FIGURE 7. Monitoring Graphic of Black and Mulatto population growth by IBGE. Brazil (1940-2010). (The red bars show the black population; the transparent bars show the 'mulatto' population).  
A particularly noteworthy aspect of the invisible African geography in contemporary Brazil is the purposeful forgetting of territories descending from the former quilombos. Although some 130 years have passed since the Lei Áurea was sanctioned by the imperial regime, both history and the Brazilian system continue to associate the Afrodescendant population with the image of slavery. The quilombos are still viewed as something of the past, as if they have no part to play in the contemporary life of the country. The actions of the decisionmaking sector have proven to be conflicting and contradictory. Despite the constitutional provisions of 1988 and the requirements set by certain official bodies to address the demands of contemporary quilombos, the handling of this issue has been characterized by episodic and fragmentary actions, on an almost structural level. This has compromised the direction of a defined policy aimed at solving the fundamental problems, namely the recognition of these communities within the Brazilian social system and the demarcation and denomination of the territories occupied.  
Aside from the fundamental structural question of the effectiveness of the land tenure system, in other words, the official definition of the Afro-Brazilian border, we can also highlight other structural problems affecting contemporary quilombos, such as the lack of systematized knowledge of the know-how, technologies and references of the life and survival of the quilombo peoples.