational institutions function as promoters, spaces for production, and, often, improvised publishers.

The Researcher Who Studies Her Own Scene: Fabiana Gonçalves do Nascimento Oliveira

A central figure in this ecosystem is professor and researcher Fabiana Gonçalves do Nascimento Oliveira. Assigned to the Jesus Nazareno de Souza Cruz State School and the Municipal Department of Education of Bonfim, she is also pursuing a Master's degree in Letters at UFRR.

Her research is a rare and valuable example of literary metalanguage: she investigates how literature produced in Roraima circulates and is received on the web, focusing on authors Eli Macuxi, Eliakin Rufino, and Zanny Adairalba. By studying the reception of these authors on social media, Fabiana not only documents the scene but acts within it, as an educator who brings this production to the classroom.

"Roraima's literature in the production of local authors" and "Reception of regional authors on social media in Boa Vista - RR" are some of her research topics. Her dissertation, titled "Production, circulation, and reception of Roraimense literature on the web by Eli Macuxi, Eliakin Rufino, Jacinta Santos, and Sony Ferseck" (2023), supervised by Francisco Alves Gomes, is a pioneering academic effort to map the state's literature, including the voices that echo in cities like Bonfim.

The "Reading Whirlwinds": Reader Formation on the Border

Between 2016 and 2017, a significant project stirred the schools of Bonfim. Conceptualized by Sumaira Veras Andrade and Amarildo Ferreira Júnior, from IFRR, the "Rodamoinhos da Leitura" (Reading Whirlwinds) was a practical intervention that brought Afro-Brazilian and indigenous literature to elementary school children and adolescents.

The methodology was playful and interdisciplinary: dynamic reading sessions, called "whirlwinds," which sensitized young people to identity and cultural issues through the texts. The project did not produce a book but fulfilled a perhaps more urgent function: forming readers in a region where access to literature is scarce. The researchers' report indicates that participants became more interested in reading and became "disseminators of discussions" about their own socio-historical contexts.

The 2024 Milestone: "Vovó Jamanxim" and Bilingual Indigenous Literature

The most recent and impactful achievement of Bonfim's literary scene came in October 2024. Students from the Indigenous Teacher Training Course at the Bonfim Advanced Campus of IFRR launched the book "Vovó Jamanxim".

The work is an event in itself. Organized by professors Adnelson Jati, Leila Máximo, and Solange Almeida, "Vovó Jamanxim" is a bilingual book (Macuxi-Portuguese) that gathers stories, legends, and traditions of the Macuxi people, recorded by the student authors themselves—81 teachers from the Raposa and Baixo Cotingo regions contributed to the project.

One of the authors, student Eitiane Silva, who speaks the Macuxi language, described the experience as transformative:

"It allowed us to record Macuxi culture with stories, legends, and traditions that we carry with pride. [...] This book offers children the opportunity to learn in our own language and represents one of the many contributions of the course to strengthening our culture."

The launch took place at the Jaider Esbell House of Culture in Normandia—a tribute to the late indigenous artist and writer Jaider Esbell, who also moved between literature, visual art, and cultural activism.

3. Themes and Works: What is Written in Bonfim

The literary production associated with Bonfim—whether by origin of authors or by theme—can be organized into three main axes:

1. Indigenous Literature and Bilingualism

This is the strongest and most authentic genre. The book "Vovó Jamanxim" (2024) is its highest exponent: it is a cultural record that preserves the history, language, and practices of the Macuxi people, focusing on children in indigenous schools. Themes include cultural objects, origin stories, and ancestral legends, retrieved from family oral tradition.

2. Geography and Local Identity

The work "Bonfim: um olhar geográfico" (2013), from UFRR's Amazonian Landscape and Territory Collection, initiated a systematic look at the municipality. Although not fiction, its literary importance lies in having made Bonfim legible as a place—a necessary step for novels and short stories to be set there in the future.

3. Research on Roraimense Literature

The academic production of Fabiana Gonçalves do Nascimento Oliveira constitutes an effort of criticism and documentation of the literary scene as a whole. Her articles—such as "A literatura de Roraima na produção de autores locais" (2022) and "Recepção de autores regionais nas redes sociais" (2022)—are fundamental tools for anyone wishing to understand the functioning of this production on the edges of the Amazon.

Conclusion: A Literature of the Classroom and the Village

Bonfim does not have a "literary scene" in the effervescent and bohemian sense found in large centers. There are no weekly poetry readings, historic second-hand bookstores, or commercial publishing houses established in the municipality. What exists, however, is perhaps more relevant for the future of Brazilian literature: a production that emerges from the school, from the training of indigenous teachers, and from academic research.

The protagonists of this scene are not professional writers who live off royalties. They are teachers like Fabiana Oliveira, who studies local literature while teaching it; they are students like Eitiane Silva, who transform their grandmothers' stories into a bilingual book; they are projects like "Rodamoinhos da Leitura," which plant seeds in children who may, one day, also write.

Bonfim's literature is, above all, literature of resistance—against erasure, against the absence of public reading policies, and against the geography that insists on isolation. And, as the launch of "Vovó Jamanxim" in 2024 showed, it is alive and pulsing, ready to be discovered by those willing to listen.

References

• ANDRADE, Sumaira Veras; FERREIRA JÚNIOR, Amarildo. Rodamoinhos da leitura: práticas literárias com crianças e adolescentes de Bonfim-RR. In: Annals of the Forum for Integration of Teaching, Research, Extension, and Technological Innovation of IFRR, 2017.

• Lattes Curriculum: Fabiana Gonçalves do Nascimento Oliveira. Escavador. Available at: https://www.escavador.com/sobre/8354464/fabiana-goncalves-do-nascimento.

• Amajari Campus Library Receives UFRR Books. IFRR, Aug. 2, 2016. Available at: https://bonfim.ifrr.edu.br/amajari/noticias/biblioteca-do-campus-amajari-recebe-livros-da-ufrr.

• Vovó Jamanxim: IFRR students in Bonfim launch book in Normandia. Roraima em Foco, Oct. 9, 2024. Available at: https://arquivo.roraimaemfoco.com/post/vovo-jamanxim-estudantes-do-ifrr-em-bonfim-lancam-livro-em-normandia.

⚠️ Research conducted with the aid of Deep Research is subject to referential ambiguity.
🖥️ Clean HTML code using a proprietary tool.
👥 Research by Guilherme Felipe, Curation by Sílvio Lôbo

This municipality in the State of Roraima stands out for works that portray the Roraima savanna and the historical influence of Guyana, uniting the history of territorial disputes with the bucolic poetry of the savannas and the daily life of the border.

The Margins That Write: The Literary Scene of Bonfim, Roraima

Bonfim, a municipality bordering Guyana in the Tacutu Valley region, experiences a peculiar reality: it is a city that pulses on the border, but on the Brazilian literary map, it remains almost invisible. The capital, Boa Vista, concentrates editorial production and events, and small inland towns rarely appear in national anthologies.

However, the absence of large publishing houses and bookstores does not mean silence. In Bonfim, literature is born from the need for documentation—of indigenous memory, pedagogical practice, and academic research that insists on looking at its own territory. This report is a dive into this discreet, yet fundamental, production.

1. Roots and Tradition: The Territory as a Literary Matrix

The literary tradition of Bonfim, as in much of Roraima, does not begin with the printed book but with the orality of the indigenous peoples. The region has historically been inhabited by the Macuxi and Wapichana, whose mythical narratives, founding legends, and ritual songs constitute the oldest and deepest layer of local literature.

This tradition has recently gained academic contours with the production of works that seek to systematize knowledge about the municipality itself. In 2013, the Publishing House of the Federal University of Roraima (UFRR) published "Bonfim: um olhar geográfico" (Collection Amazonian Landscape and Territory, Volume 1), organized by researchers from the Institute of Geosciences. Although it is a scientific work and not strictly literary, the book represents a milestone: for the first time, Bonfim became the subject of a formal publication, with the ambition of describing its landscape, its history, and its social dynamics.

This work, still available for consultation at the library of the IFRR's Amajari Campus, paved the way for other—more poetic and subjective—perspectives to emerge.

2. The Contemporary Scene: Classroom, Village, and Research

Bonfim's literary scene today is inseparable from the school and the university. Given the absence of a consolidated local publishing market, educational institutions function as promoters, spaces for production, and, often, improvised publishers.

The Researcher Who Studies Her Own Scene: Fabiana Gonçalves do Nascimento Oliveira

A central figure in this ecosystem is professor and researcher Fabiana Gonçalves do Nascimento Oliveira. Assigned to the Jesus Nazareno de Souza Cruz State School and the Municipal Department of Education of Bonfim, she is also pursuing a Master's degree in Letters at UFRR.

Her research is a rare and valuable example of literary metalanguage: she investigates how literature produced in Roraima circulates and is received on the web, focusing on authors Eli Macuxi, Eliakin Rufino, and Zanny Adairalba. By studying the reception of these authors on social media, Fabiana not only documents the scene but acts within it, as an educator who brings this production to the classroom.

"Roraima's literature in the production of local authors" and "Reception of regional authors on social media in Boa Vista - RR" are some of her research topics. Her dissertation, titled "Production, circulation, and reception of Roraimense literature on the web by Eli Macuxi, Eliakin Rufino, Jacinta Santos, and Sony Ferseck" (2023), supervised by Francisco Alves Gomes, is a pioneering academic effort to map the state's literature, including the voices that echo in cities like Bonfim.

The "Reading Whirlwinds": Reader Formation on the Border

Between 2016 and 2017, a significant project stirred the schools of Bonfim. Conceptualized by Sumaira Veras Andrade and Amarildo Ferreira Júnior, from IFRR, the "Rodamoinhos da Leitura" (Reading Whirlwinds) was a practical intervention that brought Afro-Brazilian and indigenous literature to elementary school children and adolescents.

The methodology was playful and interdisciplinary: dynamic reading sessions, called "whirlwinds," which sensitized young people to identity and cultural issues through the texts. The project did not produce a book but fulfilled a perhaps more urgent function: forming readers in a region where access to literature is scarce. The researchers' report indicates that participants became more interested in reading and became "disseminators of discussions" about their own socio-historical contexts.

The 2024 Milestone: "Vovó Jamanxim" and Bilingual Indigenous Literature

The most recent and impactful achievement of Bonfim's literary scene came in October 2024. Students from the Indigenous Teacher Training Course at the Bonfim Advanced Campus of IFRR launched the book "Vovó Jamanxim".

The work is an event in itself. Organized by professors Adnelson Jati, Leila Máximo, and Solange Almeida, "Vovó Jamanxim" is a bilingual book (Macuxi-Portuguese) that gathers stories, legends, and traditions of the Macuxi people, recorded by the student authors themselves—81 teachers from the Raposa and Baixo Cotingo regions contributed to the project.

One of the authors, student Eitiane Silva, who speaks the Macuxi language, described the experience as transformative:

"It allowed us to record Macuxi culture with stories, legends, and traditions that we carry with pride. [...] This book offers children the opportunity to learn in our own language and represents one of the many contributions of the course to strengthening our culture."

The launch took place at the Jaider Esbell House of Culture in Normandia—a tribute to the late indigenous artist and writer Jaider Esbell, who also moved between literature, visual art, and cultural activism.

3. Themes and Works: What is Written in Bonfim

The literary production associated with Bonfim—whether by origin of authors or by theme—can be organized into three main axes:

1. Indigenous Literature and Bilingualism

This is the strongest and most authentic genre. The book "Vovó Jamanxim" (2024) is its highest exponent: it is a cultural record that preserves the history, language, and practices of the Macuxi people, focusing on children in indigenous schools. Themes include cultural objects, origin stories, and ancestral legends, retrieved from family oral tradition.

2. Geography and Local Identity

The work "Bonfim: um olhar geográfico" (2013), from UFRR's Amazonian Landscape and Territory Collection, initiated a systematic look at the municipality. Although not fiction, its literary importance lies in having made Bonfim legible as a place—a necessary step for novels and short stories to be set there in the future.

3. Research on Roraimense Literature

The academic production of Fabiana Gonçalves do Nascimento Oliveira constitutes an effort of criticism and documentation of the literary scene as a whole. Her articles—such as "A literatura de Roraima na produção de autores locais" (2022) and "Recepção de autores regionais nas redes sociais" (2022)—are fundamental tools for anyone wishing to understand the functioning of this production on the edges of the Amazon.

Conclusion: A Literature of the Classroom and the Village

Bonfim does not have a "literary scene" in the effervescent and bohemian sense found in large centers. There are no weekly poetry readings, historic second-hand bookstores, or commercial publishing houses established in the municipality. What exists, however, is perhaps more relevant for the future of Brazilian literature: a production that emerges from the school, from the training of indigenous teachers, and from academic research.

The protagonists of this scene are not professional writers who live off royalties. They are teachers like Fabiana Oliveira, who studies local literature while teaching it; they are students like Eitiane Silva, who transform their grandmothers' stories into a bilingual book; they are projects like "Rodamoinhos da Leitura," which plant seeds in children who may, one day, also write.

Bonfim's literature is, above all, literature of resistance—against erasure, against the absence of public reading policies, and against the geography that insists on isolation. And, as the launch of "Vovó Jamanxim" in 2024 showed, it is alive and pulsing, ready to be discovered by those willing to listen.

References

• ANDRADE, Sumaira Veras; FERREIRA JÚNIOR, Amarildo. Rodamoinhos da leitura: práticas literárias com crianças e adolescentes de Bonfim-RR. In: Annals of the Forum for Integration of Teaching, Research, Extension, and Technological Innovation of IFRR, 2017.

• Lattes Curriculum: Fabiana Gonçalves do Nascimento Oliveira. Escavador. Available at: https://www.escavador.com/sobre/8354464/fabiana-goncalves-do-nascimento.

• Amajari Campus Library Receives UFRR Books. IFRR, Aug. 2, 2016. Available at: https://bonfim.ifrr.edu.br/amajari/noticias/biblioteca-do-campus-amajari-recebe-livros-da-ufrr.

• Vovó Jamanxim: IFRR students in Bonfim launch book in Normandia. Roraima em Foco, Oct. 9, 2024. Available at: https://arquivo.roraimaemfoco.com/post/vovo-jamanxim-estudantes-do-ifrr-em-bonfim-lancam-livro-em-normandia.

⚠️ Research conducted with the aid of Deep Research is subject to referential ambiguity.
🖥️ Clean HTML code using a proprietary tool.
👥 Research by Guilherme Felipe, Curation by Sílvio Lôbo