Vini Jr, A Real Peacebuilder

13th May in Brazil is celebrated as the day of the abolition of slavery in the country.

Vini Jr started playing for Flamengo on a 13th May. He also signed his contract with Real Madrid on a 13th May. It’s like his mission came spelled out for him: that both football and his fight against racism came together. He has been vocal about it, called himself the torment of racists; he has bothered many but gained the support of many more. But beyond rhetoric, he has acted meaningfully.

This year, he leveraged the already extraordinary work delivered by his institute in Brazil and announced a free law firm set to provide legal support for victims of racial abuse and discrimination in Brazil, focusing on cases within education and sport.

^{Photo Credit: Alex Caparros/Getty Images}

Brazil was the last country to abolish slavery in the Americas, and mostly because of international pressure. A law was signed by Princess Isabel of Brazil in 1888, but as Vini wrote on his announcement: Freedom on paper, without any reparation, inclusion or guarantee of rights.

The reality is that of structural violence. In Brazil, we say racism is “veiled”. It’s a crime, punished by law, but very much embedded in everything: Less access, fewer opportunities, smaller salaries for black men, women, youth and children. So it’s “veiled” as in we try to cover up something that is very much evident.

I’ll go even further — and explore a thought by Prof Fábio Rocha in a recent online panel on the decolonisation of Peace and Security studies — to say that peace in Brazil has a racial connotation. We don’t talk about it as much or have a formal agenda for peace because, in general, we are considered a peaceful country – we’re not at war externally, nor in a civil war. But are we really at peace? From previous blogs, I think it has become evident that we don’t just seek the absence of physical violence, but the end of structural and cultural violence too. In that sense, Brazil is very far from peace, from positive peace (or social justice).

However, peacebuilding is present in a very common-sense practice for Brazilians: the “pacifying” of favelas, where over 70% of the population is black/brown and young. These “pacifying” operations are guided by principles of liberal militarised peace and have taken the lives of many black youths in Brazil for many decades – take ‘Operation Containment’ in October 2025 as an (recent and catastrophic) example. That is the agenda that dictates the efforts to bring about “peace”. 

In a place where official government-sponsored operations have offered bullets, initiatives like those of Vini Jr’s Institute offer a pencil, legal counselling and opportunities.

Vini Jr plays on the frontline of peace (to reference the amazing book of Dr/Prof Severine Autessere). He fights inequality by investing in the education of unprivileged youth in Brazil, he fights injustice by supporting civil and social rights of black people in Brazil. In this way, Vini Jr works for real structural change and real positive peacebuilding, on and off the field.