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8/11/2019 A Maroon State in Brazil
1/23
The Quilombo of Palmares: A New Overview of a Maroon State in Seventeenth-Century BrazilAuthor(s): Robert Nelson AndersonSource: Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 28, No. 3, Brazil: History and Society (Oct.,1996), pp. 545-566Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/157694.
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2/23
The
Quilombo
of
Palmares:
A
New
Overview
of a Maroon State
in
Seventeenth-Century Brazil*
ROBERT NELSON
ANDERSON
Abstract.
This article offers a new
perspective
on the
history
of the maroon state
of
Palmares
in
Northeastern
Brazil. It adds
information and
interpretation
to
R. K.
Kent's
ground-breaking
article 'Palmares:
An
African State
in Brazil'
published
in
I965.
The
present
essay
gives
an
historical narrative
summary
with
commentary
on the
historiography,
describing
Afro-Brazilian
aspects
of the
history
of
Palmares.
The
purpose
is to review
and
expand upon
the
historical,
linguistic,
and cultural
context
of Palmaresand on the
sources
for the
emerging
epic
material
of
Zumbi
of
Palmares.
A
epopdia negra
hoje
e narrada1
The twentieth of November
1995
marked
the
tercentenary
of the death of
Zumbi,
the last leader of the maroon state
-
or
quilombo
-
of Palmares
in
Northeastern Brazil.
This
date
has
loomed
large
in
the
popular
imagination, since for many Brazilians, especially those of African descent,
Zumbi embodies the
strongest
resistance to the slave-based colonial
regime,
and,
consequently,
the
struggle
for
economic
and
political justice
today.
The
last
leader
of
Palmares has
enjoyed
an
apotheosis
as an ethnic
hero. The term
'apotheosis'
is
not
simply
metaphorical
here.
More than
a
secular
hero,
Zumbi is viewed as
an
ancestor,
antecedent
in
what
the
outsider
might
see as
a
fictive
lineage.
According
to
this
view,
which is
African
in
origin,
his
spirit
is
inherently
divine and
immortal,
and is thus
worthy
of
respect
from those who consider themselves his descendants.
This belief is such that the
tercentenary
celebrated three hundred
years
of
Zumbi's
immortality.2
*
This
work
was made
possible
in
part
by
funds from the Tinker
Foundation,
the Mellon
Foundation,
and
the
US
Department
of
Education
Title
VI,
administered
by
the Duke-
University
of
North Carolina
Program
in Latin
American Studies.
I
am
grateful
to
John
Charles Chasteen and two
anonymous
referees
for their comments on earlier
versions of this article.
1
Xuxu
(Edson Carvalho),
Negros
de
luz',
in
I1e
Aiye
(ed.),
America
negra:
o
sonho
africano'
Salvador, i993),
p.
28.
2
Bujao
(Raimundo
Goncalves
dos
Santos),
personal
communication.
Full
discussion of
the mythificationof Zumbi or its representationn artisticproductionis beyond the
Robert Nelson
Anderson is
Visiting
Assistant Professor
n Romance
Languages
at the
University
of
North
Carolina
at
Chapel
Hill.
J.
Lat. Amer. Stud.
28,
545-566
Copyright
?
I996
Cambridge
University
Press
545
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3/23
546
Robert Nelson Anderson
Since the establishment of
20
November as National
Black Con-
sciousness
Day
in
1978,
popular
discourse has
increasingly
treated Zumbi
not
only
as the
premier
Afro-Brazilian hero but also as the
exemplar
of
antiracist and anticolonial
dogma
and
praxis.3
The
importance
of the
tercentenary
is
widely
recognised
-
seen
in
the
fact
that
Salvador,
the
capital
of
the northeastern
state of
Bahia,
'capital'
of
Afro-Brazil,
and
oreo
enlorged
Recife
OL
0o
o
:
Cuca6u
,
:
P E R-N A M
B U C
O
^9.
*
D5V
- 7 Porto Calvo
A....
;.
,
Macaco
Atlantic Ocean
Maceio
N
Alagoas
km
0 10
20 30
40
50
Map
i. Palmares and
Vicinity
scope
of
this
essay.
See Robert Nelson
Anderson,
'The Muses
of Chaos and
Destruction
of Arena
conta
Zumbi',
Latin
American
Theatre
Review,
vol.
29,
no.
2
(forthcoming 1996); 'O mito de Zumbi: Implicacoes culturais para o Brasil e para a
Diaspora
Africana',
Afro-Asia,
no.
17
(forthcoming
I996).
3
Originally
called Zumbi
Day.
See
George
Reid
Andrews,
Black
and Whites in
Sao
Paulo,
Brazil,
i888-1988
(Madison, 1991),
pp.
2I6-I8;
Abdias
do Nascimento
and Elisa Larkin
do
Nascimento,
'Pan-Africanism,
Negritude,
and
the African
Experience
in
Brazil',
in
Africans
in
Brazil:
A
Pan-African Perspective
Trenton, N.J.,
1992),
pp.
81-117.
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4/23
The
Quilombo
of
Palmares
547
currently
host
to the
world's
largest pre-Lenten
festival
in
terms
of
numbers
of
tourists,
chose Zumbi as the theme for
the
I995
carnaval.In
November
I995
events
were held around
the
country,
including
a
pilgrimage
to the site of Palmares in the state of
Alagoas,
with Brazil's
President
Fernando
Henrique
Cardoso
speaking
in
the
Municipal
Hall in
Uniao
dos
Palmares,
the
Congresso
Continental
dos
Povos
Negros
das
Americas
in
Sao
Paulo,
and the Movimento
Negro
Unificado's march
on
Brasilia. These events
have underscored the
mythic
status of Zumbi of
Palmares. The
significance
of
this
anniversary
has also
captured
the
attention
of
the
national and international
press.4
Scholars
interested
in
Palmares
have, however,
struggled
with a dearth
of
sources,
either
primary
or
secondary.
The
situation
is
acute
for the
English-speaking
public:
of
the
few
primary
and
major
secondary
sources
published
in
Portuguese,
Dutch,
or
Latin,
almost
none have been
translated into
English.5
The
Palmares
Excavation
Project,
led
by
Pedro
Paulo
A. Funari of the State
University
of
Campinas
and Charles E.
Orser,
Jr.,
of Illinois State
University
have
conducted
preliminary
excavations
at
the site of Palmares. This
project
promises
to illuminate our
understanding
of the
quilombo,
nd
presumably
its
findings
will
be
published
in
English.6
However,
since
R. K.
Kent's
1965
article
'Palmares:
An
African State
in
Brazil', no synopsis of what is known of Palmares has been published in
English.7
Kent's article was
groundbreaking
in
that
it
was the first
scholarly
overview of what
was known about Palmares available to the
English-reading
public. Working
from
primary
and
secondary
sources
published
in
Portuguese
or
Dutch,
Kent
summarised
information about
Palmares. His contribution was to
argue,
based
on
historical and
linguistic
evidence,
that Palmares was
a
successful
adaptation
of
several models
of
Central
African statecraft to
the
Brazilian
context. Kent
stated
in
his
conclusion:
[T]he
most
apparent ignificance
of
Palmares o
African
history
is that an
African
political
system
could
be
transferred o a
different
content;
that it could
come
to
4
E.g.:
Vilma
Gryzinski,
'O mais novo her6i do
Brasil', Veja,
22
Nov.
I995,
pp.
64-80;
articles in
Folha
de
Sao
Paulo,
12
Nov.
I995,
sec.
5
['Mais ']; James
Brooke,
'Brazil
Seeks to Return
Ancestral
Lands
to
Descendants
of
Runaway
Slaves,'
New York
Times,
15
Aug.
1993,
sec.
A,
p.
I2;
'From
Brazil's
Misty
Past,
a
Black Hero
Emerges,'
New
York
Times,
23
Nov.
1994,
sec.
A,
p.
4.
5
On Richard M.
Morse's
translations
of
documents about
the destruction of Palmares
see
note
1
below.
6
Ricardo Bonalume Neto, 'O pequeno Brasil de Palmares', Folha de Sao Paulo, 4 June
I995,
sec.
5
['Mais '],
p.
i6.
7
R. K.
Kent,
'Palmares: An
African State
in
Brazil,'
in
Richard
Price
(ed.),
Maroon
Societies: Rebel
Slave
Communities n the
Americas,
ist ed.
(Garden
City,
N.Y.,
1973),
2nd
ed.
(Baltimore,
1979),
pp.
70-90.
Originally published
in
Journal
of African
History,
no.
6
(I965),
pp.
16I-75.
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548
Robert
Nelson
Anderson
govern
not
only
individuals
from a
variety
of
ethnic
groups
from
Africa,
but also
those
born in
Brazil,
pitch
black
or
almost
white,
latinized
or close to Amerindian
roots;
and that
it
could endure
for almost a full
century
against
two
European
powers, Holland and Portugal.8
Kent's article
was and still is
an
important
starting point
for
the
reader
without access
to
the sources
published
in
Portuguese.
It
nevertheless
contains numerous
flaws;
as Stuart
Schwartz
reports,
'his translations
and
ethnographic
discussions
can not
always
be trusted'.9 Schwartz's 'Re-
thinking
Palmares'
offers
new and useful
interpretations, especially
regarding
the
etymology
of
the
term
'quilombo',
tracing
the word and
the
institution back
to
their
Angolan
origins.?1
The
present essay
augments
Kent's article
with further
linguistic,
historical,
and
ethnological
interpretation,
and
corrects
several
faulty
translations. This
article
also
incorporates
Schwartz's
analysis,
adding
to the narrative
history
and
linguistic interpretations.
It
elaborates several issues raised
by
Schwartz,
further
describing
the
Afro-Brazilian character of Palmares.
It
is
hoped
that this new
exposition
will
give
a
firmer
foundation
for
assessing
the
modern
significance
of Palmares.
Most of what we know about
Palmares comes from accounts
of the
Dutch and
Portuguese
campaigns against
the
quilombo, including
those of
Bartholomeus Lintz
(I640)
and Roelox Baro (or Rodolpho Bareo, I643).1
8
Kent, 'Palmares',
p.
188.
9
Stuart
B.
Schwartz, Slaves, Peasants,
and Rebels:
Reconsidering
razilian
Slavery
(Urbana,
Ill.,
1992),
p.
134,
n.
65.
The
English
translation
of
Roger
Bastide's
Les
Religions Afro-
Bresiliennes
ncludes a short section on Palmares.The
historical
summary
uses
the same
sources as
Kent,
and
the text concentrates
on
ethnological interpretation,
much of
which is
interesting.
However,
as with
Kent,
some
of the
linguistic arguments
are
weak. See
Roger
Bastide,
The
African
Religionsof
Bragil:
Towardsa
Sociological
Interpretation
of
Civilizations,
Helen
Sebba
(trans.),
(Baltimore,
1978),
pp.
83-90.
Originally
published
in
Paris
in
1960.
10
In
Schwartz, Slaves,
Peasants,
and
Rebels,
pp.
122-36.
1 Informationfrom the Lintz and Baro expeditionswas compiled by CasparBarlaeus
(Gaspar
Barleus)
and
translated nto
Portuguese
by
Claudio
Brandao as
Historia
dos
feitos
recentemente
raticados
urante
ito
anos
no Brasil
Rio
de
Janeiro,
1940).
Originally
published
as Rerum
er
octenium
n
Brasilia
I647).
The
account of the
Blaer-Reijmbach
expedition
was translated
rom
the Dutch
and
published
by
Alfredo
de Carvalho
under
the title
'Diario
da
viagem
do
Capitao
Joao
Blaer
aos Palmares'
in
the Revista
do
Instituto
Arqueologico
ernambucanond
reprinted
in Edison
Carneiro, O
quilombo
os
Palmares,
I6Jo-I69y,
Ist ed.
(Sao
Paulo,
1947),
pp.
231-9.
Documents
from
the second
Livro de
Vereafoes
a
Camara
de
Alagoas,providing
additional
nformation about
the
Carrilho
campaign
and Zumbi's
revolt,
are
in
Carneiro
under
the title 'Os sucessos
de
I668
a
1680',
pp.
207-30,
originally
published
in Revista
do Instituto
Histdrico
Alagoano
(1875). The 'Relacao das guerrasfeitas aos Palmaresde Pernambucono tempo do
Governador d. Pedro
de
Almeida,
de
I675
a
I678'
is
from the Torre
do Tombo
in
Lisbon,
reprinted
in
Carneiro,
pp.
187-206,
originally
published
in Revista do Instituto
Historico
e
Geogrdfico
Brasileiro,
vol.
22
(I959), pp.
303-29.
The
first edition and
the
second edition
(Sao
Paulo,
I958)
of
O quilombo
os
Palmares
reproduce
the
primary
sources as
an
appendix.
The
third
edition
(Rio
de
Janeiro,
1966)
is
a
version
of the
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The
Quilombo
of
Palmares
5
49
In
I645
Captain
Johan
(or
Joao)
Blaer led an
expedition
against
the
quilombo,
chronicled
by
his Lieutenent
Jiirgens Reijmbach,
who
took over
the
expedition
when Blaer became
ill. The
Fernao Carrilho
expeditions
of
1676-77
and
contemporary
events
generated
documents from the town
council of
Alagoas
and the
captaincy
government.
The
final
campaigns
against
Palmares,
including
those of
Domingos Jorge
Velho
(I692-94),
have
also
provided
information.
One
or
other combination
of these official documents
and
eyewitness
accounts
by
would-be invaders are
the
basis
for
subsequent
Brazilian
historiography
and
ethnography,
each
in turn
informed
by
the
ideology
and intellectual biases of
its time.12
It
is worth
noting
that,
in
a tentative
way,
Zumbi has become
a
national
hero.
While
primary
sources
by
colonial officials
and
secondary
sources
from
Rocha Pitta
to
the
present
day
have tended
to see Palmares as a threat to
Portuguese
colonial
sovereignty,
and
the
quilombo's
defeat
as
basically
a
patriotic
victory,
even
white commentators
have
lionised
the Afro-Brazilian
state
on occasion.
The
colonial
Rocha Pitta himself refers
to Palmares
as
'a
rustic
republic,
in
its
way,
well-ordered',
drawing
classical
parallels
and
speaking
of
the
edition
in
Spanish,
Guerra
de los
Palmares
(Mexico, 946),
neither
of which
includes the
appendix.
All
citations
from Carneiro are from the first
edition,
including
references to
the
documents
published
therein. Ernesto Ennes
published
documents
spanning
I684
to
1697,
dealing
with
Zumbi's rebellion
against Ganga-Zumba
and
the
Portuguese
Governor,
the destruction
of Palmares
by
Domingos Jorge
Velho,
and
the
death of
Zumbi in
Asguerras
nos
Palmares:
Subs'diospara
a sua
historia,
vol.
i,
DomingosJorge
Velho
e
a
'Trdia
negra,'
i687-I7oo
(Sao
Paulo,
1938).
On
the verso of the
title
page
of
this
edition
a
second
volume
is
promised,
titled 'Os
primeiros
quilombos';
to
my
knowledge
it was
never
published.
Five of
the
documents
in
the Ennes collection
appear
in
English
translation under the title 'The
Conquest
of
Palmares',
in Richard
M.
Morse
(ed.),
The
Bandeirantes: The Historical Role
of
the
Brazilian Pathfinders
New
York,
I965),
pp.
14-26.
In
citing
these and all other
sources,
the
orthography
of the
published source is maintained.
12
Notable
among
these
secondary
sources are Sebastiao
da
Rocha
Pitta,
Historia da
America
Portuguega
desdeo annode mil e
quinhentos
o seu
descobrimentote
o de mil e setecentos
e vinte e
quatro,
2nd
ed.
(Lisbon,
i88o),
originally published
in
Lisbon
(I730),
book
8,
paragraphs
25-40;
Joaquim
Pedro de Oliveira
Martins,
O
Brazil
e as colonias
portugue.as,
3rd
ed
(Lisbon, 1920),
originally
published
in Lisbon
(1880),
pp.
63-6;
Raimundo Nina
Rodrigues,
Os
africanos
no
Brasil,
2nd
ed.
(Sao
Paulo,
I93 5),
pp.
1
5-50;
Ernesto
Ennes,
'As
guerras
nos
Palmares',
the introduction to his collection of
documents;
Carneiro,
O
quilombo
dos
Palmares;
C16vis
Moura,
Rebelioes
da
senzala:
Quilombos,
insurreifoese
guerrilhas
Rio
de
Janeiro,
I972),
pp.
I79-90;
Joel
Rufino dos
Santos,
Zumbi
(Sao
Paulo,
I985);
Decio
Freitas,
Palmares: a
guerra
dos
escravos,
5th
ed.
(Rio
de
Janeiro, i982);
Benjamin Peret, O Quilombo de Palmares: Cronica da 'Reptblica dos Escravos', Brasil,
I640-s69 (Lisbon,
1988),
originally published
as 'O
que
foi
o
Quilombo
de Palmares?'
in
Anhembi
(April
and
May
1956).
Forthcoming
are
Joao Jose
Reis and Flavio
dos
Santos Gomes
(eds.),
Historia
do
quilombo
o
Brasil,
as well
as
Gomes's new
documentary
history
of Palmares. Both
Freitas and Gomes have used archival material from
the
Torre do
Tombo,
bringing
this
primary
material to a wider
public.
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55o
Robert
Nelson
Anderson
election of
its
'prince',
Zumbi.l3
Taking
his
cue
from
Rocha
Pitta,
Oliveira Martins waxed
poetic
with
republican
fervour,
expanding
the
classical
analogies,
as in
the
following passage:
'Of all
of
the
historical
examples
of slave
protest,
Palmares is the most
beautiful,
the most heroic.
It is a
black
Troy,
and its
story
is an
Iliad.'14
Thus,
a
revisionist view
crept
into
the elite
discourse,
culminating
with
Freitas,
as
suggested by
this
quote
from his conclusion:
'These rustic
black
republics
reveal
the
dream
of a
social order founded on
fraternal
equality,
and for this
reason are
incorporated
into the
revolutionary
tradition
of the Brazilian
people.'15
As for
the other commentators on
Palmares,
one
may
refer to Afonso
de
Escragnolle
Taunay's
Preface to
Ennes:
If one were to collect all that our
historiographers,
ancient, modern and
contemporary,
have written
about
Palmares,
there would be
material
comparable
in
volume to an
encyclopedia
of
exceeding
dimensions. But the
vast
majority
of
these
very
copious pages
is no more than
repetition,
often most
inelegant,
on the
part
of the
authors,
professionals
at
taking
advantage
of the work
of others or
mere candidates for remuneration of
so much
per page.16
Carneiro,
nine
years
later,
put
it more
succinctly:
'Historians in
general...
have limited themselves to
repeating
the errors
of Sebastiao da
Rocha Pitta.'17 It is safe to
say
that,
aside
from the
contributions of the
authors mentioned
above,
very
little new has been said about the
history
of
Palmares since the middle of the twentieth
century.
While
seeking
to
avoid the faults identified
by Taunay
and
Carneiro,
the
synopsis
that
follows
brings
some of
this
material
together.
From the earliest time
in
which
Africans were
brought
forcibly
to the
New
World
they
resisted
bondage
by
flight,
or
marronage.1l
It
seems
that
from
the earliest arrival of Africans in
the
captaincies
of
Alagoas
and
13
Rocha
Pitta,
Historia da America
PortugueZa,
aragraphs
28-9.
All translations
are
mine.
The original text follows: 'uma repdblica ristica, a sua maneira, bem ordenada'.
14
Oliveira
Martins,
O
Brazil
e as
colonias
portuguegas;
p.
64.
'[D]e
todos os
exemplos
hist6ricos do
protesto
de
escravo,
Palmares
e o
mais
bello,
o
mais heroico.
B
uma
Troya
negra,
e
a
sua hist6ria
e
uma Illiada.'
15
Freitas, Palmares,
p.
z2o.
'Estas
rusticas
repiiblicas
negras
desvendam o sonho
de uma
ordem social
alicercada
na
igualdade
fraternal e estao
por
isso
incorporadas
a
tradicao
revolucionaria
do
povo
brasileiro.'
16
Taunay,
Preface,
in
Ennes,
As
guerras
nos
Palmares,
pp.
I-2.
'Se se coletasse tudo
que
os nossos
histori6grafos antigos,
modernos e
contemporaneos
escreveram
sobre
Palmares haveria material
comparavel, pelo
volume,
a uma
enciclop6dia
de
avantajadas
dimens6es. Mas e
que
a imensa maioria dessas
paginas copiosissimas
nao
passa
de
repetiico, frequentemente a mais deselegante, por parte de seus autores, profissionais
do
aproveitamento
de
alheio
esf6rgo
ou meros candidatos
a
remuneragao
a
tanto
por
pagina.'
17
Carneiro,
O
quilombo
dos
Palmares,
p.
I82.
'Os historiadores
em
geral...se
limitaram
a
repetir
os errores
de
Sebastiao
da Rocha Pita.'
18
Price, Introduction,
in
Maroon
Societies,
p.
i.
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The
Quilombo
of
Palmares
551
Pernambuco
in
Portuguese
America slaves had fled to the interior.19
Towards the end of the sixteenth
century,
according
to
Freitas,
but no
later
than
I606,
according
to
Kent,
a trickle
of
runaway
slaves
had made
their
way
to the interior and there established a
mocambo,
or maroon
settlement,
of
some
reputation.20
The
area
of settlement
straddled
a
mountainous
area of the coastal forest zone some
30
to
90
kilometres from
the
coast
of
present-day
northern
Alagoas
and southern Pernambuco. The
region
came
to
be
known as
'Palmares' due
to
the
preponderance
of wild
palms
there.21
In
the
I63os
the
Palmares
region
received
a
greater
number
of
fugitive
slaves
thanks in
part
to the Dutch invasion of northeastern
Brazil.22
During
the Dutch dominion and after
the
Portuguese reconquest
of
Pernambuco,
completed
in
I654,
there were
occasional
incursions into
Palmares,
without
great
success.
Of
special
interest
are
the
expeditions
that
generated
the documents mentioned
above.
At
the time of the Lintz
expedition,
there were two
large
mocambosand
any
number
of smaller
ones.23
By
the time of the
Blaer-Reijmbach
expedition
of
I645
there was
at
least
one
large
mocambo;
another
large
mocambohad been abandoned
three
years
earlier. The
diary
of the
expedition
describes the
large
'Palmares':
It
was
surrounded
by
a
double
palisade
with
a
spike-lined
trough inside. This 'Palmares' was half a mile long, its street six feet wide.
There
was a
swamp
on the
north side and
large
felled trees on the south.
There were
220
buildings
in
the
middle
of which
stood
a
church,
four
smithies,
and
a
council house.24 From
captives,
they
learned
something
of
the
ruler
of that
place:
Their
king
ruled
them with severe
justice,
not
permitting
sorcerers
among
his
people,
and
when some blacks would
flee,
he
would send natives
[native blacks]
on
their
trail,
and
when
they
were
caught, they
would be
killed,
such that fear
19 Carneiro, O quilombodos Palmares,
p.
188.
20
Freitas, Palmares,
p.
5;
Kent, 'Palmares',
p.
175.
On
mocambo s.
quilombo,
ee
below.
21
Carneiro,
0
quilombo
dos
Palmares,
p.
i88. Palmar
means
'palm grove'
in
Portuguese;
plural palmares.
22
Ibid.,
pp.
33-4.
23
Kent,
'Palmares',
p.
177.
Notwithstanding
the
etymology
of Palmares
given
above,
the
early
chronicles
appear
to
use
the
term
'palmar(es)'
to
signify
'mocambo'.It
is
intriguing
to
speculate
how
this
usage
came
to
be,
given
that 'Palmares' in the
early
literature
also
refers to the
palm-covered region.
In
fact,
Nieuhof states that there were two
forests,
one called 'Palmares
pequenos,'
with some
6,ooo
black
inhabitants,
and
the
other,
'Palmares
grandes',
with
some
5,000
scattered black inhabitants.
Johan
Nieuhof,
Memordvel
Viagem
maritima
e
terrestre ao
Brasil,
Moacir N.
Vasconcelos
(trans.), Jose
Hon6rio Rogrigues (ed.) (Sao Paulo,
1942),
pp.
I8-19.
Translated from the English
and
reconciled
with
the
original
Dutch
Gedenkweerdige
rasiliaense Zee- en
Lant-Reize
(Amsterdam,
I682).
24
Carneiro,
O
quilombo
dos
Palmares,
pp.
235-6.
Kent's translation
(p.
177)
neglects
to
mention that the
trees to the south
were
felled,
suggesting
clearing
for
cultivation
or
defence.
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55
2
Robert Nelson Anderson
reigned among
them,
especially
the blacks from
Angola.
The
king
also has
a
house two miles
away,
with a
very
abundant arm. He had this house built
upon
learning
of our
coming....
We
asked the blacks how
many
of
their
people
were
there, to which they responded that there were 50o men, in addition to the
women and children.
We
presume
that there are some
1,5oo
inhabitants,
according
to what we heard from them.25
The narrative also includes
description
of
farms and
foodstuffs,
uses
made of the
palm,
and crafts such as work
in
straw,
gourds,
and ceramic.
As was so often the case
in
the
long
history
of wars
against
Palmares,
the
soldiers found the settlement
virtually
abandoned when
they
arrived;
the
Palmarinos
would receive advance word of
expeditions
from their
spies
in
the colonial towns
and
sugar plantations,
or
engenhos.26
The external
history
of Palmares from the
expulsion
of the Dutch in
I654
to
the destruction of
Palmares
in
1694
is one of
frequent Portuguese
incursions
-
sometimes more
than
one
a
year
-
and Palmarino
reprisals
and raids.
Although
the 'Relacao
das
guerras
feitas aos
Palmares',
from
the term of Governor d. Pedro de
Almeida,
is a troublesome
document,
as Carneiro
states,
it
is clear
from it that in the
period
I654
to
I678
there
were
at
least
20
expeditions against
Palmares
-
hardly
the
'twenty-seven
years
of relative
peace'
referred to
by
Kent.27
In
the internecine
peace,
Palmarinos traded
with their
Portuguese neighbours, exchanging
food-
stuffs
and crafts for
arms,
munitions,
and salt.28 The trade
with Palmares
was
such
that
many
colonials
opposed
war with the
Palmarinos,
and
in
the
I67os
there was
widespread opinion
that
establishing peace
with Palmares
was the best
way
to achieve
stability
in
the
colony.29
Nevertheless,
many
local
planters
feared the
predatory
raids
by
Palmarinos,
real or
potential.
They
also wished to eliminate
the lure of
escape
that Palmares
constantly
represented
to the
plantation
slaves.
In
spite
of much
vacillation,
colonial
25
Carneiro,
O
quilombo
dos
Palmares,
p.
236.
'[S]eu
rei os
governava
com
severa
justiSa
nao
permitindo
feiticeiros entre a sua
gente
e,
quando
alguns
negros fugiam,
mandava-
Ihes creoulos no encal(o
e,
uma vez
pegados,
eram
mortos,
de sorte
que
entre
eles
reinava o
temor,
principalmente
os
negros
de
Angola;
o rei
tambem
ter
uma
casa
distante dali duas
milhas,
com
uma rosa muito
abundante,
casa
que
fez construir ao
saber da nossa
vinda....
[P]erguntamos
aos
negros qual
o
numero
da sua
gente,
ao
que
nos
responderam
haver
5oo
homens,
alem
das mulheres
e
crianSas;
presumimos
que
uns
pelos
outros hia
.500
habitantes,
segundo
deles
ouvimos.'
For reasons
that are not
clear,
Kent leaves
many
words
untranslated
and
unglossed,
not
to
mention
mistranscribed. Some of
these,
such as
grandes
[sic]
(p.
I78)
would be
evident to
the
general
reader,
but others
(feticeiros
[sic],
crioulos
[sic],
ibid.)
would
not.
Carvalho
probably
followed
colonial
usage
in
using
'creoulo'/'crioulo'
to
refer
broadly
to
'native', and more narrowly to 'Brazilian-born black'. Without the Dutch original it
is
impossible
to determine the exact sense
in the context
of
Palmares.
Kent's
translation
also errs
in
not
stating
that the Palmarinos
reported
their number
to be
500
men,
not
including
children
and
women.
26
Ibid.,
p.
236
27
Ibid.,
pp. 81-93;
Kent,
p.
I78.
28
Freitas,
Palmares,
p.
73.
29
Ibid.,
pp.
73-5;
I05-6.
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The
Quilombo
of
Palmares
55
3
leaders
opted again
for the destruction
of the
quilombo
and
sent militia
captain
Fernao Carrilho
against
them.
Carrilho's
campaign
of
1676-7
was
not
only
one
of the more
devastating,
but
it
also
gave
us
the most
substantial
descriptions
of Palmares.
The
'Relacao'
reported
that
campaign,
mentioning
several
mocambos
that constituted
Palmares:
Zambi,
Acotirene or
Arotirene, Tabocas,
Dambrabanga,
Subupira,
the
royal
compound
of
Macaco,
Osenga,
Amaro,
and
Andalaquituche.30
The
Portuguese,
as
was their
wont,
named
at least
some of these
towns for the title-holders
living
there: Zambi
(probably
Zumbi),
Andalaquituche,
brother
of
'Zambi',
and
Aqualtune,
the mother
of the
king.31 Subupira
was
the
mocambo
of
Gana-Zona,
brother
of the
king,
a 'valorous black
man,
recognised
among
those
brutes
as
king
as
well'.32
Part
of
the
description
is worth
citing
extensively:
They
acknowledge
themselves
to
be obedient
to one called
Ganga-Zumba,
which
means Great Lord. This one is
held
to
be
king
and
master
by
all
of the
rest,
both
natives of Palmares
as
well
as those who come from the outside. He has
a
palace,
houses
for his
family,
and is
attended
by guards
and officials
that
royal
houses
usually
have. He is treated
with all of the
respect
of
a
king
and
with all
of the honours
of a lord. Those
that
come
into
his
presence put
their knees to the
ground
and
clap
their hands as a
sign
of
recognition
and
protestation
of his
excellence.
They
address him as
Majesty
and
obey
him out of admiration. He
dwells
in his
royal
town,
which
they
call Macaco
['Monkey'],
a name derived
from
the death dealt to one of these animals
in
that
place.
This is the
principal
town
among
the
remaining
towns
and
settlements.
It is
wholly
fortified
by
a
palisade
with
embrasures
from
which
they
could
safely
attack combatants.
All
around
the outside was sewn with iron
caltrops
and
such
cunning
pitfalls
that it
had
imperilled
our
greatest vigilance.
This town
occupies
a
broad
area;
it
is
made
up
of more than
,
5
oo
houses. There
is
among
them
a
Minister
of
Justice
for the
necessary
actions,
and
all of
the
trapping
of
any
republic
is found
among
them.
And
although
these barbarians have so
forgotten
subjugation,
they
have
not
wholly lost recognition of the Church. In this town they have a chapel to which
they
resort in their
need,
and statues
to
whom
they
commend their
petitions.
When
this
chapel
was
entered,
there was found a
quite
well-made statue
of the
infant
Jesus,
another
of Our
Lady
of the
Conception,
and
another of Saint Blaise.
They
choose one of their most ladinoswhom
they
venerate as
pastor,
who
baptises
30
Carneiro, O
quilombo
dos
Palmares,
pp.
88.
'Subupira'
and
'Macaco',
not
'Subupuira'
and
'Macoco',
as in
Kent, 'Palmares',
p.
178.
Kent
attempts
to
construct
etymologies
for these
place
names,
seeking
Bantu and
indigenous
American
roots
for them
(pp.
80-8
i).
His
etymologies,
though,
are unscientific and
uncorroborated,
and in the cases
of
Macaco
(in
fact,
Portuguese
for
'monkey')
and Amaro
(the
name of the mocambo's
chief), clearly wrong. Such
a
task is difficult at best, and should not lead to hasty
conclusions. Yeda Pessoa
de
Castro affirms that some Palmarino
place
names,
including
Osenga,
are of Bantu
origin.
Castro,
'Dimensao
dos
aportes
africanos
no
Brasil',
Afro-
Asia,
no.
I6
(1995),
p.
28.
I
have not
yet
seen the
sources
in
which she
explains
their
etymologies.
31
Carneiro,
O
quilombo
dos
Palmares,
p.
I97.
32
Ibid.,
p.
202.
'[N]egro
valoroso,
e reconhecido
daqueles
brutos
como rei tambem.'
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5 54
Robert Nelson Anderson
them and marries them. The
baptism,
however,
is without the form
prescribed
by
the
Church,
and their
weddings
are
without the
particulars required by
natural
law. Their
appetite
is the rule of
their choice.
Each one has the wives he wants.
They are taught some Christian prayers, and the precepts of the faith are observed
which are within their
capacity.
The
king
who resided
in
this town was
living
with three
wives,
one mulatto and
two
native
[black]
women.
By
the first he had
many
children,
by
the
others none. The
way
of dress
among
them is the same as
is observed
among
us
-
more or
less clothed as the
possibilities
allow.
This is the main town of
Palmares. This
is the
king
who rules them. The other
towns are in the
charge
of
potentates
and
chiefs who
govern
and reside in
them.... The second town is called
Subupira.
In this one
governs
the
king's
brother,
who is called Zona. It is all
fortified
with wood and
stones
[and]
comprises
more
than 8oo
houses. It
occupies
an area of
nearly
one
league
in
length.
It is well-watered because the
Cachingy
River flows
through
it. This was
the
place
where the blacks
prepared
for the combat
against
our
assaults.
It
was
wholly
circled with
pitfalls
and to block
(in
the
way
of) our
thrusts,
it was sewn
with
caltrops.33
33
Ibid.,
pp.
i89-90.
'[R]econhecem-se
todos obedientesa um
que
se chama o
Ganga-
Zumba,
que quer
dizer Senhor
Grande;
a
este tem
por
seu rei e senhor todos
os
mais,
assim naturaisdos
Palmares,
como vindos de
f6ra;
tern
palacio,
casas da sua
familia,
e assistido
de
guardas
e oficiais
que
costumam ter
as casas
reais.
E
tratado corn
todos
os
respeitos
de rei
e
corntodas as honrasde senhor.
Os
que
chegam
a sua
presencap6em
os
joelhos
no
chao
e batem
as
palmas
das maos
em
sinal
de
reconhecimento
e
protesta9ao
de sua
excelencia;
falam-lhe
por
Majestade,
obedecem-lhe
por
admiracao.
Habita
a
sua cidade
real,
que
chamamo
Macaco,
nome sortido da morte
que
naquele
lugar
se
deu a um animaldestes. Estae a
metr6pole
entre
as
mais cidades
e
povoac6es;
esti
fortificada
oda em uma cerca de
pau
a
pique
com treneiras
[sic]
abertas
para
ofenderem
a
seu salvo
os
combatentes;
e
pela
parte
de f6ra toda se
semea
de
estrepes
de ferroe de
fojos
tao cavilosos
que
perigara
neles
a
maior
vigilancia;ocupa
esta cidade
dilatado
espaco,
f6rma-sede mais de
1.5
00 casas.
Ha
entre eles Ministros
de
Justicapara
as execu6ces necessarias
e
todos
os arrem&dos e
qualquer
Republica
se acham entre
eles.
E
corn seremestes barbaros ao
esquecidos
de toda
sujeitao,
nao
perderam
de todo o
reconhecimentoda
Igreja.
Nesta cidade tem
capela
a
que
recorremnos seus
apertos
e
imagens
a
quem
recomendamsuas tenyoes.
Quando
se
entrou nesta
capela
achou-se
umaimagemdo Menino Jesus muito perfeita;outra de N. S. da ConceiKao, utra de
Sao Braz. Escolhem
um
dos mais
ladinos,
a
quem
veneramcomo
paroco,
que
os batisa
o os casa. 0 batismo
porem,
e sem
a f6rmadeterminada
ela
Igreja
e os casamentos em
as
singularidades
ue
pede
aindaa lei da naturesa.
0
seu
apetite
e
a
regra
da sua
eleicao.
Cada um tern as mulheres
que quer.
Ensinam-se
entre
eles
algumas
oracoes
cristas,
observam-se
os documentos da
fe
que
cabem
na
sua
capacidade.
0
rei
que
nesta cidade
assistiaestava
acomodadocorn
tres
mulheres,
uma mulata
e
duas creoulas.
Da
primeira
teve muitos
filhos,
das outras nenhum.
0 modo
de
vestir
entre
si
e
o
mesmo
que
observam entre
n6s. Mais ou menos
enroupados
conforme as
possibilidades.
Esta
e
a
principal
idadedos
Palmares,
ste
e
o rei
que
os
domina;
as maiscidades
estao
a
cargo
de
potentados
e cabos m6res
que
as
governam
e assistem nelas....
A
segunda
cidade chama-se Subupira.Nesta assiste o irmao do rei que se chama Zona. E
fortificada oda de madeira
e
pedras,
compreende
mais de
8oo casas.
Ocupa
o
vao
de
perto
duma
legua
de
comprido.
E
abundante de
aguas
porque
corre
por
ela o rio
Cachingy.
Esta
era
a
estancia
onde se
preparavam
s
negros
para
o combate de nossos
assaltos.
Era
toda
cercadade
fojos
e
por
todas
as
partes,por
obviar
(vias aos)
aos nossos
impulsos,
estava semeada
de
estrepes.'
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12/23
The
Quilombo
of
Palmares
555
This
excerpt
is cited at
length,
not
only
for the wealth of
information
it
contains,
but because
the translation
in
Kent is
riddled with errors
and
omissions that
obscure the
meaning
of
the text.
Therefore,
Kent's
translation should be carefully re-read in light of the present version.34
First,
the architecture of Macaco and
Subupira
suggests
that
Palmares
was
on
a
constant
war-footing.
Both towns were surrounded
by
trenches
or
pitfalls
and
caltrops, Subupira
had
a wood
and stone
battery,
and Macaco
had
palisades
with
embrasures.
D. Pedro de Almeida's
chronicler does
not,
however,
state
that the
parapets
had
caltrops.35 Subupira
was a site
of
military
training,
but
the chronicle makes
no
mention
of
arms
being
forged
there.36 Macaco's
fortifications seem to have
employed
features of
both
the Buraco de Tatu mocambo
and the
Angolan palisaded
quilombo
which
Schwartz contrasts
in his
article
on Bahian
mocambos.37
That
is,
the
Palmarino
capital
made use
of the
pitfalls
and
caltrops
found
in
Buraco
de
Tatu as well as the
palisades
found
in
Angola.38
The
religion
of
the
polity
was
probably
a
syncretism
of
Christian and
African belief and
practice,
and
this is
conveyed
in
Kent's
translation,
despite
its
shortcomings.
I
want to
clarify
the character of this
syncretism.39
Macaco had
a
chapel
to which the Palmarinos resorted when
in
need,
containing
statues of
apparently
Christian
figures
before which
they brought petitions. The Palmarinos did not go to church 'whenever
time
allow[ed]'
as Kent
states,
nor does the
chronicler
say
that the
statues
were
worshipped
as such. The
pastor
was
probably
ladino
n the
sense
that
34
See
Kent,
'Palmares',
pp.
179-80.
35
See
also
Carneiro,
O
quilombo
dos
Palmares,
p.
197.
36
See
ibid.
37
Schwartz,
'The
Mocambo:Slave Resistance
in
Colonial
Bahia',
in
Price,
Maroon
Societies,
pp.
202-26.
Originally
published
in
Journal of
Social
History,
no.
3
(1970),
pp.
313-33.
38
See
description
and
figures,
ibid.,
pp.
220-I.
39
The notion of
'syncretism'
has an
ancient
history
in
the
scholarship
on
religion
and
more
recently
scholars have
sought
to
give
the term more
rigour.
See
Carsen
Colpe,
'Syncretism', in Mircea Eliade (ed.), The Encyclopedia f Religion,
i6
vols. (New York,
1987),
vol.
14,
pp.
218-27.
For
the Brazilian
context,
see
Bastide,
The
African
Religions
of
Brazil,
passim.
Recently,
Leslie
Gerald
Desmangles
used Bastide's
categories,
renaming
the
phenomena
'symbiosis' by
way
of
describing
the nature of Haitian
syncretism.
Desmangles,
Faces
of
the Gods: Vodou
and Roman Catholicism
n Haiti
(Chapel
Hill, N.C.,
I992),
pp.
7-Ii.
There are
modes
of
syncretism,
related
to the social
processes
that
engender
it.
For
example,
syncretism may
arise when
the
hegemonic
religious
tradition is
a
protective
facade,
in
which
case
the
metaphor
of 'veneer' is
appropriate.
Often, however,
the
juxtaposed religious
traditions are
complementary
avenues to
power
and
experience,
both
temporal
and
metaphysical,
as has often been
the case
in Brazil
and Haiti.
Finally,
there
are
cases of
genuine
fusion
-
the
operative
metaphor
here
is
amalgam
-
which
have
arisen
historically. What is sometimes missing
in the
debates
on
sociology
of
religion
is
that a
community may
be
multimodal in its
syncretism.
Given
the
difficulty
of
interpreting
the artifacts of
belief
and
practice
from
a distant
time,
which
affects research of the
prehistory
of Afro-Brazilian
religions,
'syncretism'
affords the
elasticity necessary
to
describe the data without
speculating
recklessly
on the
particularities
of
the
phenomena.
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13/23
5
5
6
Robert Nelson Anderson
he was at least
nominally
Catholic,
spoke Portuguese,
perhaps
knew
prayers,
and
was otherwise
'acculturated'. He
may
or
may
not
have
been
'crafty',
as
Kent
renders. The
description
of the
practice
of
polygamy
certainly
did not conform to
Portuguese
norms. However, for Kent to
state
that it
was
'singularly
close
to
the laws
of
nature' rather
than
'without the
particulars
required
by
natural law' misses
an
important
theological point,
i.e.,
that
natural
law,
as understood
by
the
Church,.
ordains
monogamy,
sanctioned
by
sacramental
marriage.
The other
particulars
of belief
and
practice
of African
origin
that
must
have
been
present
are not stated.
Their
presence
must be inferred
from
the sense
of
distortion
or
imperfection
of Catholic
practice
sensed
and
relayed
by
the
chronicler.40
It is indeed
a
reasonable
hypothesis
that Palmares
was a
diverse and
dynamic community
as
regards religion.
The
religious
evidence of
a creolised Afro-American culture
is
reinforced
by
a
parallel phenomenon
in
dress,
according
to the chronicle:
the
Palmarinos
dressed
more or
less like the
colonials,
within their
capacity
to do so.
The
description
of the
royal
Palmarino
envoy
to D.
Pedro de Almeida mentions 'barbarians'
wearing
both
animal
skins
and
cloth,
with
various
hair
styles, including
braids,
bearing
both bows
and
arrows and firearms.41
Despite
the
chronicler
describing
this as 'usual'
dress, it is reasonable to assume that on such an occasion the Palmarinos
would be
in
their most festive
and
martial attire. Fuller details
of
Palmarino dress and
its
significance
can
only
be
glimpsed
and
compared
with better studied
periods
and
places
in Brazil.
Engravings
and
photographs
from as
late as the nineteenth
century
reveal
a mix
of
African
and
European
dress
among
Brazilian slaves.42
Recently
Silvia Hunold
Lara has
begun analysing
the
complex
significance
of female dress and
adornment
in
colonial
Brazil,
concluding
that this
visual
language,
which
signified
racial and
power
relations
to the white slave
owning
class,
had
other cultural
meanings
for the African.43
As
regards government,
the
'RelaSao'
clearly
refers
to
Ganga-Zumba
as
'
rei'
('king')
and to his residence
as
a
'palacio'
('palace');
the
'guards
and officials'
are those
customary
for
a
'royal
house',
not
having
'by
custom,
casas which
approach
those
of
royalty'.44
The
point
here
is
that
Kent's
translation
mitigates
the
perception
held
by
the
Portuguese,
not to
mention the
Palmarinos,
that the leaders
of Palmares
were viewed
in some
40
See
Bastide,
The
African
Religions
of
Brazil,
pp.
83-90.
4 Carneiro, 0 quilombodos Palmares,p. 203.
42
Mary
Karasch,
Slave
Life
in Rio de
Janeiro,
80oo-I8yo
(Princeton,
I987),
passim;
Robert
Levine
(prod.),
Faces
of
Slavery
(Miami,
I990).
Videocassette.
43
'Sob
o
signo
da cor:
Trajes
femininos
e
relaSoes
raciais
nas
cidades de Salvador
e Rio
de
Janeiro',
paper
delivered
at the
meeting
of the Latin
American Studies
Association,
Washington,
D.C.,
Sept.
I995.
4
Kent, 'Palmares',
p.
I79.
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14/23
The
Quilombo
of
Palmares
5 57
sense as
royalty,
even
if that
sense was
more African than
European.
In
a
gesture
of
respect
towards
royalty
Palmarinos knelt and
clapped
hands.
They
did
not
beat
palm
leaves,
as Kent
states.
This
gesture
was
repeated
by
the Palmarino
envoy
in Recife.45 Luis da Camara Cascudo has
commented
on
praise greeting
by
prostration
and
hand
clapping
in
Africa.46 It would also
appear
that the
principal
town of
Palmares was
christened
by
and on the occasion of the
sacrifice of a
monkey.
Kent
mentions 'site initiation
with animal
blood'
in
passing
in
his
conclusion,
but
in
no
way
connects
it
with
the
name
of the
capital
town.47
Thus,
a
number of errors
in
transcription
and translation
muddle
intriguing
data
about what
appear
to be
non-European
civil
and
religious practices.
More
seriously, though,
the flaws
in
this
translation seem to have
affected the nuance
of
Kent's
interesting
conclusion,
that
'Palmares was
a
centralized
kingdom
with an
elected ruler'
and that
'Ganga-Zumba
delegated
territorial
power
and
appointed
to
offce'.48
Admittedly
there
is
nothing
in
Kent's evidence or
analysis
that
is inconsistent with a
view of
Palmares as a
paramount
chiefdom
or
kingdom along
Central African
lines,
as he has
argued.
In
fact,
Kent's assertion that
'the
political
system
[of Palmares]
did not derive from a
particular
Central African
model,
but
from
several'
prefigures
Schwartz's later
inquiry.49
What
is
troubling
is
that the Portuguese version of the 'RelaSao' suggests a political
organisation
more
complex,
even
more
contradictory
than
a
'centralised'
state
with
'delegated' power imagined
by
Kent. The
'potentates
and
chiefs' of the
other
towns,
did
not
govern
'in
[Ganga-Zumba's]
name',
as Kent
renders;
the
chronicle
says
no such
thing.
In
fact,
the chronicle
suggests
confederation and
tributary
relations
among
the Palmarino
towns,
reinforced
by
what
also
appear
to be
lineage
or
family
relations.
The
'Relacao'
states that
Palmares
had 'all the
trappings
of
any
Republic'.
5
Yet
the
descriptions
of Palmares as a
republic
with an
elective
kingship,
as
though
chosen
by
general
suffrage,
found in Rocha Pitta,
Oliveira
Martins,
Santos,
and
Freitas,
have scant foundation in the
primary
sources.51
Perhaps 'republic'
should be taken to mean
'state',
as
Nina
Rodrigues
suggested,52
and
the election of the
king
could derive
45
Carneiro,
O
quilombo
dos
Palmares,
p.
203.
46
Luis
da
Camara
Cascudo,
'A
saudaSao
africana',
in
Made in
Africa:
Pesquisas
e
notas
(Rio
de
Janeiro,
I965),
pp.
82-9.
Carneiro
noted the
existence
of a
hand-snapping
gesture
in
West
Africa
as a
sign
of
vassalage
that was
also used in the cult of
Xang6.
Carneiro,
p. 43, n.
2.
47
Kent, 'Palmares', p. i88.
48
Ibid.,
p.
I87.
Emphasis
added.
49
Ibid.,
p.
i88.
50
Carneiro,
O
quilombo
dos
Palmares,
p.
I89,
cited above. This
phrase
is
very
loosely
translated
by
Kent as
'their
office
is
duplicated
elsewhere'.
51
See
Bastide,
The
African
Religions
of Brazil, p.
87.
52
Nina
Rodrigues,
Os
africanos
no
Brasil,
pp.
I20-I.
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15/23
55
8 Robert Nelson
Anderson
from
descriptions
of
chiefly
and bureaucratic checks on
the
power
of the
king
and the lack
of
hereditary
succession,
all
of which
might
look
'republican'
to
the
Euro-Brazilian
observer.
Nothing
in
this
supposition,
however,
precludes
the
possibility
that the
principal
chief was elected
by
the
chiefs of the constituent
villages
or
even
by
popular
acclaim,
as
among
the
Imbangala
of
seventeenth-century
Angola.
It was
Schwartz who noted the connection
between the
quilombo
of
Brazil and
the institution
by
the same name in
Angola
(KiMbundu
kilombo).53
He
synthesised
his
knowledge
of maroons in colonial Brazil
with the
history
of
state formation in
seventeenth-century
Angola
as
related
by
Joseph
C. Miller.54
While the more
general
word
for
maroon
settlement in colonial Brazil
is mocambo
(Kimbundu mukambo,
'hide-
out'),55
the
word
quilombo,
referring
to
the
same
thing,
gains
currency
only
in
the late
seventeenth
century,
and
then
only
at
first
in
connection
with
Palmares.56 Kent is
right
to
point
out that
quilombo
s not
the
usual
designation
for 'maroon
settlement'
until the
present
century.
That the
term
quilombo
s
rarely
applied
to maroon
settlements other
than Palmares
prior
to this
century
has
implications
for
the
arguments concerning
African structure of the
polity
of Palmares
proposed
by
Kent and
subsequent
scholars.
In Angola the kilombo was originally a male initiation camp and, by
extension,
a
male
military society.
During
the
seventeenth
century
the
territory
the
Portuguese
called
Angola
was
disrupted by
factors
that
included the
pressure
of
the
Portuguese
slave
trade and
occupation
of
the
coast,
by
the
collapse
of states such
as
the
Kingdom
of the
Kongo
to the
north,
and
by
invasions
principally
from
the northeast. The
people
of
central
Angola
responded
by
coalescing
under
the
name
'Imbangala'.
In
contrast to
prior
states
in
the
area,
which
crystallised
around a
royal
lineage
of
divine
kings,
the nascent
Imbangala
states
gathered
together
diverse
peoples
in a
lineageless
community.
Since these communities
existed
in
conditions
of
military
conflict
and
political upheaval
they
found
in
the institution of the
kilombo
a
unifying
structure suitable
for
a
people
under constant
military
alert.57
It
is
clear
that the wars
in
Angola
were
feeding
the
slave trade to the Northeast of
Brazil,
a
market
that
expanded
53
Schwartz, Slaves, Peasants,
and
Rebels,
pp.
122-36.
54
Kings
and
Kinsmen:
Early
Mbundu
States
in
Angola
(Oxford,
1976).
55 Antonio
Geraldo
da
Cunha,
Diciondrio
etimologico
Nova Fronteira
da
lingua
portuguesa
Rio
de Janeiro,
1982),
p.
526.
56
Schwartz,
Slaves, Peasants,
and
Rebels,
p.
12
5.
Although
as Schwartz
points
out,
colonial
choniclers used
the
phrase 'kingdom
and
quilombo'
to refer
to
Matamba
and other
Imbangala-influenced
olities
in
seventeenth-century
Angola,
such that
'[q]uilombo
as
becoming
a
synonym
for a
kingdom
of a
particular
ype
in
Angola'
(ibid.,
p.
128).
57
Schwartz,
Slaves, Peasants,
and
Rebels,
pp.
25-7;
Miller,
passim.
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16/23
The
Quilombo
of
Palmares
5
9
to
recoup
the
losses
during
the
Dutch
occupation.
It
is
reasonable to
assume
that
many,
if
not
most,
of the
Palmarinos
were the
descendants of
slaves
from
Angola,
and
many may
have been
recent
arrivals from
among
the
Imbangala.58
Indeed,
the residents of Palmares called it
Angola
Janga,
supposedly
'Little
Angola'.59
Yet,
whatever
the
Central
African
presence
in
Palmares,
by
the
second
half of the seventeenth
century
it
was
clearly
a
multiethnic and
mostly
creole
community.
The
population
of Palmares
in the
I67os
appears
to
have been
largely
native-born and of African descent.60
The
balance
of
the
population
would have been
runaway
slaves,
slaves and free
persons
captured
in
raids,
colonials
who had suffered
political
reversals
as a
consequence
of the
Portuguese reconquest
of
Pernambuco,
and
poor
free
immigrants
of all racial
backgrounds.61
Preliminary
results of the Palmares
Excavation
project
also confirm a
strong indigenous
American
presence,
presumably
among
the women.62
During
this time
the
paramount
chief
of
Palmares
was
Ganga-Zumba,
probably
a title rather than a
proper
name.
As
Schwartz
and
Miller have
noted
nganga
a
nIumbi
was
a
religious
title
among
the
Imbangala,
one
whose
responsibilities
included
relieving
sufferings
caused
by
an
unhappy
spirit
of a
lineage
ancestor.63
In a
fundamentally
lineageless
society
like the
Imbangala- or the colonial maroon- this official would have great
importance,
as
it
would fall
to
him to
appease
those ancestral
spirits
who
had been cut loose from their descendants
and had
therefore been
deprived
of
family
propitiation.
Schwartz
speculates
that
Ganga-Zumba
of Palmares
held such an office.
Despite
the
title
and
apparent
official
function
of Bantu
origin,
the
Ganga-Zumba
known to
history may
have
been
a native
Palmarino
of
the Ardra
nation,
identifiable
with
the
Ewe-speaking
Allada
state on the
Slave Coast.64
Zumbi was the war
commander
of
Palmares
under
Ganga-Zumba.
Freitas
gives
a
biographical portrait
of Zumbi which has often been
repeated
as
fact,
while
raising
doubts
among
scholars about its
veracity.65
The
suspicion
is
justifiable: although
Freitas cites numerous
published
58
Bastide,
The
African Religions of Brazil,
pp.
84-5;
Schwartz, Slaves, Peasants,
and
Rebels,
p. I25.
59
Ennes,
As
guerras
nos
Palmares,
doc.
54,
article
I.
I
have been unable to confirm the
sense
ofjanga
as 'little'
in
KiKongo
or
KiMbundu.
My
best
hypothesis
is
that
Angola
Janga
is
from KiMbundu
ngola adianga,
first
Angola'.
60 Carneiro,0 quilomboosPalmares, . I89; Kent, 'Palmares',p. 180.
61
Freitas,
Palmares,
pp.
182,
I85.
62
Funari,
quoted
in
'Neto'.
63
Miller,
pp.
254-5;
Schwartz,Slaves, Peasants,
and
Rebels,
p.
I27.
KiMbundu
nganga,
'priest'; ngumbi,
ancestor
spirit'.
64
Freitas,Palmares,
.
Ioz.
Freitas,
however,
does not
give
the source
of
this
information.
65
Ibid.,
pp.
125-7.
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560
Robert
Nelson Anderson
and
manuscript
sources
in
his
bibliography,
there is little
rigour
in
citation
of sources in the
narrative. For
example,
Freitas works from
'various
letters'
written
by
Priest
Antonio
Melo,
without
giving
the
disposition
of
those letters.
However,
journalists
reporting
from
Portugal
for the Folha
de
Sao
Paulo
tentatively
corroborate the existence of Father
Melo's letters:
one in the
Arquivo
Historfco Ultramarino and several in
the
possession
of
Graziela
de
Cadaval,
Countess of
Schonborn,
not
seen
by
the
reporters
but
copied
with
permission by
Freitas.66Freitas writes
that
Zumbi
was
born
in
65 5.
That same
year
Bras da Rocha
Cardoso led
the
first
Portuguese
attack
on Palmares
after
the
expulsion
of the
Dutch.
During
that
otherwise
ineffective and
unremarkable
attack,
a
baby
boy,
native to
Palmares,
was
captured
and later
given
to
Father Melo in
the Coastal town of Porto
Calvo. The
boy,
baptised
Francisco
by
the
priest,
was raised as
the
priest's
protege
and
instructed
in
Portuguese,
Latin,
and other
subjects.
At
the
age
of
fifteen,
in
I670,
the
youth
ran
away
to
Palmares,
although
he later
continued to
pay
the
priest
secret visits.
Francisco
reemerges
in
Governor d. Pedro de
Almeida's chronicle
as
'Zambi',
the
'general
das armas' of
Palmares.67
During
the
campaign
led
by
Sergeant-Major
Manuel
Lopes
(Galvao)
in
I675-76,
'Zambi' suffered
a
leg
wound that left him with a
limp.68
He is
described as
a
'black
man
of singular valour, great spirit, and rare constancy. He is the overseer of
the
rest,
because his
industry,
judgement,
and
strength
to our
people
serve
as
an
obstacle;
to
his,
as an
example'.69
A
document
received
by
the
Conselho
Ultramarino,
partially
cited
in
Freitas,
attributes Palmares's
resistance
to
'military
practice
made warlike
in
the
discipline
of their
captain
and
general,
Zumbi,
who made them
very
handy
in
use of all
arms,
of which
they
have
many
and
in
great quantity
-
firearms,
as
well
as
swords,
lances,
and
arrows'.70
The historical
record
has
helped
to
confuse
the
issue
of
proper
names
at Palmares. It is uncertain whether 'Zumbi' was a
proper
name,
title,
epithet,
or
praise
name. Freitas advances the idea that it
was
not
a
title but
a
given
name
or
even
nickname,
since
there
is
only
one
person
known
to
history
as
Zumbi,
and his
name occurs
in
the record
only
between
I675
66
Aureliano Biancarelli and
Jair
Battner,
'Pistas
dispersas:
Milhares de documentos
aguardam catalogaao',
Folha
de Sao
Paulo, I2
Nov.
1995,
sec.
5
['Mais '],
p.
6;
'Arquivo
r