A quilombo in Brazil is a community created by Africans or Afro-Brazilians who escaped captivity (or a place where Afro-Brazilians were once enslaved, later occupied by Afro-Brazilians after Brazil’s abolition of slavery in 1888). While in Brazil the term is irrevocably associated with slavery, in Angola it simply means “village”. In the eyes of many in Brazil, quilombos, or comunidades quilombolas as they’re often referred to here, are looked down upon as simple, backward places of endemic poverty and ignorant people. But this is like looking into the sky on a clear day and not seeing the sun. It was out of these places that the vast, profound, iridescently scintillating culture by which most of the world defines Brazil flowed as an unstoppable tide. Mateus Aleluia of Cachoeira, Bahia, relates a story he heard long ago: An enslaved Bahian said to his “master”, “You have conquered us, but our culture will conquer yours”. And to a great degree, it has.
Bahia has, as one might assume were one to consider it, more quilombos than any other state in Brazil. And while one might assume that in the modern age after after over a century or centuries of existence the people still living in these quilombos would be at peace with the world around them, one would in some cases be correct. But in many other gravely unfortunate cases one would be very mistaken.
As with villages of Indigenous in the south of Bahia, there are quilombos which were peacefully situated upon land which was peaceful because nobody else wanted it. The quilombo Pitanga dos Palmares is located to the north of Salvador and this area which was a rural refuge is now surrounded by urbanity and industry. Generating numerous conflicts with the residents of the quilombo to the point where the quilombo’s leader, Mãe Bernadete, was brutally murdered on August 17, 2023. This following upon the murder of her son, popularly known as Binho do Quilombo, on September 19, 2017.
Mãe Bernadete’s surviving son Wellington Pacífico, seen here with Brazil’s Minister of Culture Margareth Menezes, is the general coordinator of the Association of Sambadores and Sambadeiras of the State of Bahia (ASSEBA, and while “sambista” refers to somebody who plays “urban” samba, “sambador” or “sambadeira”, masculine and feminine respectively, refer to the people of country samba, samba de roda and samba chula). The music of the sambadores and sambadeiras of Bahia was born in the quilombos and senzalas (quarters for enslaved). It is the penultimate founding music of Brazil, the founding music being that of candomblé.
On Friday, November 29, 2024 the Diário Oficial da União (Official Federal Diary) declared the 2,106 acres of ground occupied by Pitanga dos Palmares to be of “social interest”, meaning the land is protected by federal law (DECRETO Nº 12.274, DE 29 DE NOVEMBRO DE 2024) and can’t be expropriated.
Visits to Quilombo Pitanga de Palmares can be arranged: [email protected]
There is, officially, no Iguape peninsula. There is the Bacia do (Basin of) Iguape, a wide inlet off the Paraguaçu river rising back into the direction from which the Paraguaçu flows. Surrounded by the bacia on the west, the river to the south, and the bay (Baía de Todos os Santos) to the east, there is, de facto, a peninsula. It’s not up to me to name these things but that’s what I call it: a península do Iguape/the Iguape peninsula.
There are quilombos all over Brazil, but some of these on this particular peninsula have been particularly gifted. The quilombo at the top-east is São Braz, home to iconic João do Boi Saturno, who passed in January of 2023 (his brother/musical partner Alumínio lived on the road out of Santo Amaro, in a district called Pitinga; Alumínio’s wife Raimunda — who sang with the group — is still there; Alumínio and João do Boi can be seen in the marvelous clip on this page). Moving south one comes to Acupe, of Raízes de Acupe and Ecinho, and Nego Fugido and As Caretas. Moving further south one comes to Saubara, with its candomblé and cheganças … and moving on down one comes to Bom Jesus dos Pobres, with Rita da Barquinha; and where Raymundo Sodré lay in a hammock one afternoon and twisted the Bach melody into his mind into a chula; from where Sodre’s wife sent a cassette of his recordings of some of his sambas — including that chula — to PolyGram in the late ’70s…
Descending the west side of the peninsula one passes the turn off onto a dirt road leading to the quilombos of Calembar and Catolé, and then another dirt road leading to the quilombos of Dendé and Kaonge. Kaonge has been set up by resident brother-and-sister Ananias Viana and Jucilene to demonstrate and explain aspects of life in a quilombo, in the past and present. Visits may be arranged by contacting Andreza, their niece via whatsapp or telephone at +55 71 9.9607-1452. The rustic bar at the entrance to Kaonge is owned by Ananias and Jucilene’s father. Every October Kaonge has a Festa de Ostras (Oyster Festival) with oysters every which way including in moquecas. Lots of samba de roda and other music.
Continuing south one arrives at the turnoff into Santigo do Iguape, a small town/quilombo built around a church — the Igreja de Santiago do Iguape — built by Jesuits in 1718 or so, and an engenho (sugarcane mill). One might ask how a quilombo would come to inhabit lands controlled by the elite, the answer being that after Brazil’s abolition of slavery in 1888, Afro-Brazilians were “free” to move into areas where they once would have been returned to slavery. Santiago is home to fisherman/chuleiro Domingos Preto.
South from Santiago do Iguape one passes through the quilombo of São Francisco do Paraguaçu to the end of the road and the Convento do Santo Antônio do Paraguaçu, annexed to the church of Santo Antônio do Paraguaçu. Church and convent were abandoned. Everything inside was stripped out and carried off, leaving what remains a dark, mighty, looming, brooding presence overlooking the lower end of the Bacia do Iguape, across bacia and river from the town of Maragogipe (Sunday Mass is now held in the church, worshippers seated on plastic chairs). Down to the left as one looks out to the water there are several bar/restaurants, beautiful in their simplicity.
According to the Anthropological Report Quilombo de São Francisco do Paraguaçu prepared by the Ministry of Agrarian Development / National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform / Regional Superintendence of Bahia: During the construction of the Convent of Paraguaçu, many Black people fled the arduous labor and sought refuge in a dense forest area, where they established the quilombo of Boqueirão, occupying the regions of Boqueirão, Alamão, and Caibongo Velho — locations chosen for their access to water. There, they cultivated potatoes, beans, and cassava on the red clay soil. After abolition, they returned to the village, where only white landowners and mill owners had previously lived.
Milton Nascimento’s Missa dos Quilombos (Mass of the Quilombos) was released in 1982, and as a CD when they entered the picture. The CD has a bonus track, Ony Saruê — a cantiga de candomblé of extraordinary beauty — for Oxalá, the “father” orixá. A song vastly appropriate for this particular church:
Crossing Praça da Sé in Pelourinho (the Historical Center of Salvador) one encounters, in the middle of the square, a statue of a powerfully built Black man supporting himself with a spear, one foot tucked up against the knee of the opposite leg. This is Zumbi, about whom much is polemic but of whose life the broad strokes are known: he was the last king of the “Quilombo” of Palmares, a huge collection of villages containing tens of thousands of Africans, Afro-Brazilians, and others … located to the north of Bahia in what was then the capitania of Pernambuco and nowadays lies within the state of Alagoas. The position of his leg implies his limp due to an injury sustained in battle with the Portuguese. Palmares was partially destroyed, after many attempts, by the Portuguese in 1694, and Zumbi himself was betrayed and then captured, his salted head exhibited to the public in Recife. Some years later what remained of Palmares was extinguished.
Zumbi’s death occurred on the 20th of November, this date being officially named O Dia Nacional de Consciência Negra in 2011. While we can reasonably assume that Zumbi the seasoned warrior and king was powerfully built, we know for certain that he is a powerful symbol. Of a struggle and struggles which continue to this day. One need look no further than the quilombo Pitanga dos Palmares, to the north of Salvador, to see this.
The great Jorge Ben expressed it thusly:
Angola, Congo, Benguela
Monjolo, Cabinda, Mina
Quiloa, Rebolo
Here, where the men are
There is a great auction
They say there is a princess for sale
Who came along with her subjects
Chained in ox-drawn carts
I wanna see
I wanna see
I wanna see
I wanna see
Angola, Congo, Benguela
Monjolo, Cabinda, Mina
Quiloa, Rebolo
Here, where the men are
On one side, sugarcane
On the other side, coffee plantations
In the center, seated masters
Watching the harvest of white cotton
Being picked by black hands
I wanna see
I wanna see
I wanna see
I wanna see
When Zumbi arrives
What will happen
Zumbi is the lord of wars
He is the lord of struggles
When Zumbi arrives
It is Zumbi who commands
Zumbi is the lord of wars
He is the lord of struggles
When Zumbi arrives
It is Zumbi who commands, yeah
I wanna see
I wanna see
I wanna see
I wanna see
Angola, Congo, Benguela (I wanna see, I wanna see, I wanna see)
Monjolo, Cabinda, Mina (I wanna see, I wanna see, I wanna see)
Quiloa, Rebolo (I wanna see, I wanna see, I wanna see)
Angola, Congo, Benguela
Monjolo, Cabinda, Mina
Quiloa, Rebolo
Angola, Congo, Benguela (I wanna see when Zumbi arrives)
Monjolo, Cabinda, Mina (what will happen, I wanna see)
Quiloa…