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So we have aborded the marron community of Colombia that we call "palenques".
They have an other name in Venezuela They are called " Rochelas ".
And in Brazil they are designated by the word " Quilombos " or "Mocambos".
Which are "kimbundu" words - a language mostly spoken around the Angola region -
Precisely we will deal with our heroes in the diaspora.
His name is " Zumbi Dos Palmares ".The guest near me will express this better than I can,later.
This hero was in Brazil.
He headed such an important Black insurrection and slave revolt in the Brazil of that time,at the point that he is still remembered for this today.
So let's begin with the fact,straightforward.
Why Zumbi and why Palmares ?
because,because this Quilombo of Palmares
Was the most important "Quilombo" in the history of Brazil
Quilombos , let's be fair,was an usual phenomenon in the history of Brazil
There were all along the colonial period
And beyond ...in the XIX century.And even in the second half of the XIX century.
So there were a thousand of Quilombos.Not a dozen or a hundred but a thousand .
"er"..
Those quilombos were basically a type of resistance by the slave
And in this resistance.. we can consider that the most easiest resistance was by escaping.
So those slave escaped by moving to the inland parts but not necessarily.
there were Quilombos from Rio de Janeiro who were near the capital.
And those Quilombos..of course embodied a type of resistance.
And this Quilombo of Palmares was the most important one in America
because they have resisted for almost a century
basically it's between 1604 and 1694.
Not only against portuguese troups and armies but also - and this is not unimportant - against dutch troups
For a whole century the North Est of Brazil was under dutch control.
And without doubt,this period of trouble explain why the Quilombo
Which was in fact not a community but a set of villages
could have resisted for such a long time.
So a resistance of nearly a century
And a large number of Quilombos
because the number of 30 000 was commonly recalled.All the research in particular of the last decade
with the excavation done by the archeologist in the Quilombos dos Palmares
shows that there were not 30 000
- which would have made Palmares one of the most populated brazilian city in the XVII century -
But there were around a 10 000 people
The pottery which was found aswell as the the everyday object
show that there were not only people of african descent in this quilombo
Even if there were overwhelmingly people of bantu origin
there were also amerindian people and maybe a white population who refuged or lived in the Quilombo.
the November 20th, 1695
Zumbi dos Palmeras was assassinated in his shelter
By a portuguese expeditionary force.
after 15 years of resistance
15 years of heroic resistance against
against the multiple assault of firstly the portuguese army followed then by the dutch army.
Two countries who controlled one after the other the prosperous slave trade
In the huge brazilian territory.
Zumbi dos Palmares fell but didn't die.
He is not dead,his memory lives on through the spirit of Brazil.In the whole latin America
the 20 november,the day of his death
was decreed "Black Awareness Day" to pay tribute to him in Brazil.
He symbolized the fight against slavery
against the oppression.
In a nutshell,a fight against any form of injustice
Many bulding has his name in Brazil.
Some university,momument and airport.
In other words,
But why him ? Who was he ? Why he is so important in Latin America
where there were a long history of daily uprising. why he is remembered ?
A movie portrayed this history in 1984 .
The movie" Quilombo " which is a cult film.
What have tipped the scales for this important place of the Quilombo collective memory
is the end of his leader,known under the name of Zumbi
because Zumbi was executed by the " Bandeirantes " who are people who chase the indigenous people
Originated from San Paolo,they served the crown of Portugal in chasing those Quilombos
And the November 20th 1695,Zumbi who was the last chief of the Quilombo
was ambushed and killed.And as usual they beheaded him so they can prove that their mission was completed.
To aware other people who wanted to make the same resistance as Zumbi.
Let's discuss about this figure.You have Lead the conversation -He was born free
He was born in the Quilombo of Palmares
And to complet what Claudia said "Quilombo" is a word from the Congo.It came from the Kongo Kingdom.
Same thing goes for the word " Zumbi.
So can you explain them for us ?
So for Zumbi it was in fact "Zambe".It's zambe which mean spirit or God.
So at the beginning Zumbi was not a word.
Because the one who preced Zumbi,"Ganga Zumba "who was a priest.Ganga means priest.
So he preceded Zumbi at the head of this Quilombo of Palmeras.
That's it.In fact,when Zumbi was born in 1655 in this Quilombo of Palmeras
We have testimony because we have the chance to discover...
in the secret notebook....
of the family of the governor of that time
The duke De Melo who had in his records letter from the priest Antonio Melo
Who wrote at the end of XVII century that this Zumbi like you said at the beginning
It was a vaste territory.It was not the only Quilombo.There were other Quilombo.
And that's why he was welcomed by this jesuit priest Antonio Melo who will raise him and take him as his assistant.
At the age of 10 Zumbi could speak portuguese and Latin.
So he will celebrate mass
He celebrate mass and at the age of 15 Zumbi will leave ..
He will escape ?
He'll leave the priest and chose to live in Palmares.
where he was born.
And he Zumbi just left a letter to the priest where he explained that
he chose liberty instead of servitude - even if his condition was not that bad - because he wasnot brutalized like the other slave .
And how did he arrive at the head of this Quilombo of Palmares ?
So when he arrived in Palmares,Ganga Zumba who was the previous chief of this Quilombo
Ganga Zumba who was a warlord and also a man of peace
Because he saw that many people would perish in this resistance
Because they were harassed by the portuguese who wanted to reduce them in slavery
So Ganga Zumba will seak a arrangement with the governor of Pernambuco who will suggest him a peace agreement.
At first,he said that he will not massacre those who will surrender,because those who try to escape their slavish condition will be punished.
So this agreement finally suit to Ganga Zumba.But of course it was a lure because the slavery was still brutal.
Something that Zumbi didn't accept.
Yes,there is writing which testify that he was the nephew of Ganga Zumba.
So he take control of.....some people of the Quilombo decide to follow his resistance.
Some writing say us that he ordered the assassination of Ganga Zumba.
Because Ganga Zumba,to his mind,had betrayed the Quilombo community.
Because the Quilombo was the best expression of the spirit of liberty and fraternity.
So in 1678,when the treaty was proposed by the portuguese governor,Zumbi will uprise.
In 1680,he'll enter in resistance until he death
12 years of struggle.
Oh,yes.
We above all,talk about Zumbi
And the story is very distorded
We especially deals with ponctual thing like how the slave work.
we also deals with the act of torture
and we have heard a bit about the struggle and the resistance of black in the construction of our country.
and we have heard a bit about the struggle and the resistance of black in the construction of our country.
That why the law 10639 was promulgated
So the history and the culture of Africa can be taugh in school
And also the past of our ancestors and who they left us.
Do we know if the slavery in Brazil was much important than the one in USA in haiti(the caraibe overall) do we know how it exent ? Can we mesure it ?
His scale was significant because at a moment in the history of Brazil,the black population - partially mixed with the indigenous population - will reach a substantial proportion.
At the point that the white population will be a minority.
That's why at the end of the XIX century Brazil decided a policy which consisted in a mass-immigration of european to equilibrate their demographic disadvantage.
And it's not a coincidence if after Africa,Brazil is the place with the most important number of black people.
Outside Africa,it's the second place mostly populatedwith black people.
Indeed it was a well planned and organized slavery.
There were those who were sent in mine. Because they came mostly from Ghana as they were used to look for gold.
There were those who work on the land. They came from Congo,Mozambique and Angola.
Like we call them now,but most of those countries were part of the Kongo Kingdom.
But also,the jesuit priest wanted to protect the amerindian in some brazilian region because they were consider as....
protect ? the word is a bit inappropriate
By to protect,I mean,prioritize
Yes prioritze of course. because it was Bartolome de Las Casas who advocate them during the debat which should determine if the amerindian have soul.
So Las Casas defended the indigenous population and suggested that to enrich the colonial power and maintain the slave system african should be used.
African who were considered without soul.Contrary to the amerindian