The Quilombo of Palmares PDF

The Quilombo of Palmares: A New Overview of a Maroon State in Seventeenth-Century Brazil
Author(s): Robert Nelson Anderson

Source: Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 28, No. 3, Brazil: History and Society (Oct.,
1996), pp. 545-566
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/157694 .
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The Quilomboof 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 culturalcontext 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 madepossible in part by funds from the TinkerFoundation,the Mellon
Foundation,and the US Departmentof EducationTitle VI, administeredby the DukeUniversity of North CarolinaProgram 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.), Americanegra:'o sonho
africano'(Salvador, i993), p. 28.
2 Bujao (RaimundoGoncalves dos Santos), personalcommunication.Full discussion of
the mythificationof Zumbi or its representationin artistic production is beyond the
Robert Nelson Anderson is Visiting AssistantProfessorin RomanceLanguagesat the
University of North Carolinaat ChapelHill.
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 Consciousness 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
,:
^9.
*D5V
A....';.
* !
Cuca6u
P E R-N A M B U C O
Porto Calvo
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).
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 apparentsignificanceof Palmaresto Africanhistory is that an African
political system could be transferredto a differentcontent; 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 Communitiesin the Americas, ist ed. (Garden City, N.Y., 1973), 2nd
ed. (Baltimore, 1979), pp. 70-90. Originally published in Journalof African History, no.
6 (I965),
pp. 16I-75.

548
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 'Rethinking Palmares' offers new and useful interpretations,
especially
the
the
of
term
the
word
and the
'quilombo', tracing
etymology
regarding
institution back to their Angolan origins.?1 The present essay augments
and ethnological
Kent's article with further linguistic,
historical,
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: ReconsideringBrazilian Slavery (Urbana,
Ill., 1992), p. 134, n. 65. The English translation of Roger Bastide's Les Religions Afro-
includes a short section on Palmares.The historicalsummaryuses the same

Bresiliennes
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 Information from the Lintz and Baro

expeditions was compiled by CasparBarlaeus
(GasparBarleus) and translatedinto Portuguese by Claudio Brandao as Historiados
praticadosduranteoitoanosno Brasil(Rio de Janeiro, 1940). Originally
feitos recentemente
in Brasilia(I647). The account of the Blaer-Reijmbach
publishedas Rerumper octenium
expeditionwas translatedfrom the Dutch and publishedby Alfredo de Carvalhounder
the title 'Diario da viagem do Capitao Joao Blaer aos Palmares' in the Revistado
InstitutoArqueologico
Pernambucano
and reprinted in Edison Carneiro, O quilombodos
Palmares, I6Jo-I69y, Ist ed. (Sao Paulo, 1947), pp. 231-9. Documents from the second
Livro de Vereafoesda Camarade Alagoas,providing additionalinformation about the

Carrilhocampaignand Zumbi's revolt, are in Carneirounder 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 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 GeogrdficoBrasileiro, vol. 22 (I959), pp. 303-29. The first edition and the
second edition (Sao Paulo, I958) of O quilombodos Palmaresreproduce the primary

sources as an appendix. The third edition (Rio de Janeiro, 1966) is a version of the

549
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, Guerrade 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'diosparaa 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 Portuguegadesdeo annode mil e quinhentosdo 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 coloniasportugue.as,
3rd ed (Lisbon, 1920), originally published in Lisbon (1880), pp. 63-6; Raimundo Nina
Rodrigues, Os africanosno 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 quilombodos 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 quilombono 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
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
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 coloniasportuguegas; 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 quilombodos 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.
13

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 sorcerersamong 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 mocambovs. quilombo,see below.
21 Carneiro, 0 quilombodos Palmares,
p. i88. Palmar means 'palm grove' in Portuguese;
22 Ibid., pp. 33-4.
plural palmares.
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 terrestreao 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 GedenkweerdigeBrasiliaenseZee- en Lant-Reize
(Amsterdam, I682).
24 Carneiro, O quilombodos 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
reigned among them, especially the blacks from Angola. The king also has a
house two miles away, with a very abundantfarm.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 quilombodos Palmares, p. 236. '[S]eu rei os governava com severa justiSa
nao permitindo feiticeiros entre a sua gente e, quando alguns negros fugiam, mandavaIhes 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
to refer broadly to
probably followed colonial usage in using 'creoulo'/'crioulo'
'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
26 Ibid., p. 236
includingchildren and women.
28
27
Freitas, Palmares, p. 73.
Ibid., pp. 81-93; Kent, p. I78.
29 Ibid.,
pp. 73-5; I05-6.

553
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,
of Macaco, Osenga,
Subupira, the royal compound
Dambrabanga,
The
was
their wont, named
as
and
Amaro,
Portuguese,
Andalaquituche.30
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 , 5oo 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 quilombodos Palmares,
pp.
88. 'Subupira' and 'Macaco', not 'Subupuira'
and 'Macoco', as in Kent, 'Palmares',p. 178. Kent attemptsto constructetymologies
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', AfroAsia, no. I6 (1995), p. 28. I have not yet seen the sources in which she explains their
31 Carneiro, O quilombodos Palmares, p. I97.
etymologies.
32 Ibid., p. 202. '[N]egro valoroso, e reconhecido daqueles brutos como rei tambem.'

554
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 GangaZumba, 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 guardase oficiais que costumamter as casas reais. E tratadocorn todos
os respeitosde rei e corntodas as honrasde senhor.Os que chegama sua presencap6em
os joelhos no chao e batem as palmas das maos em sinal de reconhecimento e
protesta9aode sua excelencia; falam-lhepor Majestade,obedecem-lhepor admiracao.
Habita a sua cidade real, que chamamo Macaco, nome sortido da morte que naquele
lugar se deu a um animaldestes. Esta e a metr6poleentre as mais cidadese povoac6es;
esti fortificadatoda em uma cerca de pau a pique com treneiras [sic] abertas para
ofenderema seu salvo os combatentes;e pela parte de f6ra toda se semea de estrepes
de ferroe de fojos tao cavilosos que perigaraneles a maiorvigilancia;ocupa esta cidade
dilatadoespaco, f6rma-sede mais de 1.500 casas.Ha entreeles Ministrosde Justicapara
as execu6ces necessariase todos os arrem&dosde qualquerRepublicase acham entre
eles.
E cornseremestes barbarostao esquecidosde toda sujeitao, nao perderamde todo o
reconhecimentoda Igreja. Nesta cidade tem capelaa que recorremnos seus apertos e
imagens a quem recomendamsuas 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 veneramcomo paroco, que os batisa
o os casa.0 batismoporem,e sem a f6rmadeterminadapela Igrejae os casamentossem
as singularidadesque pede aindaa lei da naturesa.0 seu apetitee a regrada sua eleicao.
Cada um tern as mulheres que quer. Ensinam-se entre eles algumas oracoes cristas,
observam-seos documentosda fe que cabemna sua capacidade.0 rei que nesta cidade
assistiaestava acomodadocorntres mulheres,uma mulatae 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 enroupadosconforme as possibilidades.
Estae a principalcidadedos Palmares,este e o rei que os domina;as maiscidadesestao
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
fortificadatoda de madeirae pedras, compreendemais de 8oo casas. Ocupa o vao de
perto duma legua de comprido. E abundantede aguas porque corre por ela o rio
Cachingy.Esta era a estanciaonde se preparavamos negros parao combate de nossos
assaltos.Era toda cercadade fojos e por todas as partes,por obviar (vias aos) aos nossos
impulsos, estava semeadade estrepes.'

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 mocamboand the Angolan palisaded quilombo
which Schwartz contrasts in his article on Bahian mocambos.37That 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 ladinoin the sense that
34
35
37
38
39
See Kent, 'Palmares', pp. 179-80.

36 See ibid.
See also Carneiro, O quilombodos Palmares, p. 197.
Schwartz, 'The Mocambo:Slave Resistance in Colonial Bahia', in Price, MaroonSocieties,
pp. 202-26. Originally published in Journal of Social History, no. 3 (1970), pp. 313-33.
See description and figures, ibid., pp. 220-I.
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 Encyclopediaof 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: Vodouand Roman Catholicismin Haiti (Chapel
There are modes of syncretism, related to the social
Hill, N.C., I992), pp. 7-Ii.
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 56
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,
4
Kent, 'Palmares', p. I79.
Washington, D.C., Sept. I995.

557
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
delegatedterritorial 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 quilombodos Palmares, p. 203.
Luis da Camara Cascudo, 'A saudaSao africana', in Made in Africa: Pesquisase 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,
47 Kent, 'Palmares', p. i88.
p. 43, n. 2.
49 Ibid.,
48 Ibid.,
p. I87. Emphasis added.
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 africanosno Brasil, pp. I20-I.
46

558
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 quilomboof
Brazil and the institution by the same name in Angola (KiMbundu
kilombo).53He 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, 'hideout'),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 quilombois not the usual
designation for 'maroon settlement' until the present century. That the
term quilombois 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 kilomboa 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 MbunduStates in Angola (Oxford, 1976).

55 Antonio Geraldo da Cunha, DiciondrioetimologicoNova Fronteirada linguaportuguesa(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 Matambaand other
was
Imbangala-influenced
polities in seventeenth-centuryAngola, such that '[q]uilombo
becoming a synonym for a kingdom of a particulartype in Angola' (ibid.,p. 128).
57 Schwartz, Slaves, Peasants, and Rebels,

pp.
25-7;
Miller, passim.

59
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 ngangaa 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
59
Bastide, The African Religionsof Brazil, pp. 84-5; Schwartz, Slaves, Peasants, and Rebels,
p. I25.
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 ngolaiadianga,'first Angola'.

60 Carneiro,0 quilombo
dosPalmares,p. I89; Kent, 'Palmares', p. 180.
61
63
64
65
Freitas, Palmares, pp.
182,
I85.
62
Funari, quoted in 'Neto'.
Miller, pp. 254-5; Schwartz, Slaves, Peasants, and Rebels, p. I27. KiMbundu nganga,
'priest'; ngumbi,'ancestor spirit'.
Freitas,Palmares,p. Ioz. Freitas,however, does not give the source of this information.
Ibid.,pp. 125-7.

560
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.67During 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
68
69
70
Aureliano Biancarelliand 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
67 Carneiro,O quilombo
Aureliano Biancarellias well.
dosPalmares,p. I93.
Freitas, Palmares, p. Ioo; Carneiro, O quilombodos Palmares, p. 193.
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.'
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'.

561
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 nzambimeans
'spirit', and is qualified when referring to the Supreme Being as Nzambi
Mpungoor 'Highest Spirit'.74 The Brazilian forms of both names Zambi
and Zambiampungooccur to this day in the Bantu-influenced religions of
Brazil.75Therefore, 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 nZumbiis similar, if not identical, to the
category of spirit that the BaKongo call in the singular n'kulu.76In 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 nZumbihas often been mistranslated as 'evil spirit'. It is this
sense that is usually meant in Brazil by Zumbi.78Colloquially in Brazil
zumbi also refers to someone with nocturnal inclinations.79 We could also
71
72 Carneiro, O quilombodos Palmares,

Ibid., p. 126.
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
etimologicobundo-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.

562
compare the etymology of the word to the cognate Haitian Zombiand 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 ngangaa 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 mocamboof 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
Wade Davis agrees with Wyatt MacGaffey in deriving Zombi from KiKongo nzambi.
Davis, Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiologyof 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 corpscadavre)and
the spirit Zombi(Davis's Zombiastral or zombi ti bonange), ibid., pp. 183, I 90-3. See also
Alfred Metraux, Voodoo in Haiti, Hugo Charteris (trans.), (London, 1959), pp. 258,
81 Carneiro, O quilombodos Palmares, p. I89.
281-5.
82 Folk-tales of Angola
(Boston, I894), p. 33.
83
Carneiro, 0 quilombodos Palmares, p. 199.
80

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, GangaZumba 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
died in battle,
1994, Jorge Velho took some 400 prisoners. Another 3oo00
while some 200 hurled themselves or were forced from the precipice at the
84
85
Ibid., pp. 203-5;
Kent,
'Palmares',
pp. 183-6;
Freitas, pp. 118-21.
86
Carneiro, O quilombodos Palmares, pp. 228-9.
Kent, 'Palmares', p. i86.
87
I
Freitas, Palmares, p. 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.

564
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 quilombosexisted in the Palmares region for at least
50oyears. 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 quilombodos Palmares, I40-6; Ennes, As guerras nos Palmares, docs. 24, 26,
91 Ibid., doc. 38. See also Morse, The Bandeirantes,p. 12I.
92-95.
92 Carneiro, O quilombodos Palmares, pp. I5o-1.
93 Arthur Ramos, O
folclore negro do Brasil: demopsicologiae 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.

TheQuilombo 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/quilombodiscussed 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 quilomboserved 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
quilomboto 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 quilombodepend 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
(Boston,
Anthropological
Perspective
I992).

566
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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The Quilombo of Palmares: A New Overview of a Maroon State in Seventeenth-Century Brazil

Author(s): Robert Nelson Anderson

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The Quilomboof Palmares: A New

linguistic, and culturalcontext of Palmaresand on the sources for the emerging

Northeastern Brazil. This date has loomed large in the popular

I996 Cambridge University Press

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Robert Nelson Anderson

Map i. Palmares and Vicinity

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