the quilombo of palmares.pdf

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 .Accessed: 25/01/2014 13:33

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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 Palmares and 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 mythification of Zumbi or its representation in artistic production is beyond the

Robert Nelson Anderson is Visiting Assistant Professor in Romance Languages at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

J. Lat. Amer. Stud. 28, 545-566 Copyright ? I996 Cambridge University Press 545


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

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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.


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, and 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 significance of Palmares to African history is that an African political system could be transferred to 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 in 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.



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 Brazilian Slavery (Urbana,

Ill., 1992), p. 134, n. 65. The English translation of Roger Bastide's Les Religions Afro- Bresiliennes includes 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 Religions of Bragil: Towards a 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 Information from the Lintz and Baro expeditions was compiled by Caspar Barlaeus (Gaspar Barleus) and translated into Portuguese by Claudio Brandao as Historia dos feitos recentemente praticados durante oito anos no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, 1940). Originally published as Rerum per octenium in Brasilia (I647). The account of the Blaer-Reijmbach expedition was translated from 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 Pernambucano and reprinted in Edison Carneiro, O quilombo dos Palmares, I6Jo-I69y, Ist ed. (Sao Paulo, 1947), pp. 231-9. Documents from the second Livro de Vereafoes da Camara de Alagoas, providing additional information 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 guerras feitas aos Palmares de Pernambuco no 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 dos Palmares reproduce the primary sources as an appendix. The third edition (Rio de Janeiro, 1966) is a version of the


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, Domingos Jorge 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 desde o anno de mil e quinhentos do seu descobrimento ate 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, insurreifoes e 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 no 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.


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, paragraphs 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.


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 mocambos and 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 mocambo had 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 quilombo dos Palmares, p. 188. 20 Freitas, Palmares, p. 5; Kent, 'Palmares', p. 175. On mocambo vs. quilombo, see 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 Brasiliaense 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.


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 farm. 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 foodstuffs 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.


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 ladinos whom 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.'



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 obedientes a um que se chama o Ganga-

Zumba, que quer dizer Senhor Grande; a este tem por seu rei e senhor todos os mais, assim naturais dos 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 corn todas as honras de senhor. Os que chegam a sua presenca p6em 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 chamam o Macaco, nome sortido da morte que naquele lugar se deu a um animal destes. Esta e a metr6pole entre as mais cidades e povoac6es; esti fortificada toda 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 ferro e de fojos tao cavilosos que perigara neles a maior vigilancia; ocupa esta cidade dilatado espaco, f6rma-se de mais de 1.5 00 casas. Ha entre eles Ministros de Justica para as execu6ces necessarias e todos os arrem&dos de qualquer Republica se acham entre eles.

E corn serem estes barbaros tao esquecidos de toda sujeitao, nao perderam de todo o reconhecimento da Igreja. Nesta cidade tem capela a que recorrem nos seus apertos e imagens a quem recomendam suas tenyoes. Quando se entrou nesta capela achou-se uma imagem do Menino Jesus muito perfeita; outra de N. S. da ConceiKao, outra de Sao Braz. Escolhem um dos mais ladinos, a quem veneram como paroco, que os batisa o os casa. 0 batismo porem, e sem a f6rma determinada pela Igreja e os casamentos sem as singularidades que pede ainda a 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 assistia estava acomodado corn 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 cidade dos Palmares, este e o rei que os domina; as mais cidades 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 toda 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 os negros para o combate de nossos assaltos. Era toda cercada de fojos e por todas as partes, por obviar (vias aos) aos nossos impulsos, estava semeada de estrepes.'


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 in 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 of 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 in 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.


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 quilombo dos 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.


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.



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 is not the usual designation for 'maroon settlement' until the present century. That the term quilombo is 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 polities in seventeenth-century Angola, such that '[q]uilombo was becoming a synonym for a kingdom of a particular type in Angola' (ibid., p. 128).

57 Schwartz, Slaves, Peasants, and Rebels, pp. 25-7; Miller, passim.


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 iadianga, 'first Angola'. 60 Carneiro, 0 quilombo dos Palmares, p. 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, p. Ioz. Freitas, however, does not give the source of this information. 65 Ibid., pp. 125-7.



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.66 Freitas 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 revela que Zumbi sabia latim', ibid., p. 7, initialled 'B.A.', presumably Aureliano Biancarelli as well. 67 Carneiro, O quilombo dos Palmares, p. I93.

68 Freitas, Palmares, p. Ioo; Carneiro, O quilombo dos Palmares, p. 193. 69 Ibid., pp. 193-4. '[N]egro de singular valor, grande animo e constancia rara. Este e o

espectador dos mais, porque a sua industria, juizo e fortalesa aos nossos serve de embara9o, aos seus de exemplo.'

70 Freitas, Palmares, p. i i. '[P]ratica militar aguerrida na disciplina do seu capitao e general Zumbi, que os fez destrissimos no uso de todas as armas, de que tem muitas e em quantidade assim de fogo como de espadas, lanSas e flechas'.


The Quilombo of Palmares 5 61 and 695.71 This is notwithstanding the account of the Carrilho expedition which mentions the capture of a 'Zambi', 'a son of the king', who was patently not the general 'Zambi' wounded two years earlier.72 However, there could be confusion here with one Matias Dambi mentioned later, referred to somewhat ambiguously as Ganga-Zumba's father-in-law.73 The question arises as to whether or not we are dealing in fact with a family name or title, especially where the notorious difficulty of translating kinship terms and titles could have muddled the historical record. In the official documents, the name appears variously as 'Zumbi', 'Zambi', 'Zombi', and 'Zomby'. Earlier orthography did not indicate stress consistently, so it is possible that the name was stressed on the penultimate syllable, as in KiMbundu, rather than the last, as is customary today.

The seemingly petty uncertainty about the vowel and stress reveals a tangle of uncertainty about the significance of the name. NZambi is the usual KiMbundu name for the Supreme Being. In KiKongo nzambi means 'spirit', and is qualified when referring to the Supreme Being as Nzambi Mpungo or 'Highest Spirit'.74 The Brazilian forms of both names Zambi and Zambiampungo occur to this day in the Bantu-influenced religions of Brazil.75 Therefore, deification of Zumbi would appear to be set in motion by his very name. But the situation is more complex yet. In KiMbundu, while NZambi refers narrowly to the Supreme Being, the word nwumbi means 'ancestral spirit', as noted in connection with the religious title nganga a nzumbi above. The nZumbi is similar, if not identical, to the category of spirit that the BaKongo call in the singular n'kulu.76 In Central African culture a ngumbi demands special propitiatory attention, lest it disturb its descendants. Often European observers have only partially understood the nature of this spirit. For example, Albino Alves gives the following definition of 'ndjumbi': 'spirit of a person who, murdered without blame, later enters the body of the children of the murderer and kills them, until it is placated by a sacrifice'.77 For this reason, the KiMbundu nZumbi has often been mistranslated as 'evil spirit'. It is this sense that is usually meant in Brazil by Zumbi.78 Colloquially in Brazil zumbi also refers to someone with nocturnal inclinations.79 We could also 71 Ibid., p. 126. 72 Carneiro, O quilombo dos Palmares, p. I99. 73 Ibid., p. 201. 74 Wyatt MacGaffey, Religion and Society in Central Africa: The BaKongo of Lower Zaire

(Chicago, 1986), p. 78. 75 Bastide, The African Religions of Brazil, pp. 194-5, 201-2. 76 MacGaffey, Religion and Society, pp. 63-5. Plural bakulu, 'ancestors'. 77 Albino Alves, Diciondrio etimologico bundo-portugues (Lisbon, i95 i), p. 865. Espirito de

pessoa que, assassinada sem culpa, entra depois no corpo dos filhos do assassino e os mata, enquanto nao 6 aplacado com um sacrificio.'

78 Lufs da Camara Cascudo, 'Noticia do Zumbi', in Made in Africa, p. 13. 79 Ibid.



compare the etymology of the word to the cognate Haitian Zombi and all of the meanings and connotations that 'zombie' has acquired in English.80 It is a matter of speculation how Zumbi came to receive his name, but there can be little doubt that his compatriots viewed the name within the paradigm of the cult of ancestors. Perhaps, if Freitas's biography is accurate, Francisco/Zumbi had figuratively returned from the dead when he returned to Palmares. To the sugar plantation owners and colonial officials, however, Zumbi was surely the 'evil spirit' of folklore, descending at night to wreak havoc on their patrimony. This polysemy of the name Zumbi, born of cultural difference, continues to the present.

A similar confusion surrounds the name 'Ganga-Zumba'. While this is probably the Imbangala religious title nganga a ntumbi, as stated above, 'Ganga-Zumba' is usually rendered incorrectly in the Portuguese sources as 'Great Lord'.s8 The KiMbundu title for respectful address is ngana, approximately 'sir', 'lord', or nowadays, 'mister'. It is not clear however how 'Zumba' could translate 'great'. A KiMbundu epithet for the Supreme Being is Ngana Nrambi, the Christian translation of which is 'Lord God' (cf. Nfambi above). Heli Chatelain records a story in which the character Ngana Fenda Maria is accosted by a voice from the sky while travelling, to whom she replies, 'inga u mutu, inga u nzumbi, inga eie Ngana Nzambi, ngaiola (Whether thou be a person, whether thou be a ghost [sic], whether thou be the Lord God, I am going').82 The similarity between these names might lead one to equate Ngana Nzambi with Ganga-Zumba. In fact, sources occasionally give the Palmarino king's name as 'Ganga-Zumbi', thus utterly confusing the names (or titles) of the only two leaders of Palmares known to history. In any case, confusion of these two names with names for the Supreme Being and other supernatural beings of the Central African ethos have contributed to the apotheosis of Ganga-Zumba and Zumbi in much of the subsequent cultural production of an epic or heroic nature.

Ganga-Zumba was wounded in an attack on the mocambo of Amaro in November 1677, and a number of his sons, nephews, and grandchildren were captured.83 The destruction wrought by Carrilho must have had an effect. In 1678, Ganga-Zumba, tired of war, accepted terms of peace from

80 Wade Davis agrees with Wyatt MacGaffey in deriving Zombi from KiKongo nzambi. Davis, Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombi (Chapel Hill, N.C., I988), p. 57. There is no reason to discount several cognate Bantu sources for the Haitian word. Haitians distinguish the corporeal Zombi (Davis's zombi corps cadavre) and the spirit Zombi (Davis's Zombi astral or zombi ti bon ange), ibid., pp. 183, I 90-3. See also Alfred Metraux, Voodoo in Haiti, Hugo Charteris (trans.), (London, 1959), pp. 258, 281-5. 81 Carneiro, O quilombo dos Palmares, p. I89. 82 Folk-tales of Angola (Boston, I894), p. 33. 83 Carneiro, 0 quilombo dos Palmares, p. 199.


The Quilombo of Palmares 563 the governor of Pernambuco, which affirmed his sovereignty over his people on the condition that he return any fugitive slaves and move his people from Palmares to the Cucai Valley.84 Sometime thereafter, Ganga- Zumba and his followers relocated to the Cucati Valley, closer to the watchful eye of the colonial government.

However, Ganga-Zumba's treaty did not gain peace. An opposition faction preferred resistance to removal. A bann from Sergeant-Major Manuel Lopes, dated i680, called on 'Captain Zumbi' and other rebels to cease their uprising, to adhere to the terms of the treaty, and to join his uncle, Gana-Zona.85 The document also affirms that in 1680 Zumbi or his partisans had poisoned their king 'Ganazumba'. Kent viewed this last act as a 'palace revolt'.86 Clearly, Ganga-Zumba's concessions had provoked a rift in Palmares, but the death may also be viewed as the widespread African practice of sanctioned regicide, the severest penalty for royal weakness or abuse of power. Zumbi, until then a chief and military commander, occupied the capital and was proclaimed supreme chief. He immediately set about prosecuting the defensive war against the Portuguese, ruling Palmares with dictatorial authority.87 Zumbi thus ruled Palmares from the time of Ganga-Zumba's move to Cucau to the destruction of Palmares in I694.

The broken peace eventually precipitated the enlistment of the aid of the 'Bush Captain' Domingos Jorge Velho.88 This bandeirante- or wilderness tamer - from Sao Paulo, and his irregulars joined fores raised in the Northeast for an assault on Palmares in 1692. In late 1693, after the defeat the year before, a new combined expeditionary force gathered in Porto Calvo. When they reached the heavy fortification of the royal compound of Macaco, they laid siege for 22 days. The attackers were building a counter-fortification in order to move their canon within range of the compound palisade when the Palmarinos began abandoning their positions, either to attack from the rear or in order to flee through a break in the opposing fortification.89 In the ensuing battle on 5-6 February 1994, Jorge Velho took some 400 prisoners. Another 3oo00 died in battle, while some 200 hurled themselves or were forced from the precipice at the

84 Ibid., pp. 203-5; Kent, 'Palmares', pp. 183-6; Freitas, pp. 118-21. 85 Carneiro, O quilombo dos Palmares, pp. 228-9. 86 Kent, 'Palmares', p. i86. 87 Freitas, Palmares, p. I 24. 88

'Capitio-do-mato', a field commander charged with fighting Indians and capturing runaway slaves. For a discussion of this office, see Schwartz, 'The Mocambo', pp. 2 2-3. 89 For drawings of how these opposing fortifications may have looked, see Joel Rufino dos Santos, pp. 44-5. After visiting the site of Macaco on the Serra da Barriga or 'Belly Ridge', it is my opinion that Jorge Velho's diagonal wall was built to protect the cannons and troops in their difficult ascent of the flank of the ridge; it was not built on level ground, as the pictures suggest.



rear of the compound. In all, some 5oo Palmarinos were killed and over 500 total were taken prisoner in the campaign.90

Zumbi had escaped this fatal battle. He continued to skirmish with the Portuguese for over a year, until one of his aides revealed his location. There Zumbi and a small band of followers were ambushed and killed. His mutilated body was identified in Porto Calvo. Then his head was taken to Recife, the capital of Pernambuco, and displayed as proof against claims of his immortality.91 Jorge Velho fixed the date of Zumbi's death at 20 November I695.92

These events recorded and republished in the historical record over the last four centuries provide the epic material of Zumbi of Palmares. Since the seventeenth century later accretions and variants have been incorporated into the textual tradition. A case in point is the alternate version of Zumbi's death, in which Zumbi allegedly hurled himself from the precipice during the final assault on Macaco to avoid capture. The story was committed to history by Rocha Pitta, who claimed to have learned it from a survivor. This romantic episode has been repeated by several secondary sources, and has been incorporated into some artistic works on Palmares. The version has its basis in the statements by eyewitnesses that a number of Zumbi's compatriots met a similar fate. While the secondary sources coincide in great measure of their detail, they also contain internal contradictions and ambiguities. Together the primary and secondary sources have woven the text that became the authorised history of Palmares, at times describing the state in ahistorical terms that obscure the fact that quilombos existed in the Palmares region for at least

50o years. This ahistorical conflation of detail has contributed in effect to the mythification of Palmares.

The historiography of Palmares is necessarily elite historiography. We do not know of any surviving accounts of Palmares by Palmarinos. The record of popular oral history is scant although it certainly exists. Notable is a report by Arthur Ramos on a popular pageant performed in Pilar, Alagoas, as late as the I93os.93 Also Carolina Maria de Jesus recalls her unschooled grandfather telling her of Zumbi's battle against slavery.94 The Bahian afoxes of the turn of the century celebrated Zumbi as a hero.95

90 Accounts of the destruction of Palmares are found in Freitas, Palmares, I69-8; Carneiro, O quilombo dos Palmares, I40-6; Ennes, As guerras nos Palmares, docs. 24, 26, 92-95. 91 Ibid., doc. 38. See also Morse, The Bandeirantes, p. 12I.

92 Carneiro, O quilombo dos Palmares, pp. I5o-1. 93 Arthur Ramos, O folclore negro do Brasil: demopsicologia e psicandlise, 2nd ed. (Rio de

Janeiro, 1954), pp. 60-7. 94 Carolina Maria de Jesus, Didrio de Bitita (Rio de Janeiro, I986), p. 58. 95 Daniel J. Crowley, African Myth and Black Reality in Bahian Carnaval (Los Angeles,

I984), pp. 23, 29.


The Quilombo of Palmares 565 In the absence of more information, however, it is impossible to say how much the existing works about Palmares owe to oral literature uninformed by erudite scholarship. These historiographic facts mean that nowadays activists, artists, and scholars desirous of avoiding Eurocentric accounts have had to rely on documents written by outsiders. This has not prevented them from appropriating that elite discourse, and doing so frequently. One could argue that they have little choice in the matter, and that such a strategy is nevertheless subversive.

However, I would add that the historical record offers ample evidence within a small corpus that at least suggests creole Brazilian alternatives, many ultimately of African origins. While subsequent generations have added interpretations and mythic accretions to this record, they have not necessarily contradicted the Afro-Brazilian character of the community that was Palmares. It would appear then that in mature Palmares Central African titles and political and public ritual practices prevailed among a heterogeneous creole population. This seeming incongruity is explained by the very continuity of the kilombo/quilombo discussed by Schwartz. The flexibility of the institution of the Kilombo as a mechanism for integrating a lineageless community engaged in warfare and self-defence, as was Palmares, explains why some adaptation of the Imbangala institution would thrive in Brazil, even if only a minority of Palmares's inhabitants were actually Imbangala. It has been faulty logic to assume that because Bantu evidence exists in titles, toponymy, and cultural practices, that Central African-born Bantus necessarily predominated in Palmares, and that Palmares was conservatively Central African. Whatever the ethnic composition of Palmares at any given time, one can make the case that certain African cultural forms and practices lent themselves to adaptation to the problematic of the New World. In this instance, the Central African solution of the quilombo served the Brazilian maroons, uniting malungos, or comrades, from diverse ethnic backgrounds, not on the basis of lineage, but for the purposes of commodity production, raiding, and self-defence. The persistence and adaptation of African cultural elements such as the quilombo to the Afro-Brazilian creole context, in fact, demonstrates the continuity of African and African Diasporic cultures in the process of New World transculturation.96

Such has been the grist for the mills of historians, ethnographers, artists, and activists, regardless of their ideological formations and pragmatic aims. Better descriptions of the continuity and elaboration of Central African cultural forms in the Brazilian quilombo depend on future 96 For the general conceptual framework on which these conclusions are based, see

Sidney W. Mintz and Richard Price, The Birth of African American Culture: An Anthropological Perspective (Boston, I992).



primary research on Palmares and other Brazilian maroons. Doubtless we all stand to learn much from the efforts of those in disciplines such as folklore, oral history, and archaeology. Archives in Brazil, Portugal, and Angola have a wealth of information yet to yield. In the meantime, activists, artists, and intellectuals concerned with the experience of the African in Brazil have made a bounty of a poor man's charity. Appropriating the historical record they have undertaken to fashion the epic of Zumbi of Palmares.


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Issue Table of ContentsJournal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 28, No. 3, Brazil: History and Society (Oct., 1996), pp. 545-734Volume InformationFront MatterThe Quilombo of Palmares: A New Overview of a Maroon State in Seventeenth-Century Brazil [pp.545-566]Slave Mothers and Freed Children: Emancipation and Female Space in Debates on the 'Free Womb' Law, Rio de Janeiro, 1871 [pp.567-580]Persistence and Decline: Slave Labour and Sugar Production in the Bahian Reconcavo, 1850-1888 [pp.581-633]Brazilian Inflation from 1980 to 1993: Causes, Consequences and Dynamics [pp.635-666]CommentaryHistorical Source and Biographical Context in the Interpretation of Euclides da Cunha's Os Sertoes [pp.667-685]

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New Books Received [pp.725-734]Back Matter