King Zumbi and the Male Movement in Brazil

Abstract

Three great regions of America deserve a Muslim's attedon because oftheir Islamic past: Brazil in South America; the Caribbean, which scarcely hasbeen explored in this tespect; and the United States. Over 12 percent of theUnited States' population, and even more in the Caribbean, is of African origin,whereas Brazil has a similar or greater proportion of African descent.The enslavement and transportation of Africans to the New World continuedfor another three or four centuries after the region's indigenous Indianpopulations had either been killed off or driven into the plains and wooc1s.While knowledge of the original African Muslims in Notth America is vaguely acknowledged, teseatch is still required on the West Indies. Brazil's case,however, is clearer due to its proud history of the Palmares republic, whichalmost achieved its freedom in the seventeenth century, and the clearly Islamicnineteenth-century Male movement. As a postscript, the Canudos movement in 1897 also contained some Islamic features.In the Spanish colonies, the decline of the indigenous Indian populationsbegan quickly. To offset this development, Bartolome de Las Casas (1474-1566), Bishop of Chiapas, Mexico, suggested the importation of enslavedAfricans to the new colonies, whete they could then be converted to Christianity.Few persons have exercised such a baneful effect on society as thisman, who is often called the "Apostle of the Indies." However, othes knewhim as the "Enslaver of Africans," especially the Muslims, who he called"Moots." These facts of African slavery apply to almost all of the Atlanticcoast of the Americas, from Maryland and Virginia to Argentina, as well asto some countries along the Pacific coast such as Ecuador and Peru. If thisaspect of Muslim history and the Islamic heritage is to be preserved for humanhistory, we need to devote more study to it.This tragedy began in the sixteenth century and, after mote than four hundredyears, its effects are still apparent. If those Africans caught and sold intoslavery were educated, as many of them were, they were generally Muslimsand wrote in Arabic. Thus, many educated and literate slaves kept the recordsfor their sometimes illiterate plantation masters, who often could not read ormake any mathematical calculations, let alone handle formal bookkeeping.In 1532, the first permanent European settlement was established in Brazil,a country which since that date has never been wholly cut off from WestAfrica: even today trade is carried on with the Guinea coast. Yoruba influencefrom Nigeria and Benin has been almost as pervasive in some regions of ...