Denim Zumba (1638-1678) was the first king of the Quilombo dos Palmares, one of the 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, centers where the blacks rebuilt their lives when escaping from captivity.
Each hovel was led by a trusted relative or head. Although Ganga Zumba was proclaimed king of the place, the important decisions were taken by a collegiate, in the presence of all the leaders.
This was the reproduction of the social organization that black people knew in their homeland, Angola.
Due to the flight of slaves, whether planned or spontaneous, the population of the quilombo grows. In this way, the attacks against the quilombo increased both in the period of Dutch domination and with the Portuguese.
Therefore, it was necessary to end the Quilombo dos Palmares to recover the slave labor and so that the example would not spread throughout the colony.
Thus, Ganga Zumba faces several attacks defeating the Portuguese with the guerrilla system attacking them from the rear.
It 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 frees some relatives who bring a peace proposal to Ganga Zumba. The quilombolas would move to Vale do Cacaú and would no longer accept slaves who had escaped from the plantations.
The proposal divides the leaders of the mocambos in Quilombo dos Palmares. Various leaders such as Zombie, do not accept the treaty and wish to continue fighting. Others, tired of the battles, support Ganga Zumba.
Unable to reach unanimity, some of the residents decide to leave the quilombo, while another group remains there. Community leadership is now assumed by Zumbi.
Upon arriving in the Cacaú Valley, Ganga Zumba realizes he was tricked. The land was not good for cultivation and residents would not have the right to move freely, in addition to being supervised.
Ganga Zumba's death is uncertain. Some scholars claim that he was killed by an ally of Zumbi, others point out that it was his own followers who killed him. Likewise, there are those who maintain that he committed suicide when he realized that he had been deceived by the governor.
Curiosities
- Ganga Zumba's life was made into a film by Cacá Diegues, in 1964. The script was based on the book by historian João Felício dos Santos, which had been awarded by the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
- The Quilombo dos Palmares was called Angola Janga, "Angola Pequena" in Bantu.
read more:
- Brazilian Black Personalities
- slavery in Brazil
