How was life in Quilombo dos Palmares?

The greatest symbol of resistance to slavery in the history of Brazil appeared in the last decades of the 16th century, in an area where today the border between Alagoas and Pernambuco is located.

In the beginning, the Quilombo dos Palmares (whose name comes from the palm trees that made up the local vegetation) was formed by slaves of Angolan origin, escaped from the sugar cane farms in the region. But, in the 100 years of the place’s existence, marginalized Indians and whites have also joined the black population. At its height, Palmares was a large settlement by the standards of the time: it housed 20,000 inhabitants and included nine villages, called mocambos (“hiding places”, in the Bantu dialect spoken by blacks).

Despite the utopian aura, the quilombo had little of an alternative society. On the contrary. The very word “kilombo”, in Bantu, means something like “warrior society with strict military discipline”. “There was a death penalty for adultery, theft and desertion”, says historian Dagoberto José Fonseca, from the São Paulo State University (Unesp) in Araraquara (SP). As the quilombolas did not leave written records, their habits are not fully known. It is known, however, that they were governed by a king, with the title of Ganga Zumba (“great chief”), assisted by a council composed of the heads of the various mocambos.

As the existence of the quilombo stimulated the escape of slaves, the landowners in the region gathered militias to attack Palmares throughout the 17th century. In the face of constant conflicts, Ganga Zumba accepted a peace agreement with the whites, in 1678. This infuriated the Palmares, who murdered Ganga Zumba two years later. His successor assumed the title of Zumbi (a derivation of the word «god» in Bantu), leading a war against the invaders. But on the morning of February 6, 1694, Cerca Real do Macaco, the capital of Palmares, was occupied by a battalion commanded by the bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho. In the following months, the other villages fell. Zumbi escaped the initial massacre and led a guerrilla fight, but ended up dead on November 20, 1695. The date is remembered today as the Day of Black Consciousness.

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guarded haven
To protect Palmares, the quilombolas built three fences and dozens of traps

To this day, the exact location of all the nine villages that formed the Palmares Quilombo is still unknown. What is certain is that the capital, called Cerca Real do Macaco, was located in Serra da Barriga, in Alagoas. The other eight villages were distributed nearby, but in still unknown locations.

– (Éber Evangelista and Roberto Navarro/)

1. RESTRICTED ENTRY
The capital of the quilombo was surrounded by three wooden fences, reinforced with stones and guarded by armed sentries. Access was via reinforced wooden gates. The second fence was 300 meters away from the first, and the third, 500 meters from the second. The defense lines stretched for more than 5 kilometers, with guardhouses every 2 meters

2. HUMAN TRAPDOOR
Dozens of holes a few meters deep and camouflaged with foliage surrounded the village. To impale those who fell into the hidden pits, the bottoms of the traps had sharpened wooden stakes and iron spears over 1 meter long. Only the quilombolas knew the right way to enter the capital of Palmares

3. RELIGIOUS MIX
The religion practiced in Palmares was Catholicism mixed with traditions of Bantu culture. In the chapel of Cerco Real do Macaco, images of São Brás, the baby Jesus and Nossa Senhora da Conceição were found sharing the altars with statues of African deities. Many blacks had converted to Catholicism even before being brought to Brazil.

4. ENHANCED DIET
Around the citadel were food gardens. The most important crop was corn, but beans, bananas, sweet potatoes, cassava and sugar cane were also planted. In addition to these vegetables, the menu was completed with the collection of fruits and the hunting of small animals from the nearby forests.

5. SAPÊ HOUSES
Residents lived in wooden houses covered with palm leaves, with artificial lighting that used olive oil as fuel. Some of them had hidden exits, which allowed escape into the bush in case of danger. Furnishings included pots and pans and household items made by local artisans or stolen from raids on neighboring farms.

6. DIRECT NOW!
The members of the council who headed the village were chosen in assemblies that gathered all the inhabitants in the central square. There were the council headquarters itself, a chapel, wells to store water, a shed without walls that served as a market and workshops for artisans — among them, blacksmiths who made weapons and agricultural tools.

7. HOUSING COMPLEX
Inside the fort there were four streets, each a little over 2 meters wide and 1 kilometer long. Along them, there were about 2,000 houses, where 8,000 residents lived. They spoke Portuguese mixed with Bantu dialect and indigenous words. Domestic animals, mainly chickens, were raised in the backyards of houses or released on the streets