Zumba denim (1638-1678) was the first king of Quilombo dos Palmares, one of many colonial-era quilombos in Brazil that served as a shelter for runaway slaves.
Biography
Ganga Zumba was the son of Princess Aqualtune and brother of Sabina, the mother of Zumbi dos Palmares.
Born in the Kingdom of Congo, he was captured and sold into slavery in Brazil. He manages to escape from the farm with some companions and they head to one of the mocambos, nuclei where blacks remake their lives after escaping captivity.
Each mocambo was led by a trusted relative or chief. Although Ganga Zumba was proclaimed king of the place, important decisions were taken by a collegiate body, in the presence of all the leaders.
This was the reproduction of the social organization that blacks knew in their homeland, Angola.
Due to slave escapes, whether planned or spontaneous, the quilombo population grows. In this way, the attacks against the quilombo increased both in the period of Dutch and Portuguese domination.
Therefore, it was necessary to end Quilombo dos Palmares to recover slave labor and so that the example did not spread throughout the colony.
In this way, Ganga Zumba faces several attacks defeating the Portuguese with the guerrilla system attacking them from the rear.
He also suffered setbacks that destroyed part of the agricultural production of the mocambos. In one of these battles, some of his sons and nephews were arrested.
In 1678, Governor Pedro de Almeida freed some relatives who took a proposal for peace to Ganga Zumba. The quilombolas would move to Vale do Cacaú and should no longer accept slaves who had run away from the plantations.
The proposal divides the leaders of the mocambos in Quilombo dos Palmares. Several leaders, like Zumbi, do not accept the treaty and wish to continue fighting. Others, tired of the battles, support Ganga Zumba.
Unable to reach unanimity, part of the residents decide to leave the quilombo, while another group remains there. The community leadership is now assumed by Zumbi.
Upon arriving in the Cocoa Valley, Ganga Zumba realizes that he has been tricked. The land was not good for cultivation and the residents would not have the right to move freely, in addition to being watched.
Ganga Zumba's death is uncertain. Some scholars claim that he would have been killed by an ally of Zumbi, others point out that it was his own leaders who would have killed him. Equally, there are those who maintain that he committed suicide upon realizing that he had been tricked by the governor.
Curiosities
- The life of Ganga Zumba was made into a film by Cacá Diegues, in 1964. The screenplay was based on the book by historian João Felício dos Santos that had been awarded by the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
- Quilombo dos Palmares was called Angola Janga, "Little Angola" in Bantu.
Read more :
- Black Brazilian Personalities
- Slavery in Brazil