Palmares (settlement)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Palmares was a " Quilombo ", a settlement of escaped and freeborn African slaves , founded around 1600 in the hills of Serra da Barriga in the state of Alagoas in northeastern Brazil . The African name was probably Angola Janga , Little Angola. Palmares was an independent, self-sufficient republic. Around 1670 it consisted of ten settlements with around 20,000 residents, escaped slaves and their descendants, but also native Indians. The population eventually rose to over 30,000 free African men, women and children. The first leader of Palmares was Ganga Zumba , a former slave who had fled a sugar cane plantation .

Bust of Zumbis in Brasília

Palmares successfully fought against several military attacks by the Dutch and Portuguese colonial governments , the aim of which was to destroy the settlement. The Maroons were determined fighters who fought off over twenty such attacks between 1654 and 1678.

In 1655 a man was born in Palmares who later became known as " Zumbi ". He was captured and enslaved by the Portuguese as a young child, but escaped in 1670. Under his guidance, the people of Palmares began to strike back. They raided Portuguese plantations and villages and freed the slaves employed there. Ultimately, Zumbi Ganga succeeded Zumba as the leader of the settlement.

In 1694 the Portuguese launched a decisive blow against Palmares, attacking from three sides at the same time. The settlement was destroyed, the surviving residents were re-enslaved if they could not escape. Zumbi initially managed to escape, but he was betrayed and executed on November 20, 1695.

Excavations in Serra da Barriga revealed a predominantly African material culture with indigenous and European elements. Today Serra da Barriga is a national monument.

literature

  • RN Anderson: The quilombo of Palmares: a new overview of a maroon state in seventeenth-century Brazil. Journal of Latin American Studies 28, 1996, 545-566.
  • PP A Funari: The archeology of Palmares and its contribution to the understanding of the history of African-American culture. Historical Archeology of Latin America 7, 1995, 1-41.
  • CE Orser Jr .: The archeology of the African diaspora. Annual Review of Anthropology 27, 1998, 63-82.
  • CE Orser Jr .: In search of Zumbi: preliminary archaeological research at the Serra da Barriga, State of Alagoas, Brazil. Normal: Midwestern Archaeological Research Center, Illinois State University.
  • Glenn Alan Cheney: Quilombo Dos Palmares. Brazil's Lost Nation of Fugitive Slaves. New London Librarium, 2016.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ CE Orser Jr .: The archeology of the African diaspora. Annual Review of Anthropology 27, 1998, 70

Coordinates: 9 ° 10 ′  S , 36 ° 5 ′  W