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thx,
salty

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http://www.international.blackinformant.com/?p=6

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1035389.stm

LOST Africans in India !

PLEASE CONTRIBUTE ANY AFRICAN/AFRO-AMERICAN/CARIBBEAN ETC ! TO THIS THREAD .......

any african disapora history .... Leaders (political,religious,Activist) .. civilizations... inventions ... artist/art...music/musicians....
books...biographies(auto)


PLEASE POST AWAY !

PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE

__________________
Agitate until we create a stable society that benefits all our people.
Instigate the nation until we remedy the injustices of society.
Motivate our people to set a meaningful path for coming generations.
Educate our people to free our minds and develop our consciousness

Mwongozi Cudjoe (Chedmond Browne)
Chairman of Free Montserrat United Movement

Cool Real history to share. Yeah, the Siddi have a great history.

very good start to the day.

too bad i wont be able to keep up during the day..
got a feeling this will be an overwhelming thread

__________________
Live your Life!
www.REVELLERSinc.com

The Dahomey Amazons were a Fon all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey (now Benin) which lasted until end of the 19th century. They were so named due to their similarity to the semi-mythical Amazons of Ancient Greece.

History

Dahomey Amazons in around 1890

King Houegbadja (who ruled from 1645 to 1685), the third King of Dahomey, is said to have originally started the group which would become the Amazons as a corps of royal bodyguards after building a new palace at Abomey. Houegbadja's son King Agadja (ruling from 1708 to 1732) developed these bodyguards into a militia and successfully used them in Dahomey's defeat of the neighbouring kingdom of Savi in 1727. European merchants recorded their presence, as well as similar female warriors amongst the Ashanti. For the next hundred years or so, they gained reputation as fearless warriors. Though they fought rarely, they usually acquitted themselves well in battle. Much of the conflict in that place and period was conducted for the purpose of obtaining slaves from other tribes in order to sell to American and European slave traders.

From the time of King Ghezo (ruling from 1818 to 1858), Dahomey became increasingly militaristic. Ghezo placed great importance on the army and increased it's budget and formalized its structures. The Amazons were rigourously trained, given uniforms, and equipped with guns (obtained via the slave trade). By this time the Amazons consisted of between 4000 and 6000 women, about a third of the entire Dahomey army.

European encroachment into west Africa gained pace during the latter half of the 19th century, and in 1890 the Dahomey King Behanzin started fighting French forces (mainly made up of Yoruba, who the Dahomeans had been fighting for centuries). The French, bolstered by the Foreign Legion, were armed with superior weaponry, including machine guns, and casualties were ten times worse on the Dahomey side. After several battles, the French prevailed. The Legionaires later wrote about the "incredible courage and audacity" of the Amazons.

The last surviving Amazon died in 1979.

Customs

The uniform and armaments of the Amazons

Members could enroll voluntarily, or were involuntarily enrolled if their husbands complained to the King about their behaviour. Membership of the Amazons was supposed to hone any aggressive character traits for the purpose of war. During their membership they were not allowed to have children or be part of married life. Many of the Amazons were virgins. The regiment had a semi-sacred status, which was intertwined with the Fon belief in Vodun.

The Amazons were trained in a way reminiscent of Sparta, toughening themselves up with intense physical exercise and overcoming pain. Discipline was emphasised. In the latter period, the Amazons were armed with Winchester rifles, clubs and knives. Units were under female command. Captives were often decapitated.

HOTEP !
&
Blessed LOVE !

To the following imixer's this month I go need allyuh help with this thread !

Ancient Womyn
Queen of Sanity
Serendipity
IslandCocoa
CaribNVA
vincypowa
Marabuta
Kevlocks
Ananci_7
Recess
Senica
elq
DSP
simple simon
Bachcannal Diva
Toppa
Otorongo


And EVERYBODY ELSE !

__________________
Agitate until we create a stable society that benefits all our people.
Instigate the nation until we remedy the injustices of society.
Motivate our people to set a meaningful path for coming generations.
Educate our people to free our minds and develop our consciousness

Mwongozi Cudjoe (Chedmond Browne)
Chairman of Free Montserrat United Movement

African countries have thrown their weight behind efforts to preserve the priceless Timbuktu Manuscripts, ancient documents that hold the key to some of the secrets of the continent's history and cultural heritage - and shatter the conventional historical view of Africa as a purely "oral continent".

The Timbuktu Manuscripts - or Mali Manuscripts - reams of written manuscripts dating as far back as the 13th century, are ancient Arabic texts that hark back to the Malian city of Timbuktu's glorious past, when it existed 500 years ago as a gold trading port and centre for academics and scholars of religion, literature and science.

The manuscripts provide a written testimony to the skill of African scientists, in astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, medicine and climatology in the Middle Ages.

Timbuktu, long-since a symbol for remote and exotic destinations, was once an extremely wealthy city. Muslim merchants would trade gold from West Africa to Europe and the Middle East in return for salt and other goods.

The manuscripts point to the fact that Africa has a rich legacy of written history, contrary to popular opinion that oral tradition alone has preserved its heritage. This is important, given that written records are believed to be such crucial markers of civilisation.

As many as 18 000 manuscripts, many from ancient libraries, are now housed in the Ahmed Baba Centre, named after the famous 15th century Timbuktu scholar, Ahmed Baba. Many of the ancient texts are also still housed in the libraries of private families in Mali.

Some of the texts, written on delicate paper, are beginning to disintegrate, and preservation measures have become an imperative.

Restoration


Over the centuries, these 13th century manuscripts have been subjected to much physical damage. The climate of the region is one of the culprits. Heat and dryness cause the paper to become brittle. The improper storage of the manuscripts have exposed them to dust, vibration and sudden changes in temperature and relative humidity. Dust and grit has abraded some of the text in certain manuscripts. Worse still, the publicity generated around the manuscripts has invited another source of potential damage : human handling. Researchers, historians, tourist and collectors have all flocked to Timbuktu to see these rare valuables.

Preservation strategies

Preserving the Timbuktu manuscripts is a huge challenge. What may work in other parts of the world, may not work in Timbuktu. The ever present dust presents one of the greatest challenges in a desert town where it is a part of life. Attempts to microfilm the manuscripts were aborted for this reason. A small scratch on microfilm can result in the loss of a large amount of data.

It is very difficult to control dust in an area where the buildings themselves are made out of mud and wood. To allow ventilation, buildings often do not have closing windows allowing a free flow of sand and dust inside.

But assuming microfilming is an answer, there would still be the issue of proper storage. Climate controlled rooms with constant temperature and humidity to house these valuables is vital for their preservation, but in a town where the electricity supply is an unreliable generator system, power failures would lay to waste any of these efforts.

Cost is another factor as machinery and material has to be imported and at unfavourable exchange rates. And then again, simply maintaining equipment becomes a battle of wills with high temperatures and of course, the dust.

Digitising the collection may work on the less fragile manuscripts but it may be disastrous for the extremely fragile ones which represent the larger part of the collection.

Clearly a fresh multi-pronged approach is needed to save these valuable manuscripts. In collaboration with other governments and international experts, their approach will now be towards preventive conservation, preventing further deterioration as well as curative conservation, restoring the damaged works.

South African involvement

South Africa came onto the scene when President Thabo Mbeki offered help to the Malian government to preserve the ancient scripts during a state visit in 2001. The two countries have now launched a trust fund to elicit funds from the public to preserve the continent's heritage.

An estimated R36-million is needed over a five-year period, both to upgrade the Ahmed Baba Centre and to finance the building of a new library equipped with the necessary technology to preserve the manuscripts.

The Timbuktu Manuscripts have been earmarked as the first official cultural project of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), the socio-economic revival plan of the African Union. They have also become a South African Presidential Project, co-ordinated by the Presidency and the Department of Arts and Culture, through the National Archives in Pretoria.

South Africa is now sharing with Mali its own technical expertise on preserving ancient documents. According to project leader Dr Graham Dominy of the National archives, four Malians have just finished part of the training process.

Rare book boxes

Alexio Motsi of the National Archives who has been in charge of the training aspect explains that the first step is to protect the manuscripts from any further damage before restoration work can begin. The manuscripts will be encased in "rare book boxes", specially designed containers made using certified archival materials. Each container is tailored to the needs of the manuscript depending on how it was made and bound. The containers will protect the manuscripts from temperature fluctuations, humidity and vibrations.

Motsi says that the next stage will see the introduction of restoration work which will require much scientific and technical skill. So as to match the original craftsmanship, their approach will again be manuscript specific, dependent on the type of paper, ink, thread and leather used. Science aside, Motsi points out that the restoration work will also be mindful of the religious aspects to handling ancient texts such as the Koran.

Libraries of Timbuktu for the preservation & promotion of African Literary Heritage

I'll report to duty after classes!

The American Revolution was not only the colonies fight to gain independence but the African-Americans largest slave revolt. There was an inherent contradiction in the whites wanting to gain liberation from England while enslaving blacks at the same time. This contradiction has its roots in the white concept of liberation as opposed to that of the blacks. To white Americans the war meant freedom and liberty in a political-economical sense rather than in the sense of personal bondage the blacks suffered from.

The white fight for freedom gave the blacks the perfect opportunity to cast their own bid for freedom. They increased the number of freedom suits and petitions to the state legislatures. Individual slaves could bring up their own freedom suits but in order to free many slaves at once they had to get together and form a petition. The inconsistency between the ideals of the Revolution and the institution of slavery fueled the black movement for freedom.

However the blacks made their greatest bid for freedom by taking up arms. They took up arms fighting for the British early in the Revolution. The British offered blacks their freedom in return for their aid in fighting the Americans. Blacks took up the offer not because they were fighting for the British but because they were fighting for their freedom.

The Americans also opened up their ranks to African-Americans. However, they did not offer the chance for blacks to join the army until 1777, well into the Revolution, when they were desperate for more forces. The blacks eagerly took up arms because the Americans also promised freedom in exchange for service. The fact that blacks fought on both sides of the war only helps prove that they weren't in favor of either side, they were fighting for freedom.

The new day that the black soldiers had fought so hard to attain was never realized. It did, however, cause some whites to question the institution of slavery. These whites came to see the contradictions in American thought as they applied to the rights of the black man. Unfortunately, these whites were far outnumbered by the whites that where blind to the inconsistencies in American ideologies and slavery. This white majority was able to justify these contradictions by maintaining that blacks were not a part of the socio-political community and therefore had no right to enjoy the freedom and equality gained in the War.

Their continued quest for freedom lead to more white and black contact. Even though the war failed to emancipate them, they began to experience a sense of distinct identity. This identity reflects the essential values of the Revolutionary War. The identity flourished into a collective sense of community. The construction of antonomous black churches played an integral role in creating the sense of community. Through the churches, the free African-Americans came to the understanding that they were to ones who best upheld the "revolutionary tradition" of social justice, equality, and most of all, freedom.

The Revolution gave the blacks a chance to assert their drive for freedom. While the Revolution did not emancipate them, it united them in their belief of freedom. It aided in the creation of a sense of community and gave them a platform from which to fight for the abolition of slavery.

Bibliography

Nash, Gary B. Race and Revolution. Madison House Publishers, 1990.

MacLeod, Duncan J. Toward Caste. Taken from Slavery and Freedom in the Age of the American Revolution. Edited by Ira Berlin and Ronald Hoffman. University of Illinois Press, 1983.

The Setting: The first shiploads of slaves from Africa to Mexico were hardly off the boat when an abortive slave uprising occurred in Mexico City. It was in 1537. This uprising frightened the Spaniards on many counts. The conquest was still proceeding. Only about a fifth of Mexico was in Spanish hands, and much of that not yet secure. The threat of "barbarian" Indian invasion from the far North or South was quite real. Moreover, wrote the Viceroy to his King, the uprising was preceded in Mexico City by close organization by Blacks, who chose their own "King," and devised a plan that called for Blacks and Indians to cooperate and together rise and slaughter all the Whites.

During the 1540s there were two uprisings of Blacks near Mexico City, and rumors of plots for African uprisings in the capital were heard frequently during the 1600s. In the 1560-1580 period, Afromexicans who had fled the mines in Zacatecas kept the area in turmoil with raids on haciendas and roads. During this period one group of escaped Black miners from Zacatecas joined with the unconquered Chichimec Indians northwest of city and together they descended upon the settler communities in what became a brutal war. Also in the late 1500s slaves from the Pachuca mines rose up and fled the city. These ex-miners found refuge in an inaccessible cave from which they sallied forth periodically to steal cattle and other necessities.

The African population in Mexico was pronounced along the Atlantic and Pacific coastal areas. On the Atlantic side, large slave labor sugar plantations in coastal Veracruz produced great profits for the Empire. A combination of the profiteers' need for workers and the habit of slaves running away, led the slave masters to utilize chains and other cruel measures on their subjects. Nevertheless, the enormous mountains behind the Veracruz lowlands became the home of fiercely independent maroon communities of both ex-slave Blacks and of Indigenous, too. The peaks of the range rise to 12,500 feet on the south, and to 18,300 Mt. Orizaba and 14,000 Cofre de Perote in the center. Below the ridges in the 10,000 foot northern stretch of the range there is the best evidence of the value of these jungle covered mountains for hideaways. Located in a canyon is a small city of an Aztec tributary state that became an Indian refuge that the Spaniards never discovered. The town remained occupied on into the 1700s, and its existence did not become known to the outside world until 1994.

Yanga: The most memorable of the numerous Afro-Mexican maroon colonies in the range was the one founded after a bloody slave rebellion in the sugar fields in 1570. The rebel leader Gaspar Yanga was a slave from the African nation of Gabon, and it was said that he was from the royal family. Yanga led his rebel band into the mountains, where he found a locale sufficiently inexcessable to settle and create his own small town of over 500 people. The Yangans secured provisions by raids upon the Spanish caravans bringing goods from the highlands to Veracruz. Relations were established with neighboring runaway slaves and Indians. For more than thirty years Yanga and his band lived free while his community grew in size. A Spanish study of the situation concluded that Gaspar Yanga must be crushed. With that goal in mind a Royal war party left the city of Puebla in January of 1609. It did not succeed in its goal. Before he died, Yanga would have in hand a treaty with the Spaniards that granted freedom to his followers and established their own "free town."

Five decades after Mexican independence Yanga was made into a national hero of Mexico by the diligent work of the grandson of Vicente Guerrero, Vicente Riva Palacio. The energetic Riva Palacio was an historian, novelist, short story writer, military general and major of Mexico City mayor during his long life. In the late 1860s he retrieved from moldy Inquisition archives accounts of Yanga and of the expedition against him. From his research, the grandson of the first "Black President" brought the story to the public in an anthology in 1870, and as a separate pamphlet in 1873. Reprints have followed, including a recent edition in 1997. Others have written about Yanga, but none have matched the flair of Riva Palacio in conveying the image of proud fugitives who would not be defeated.

Riva Palacio informs us that Yanga was quite old in 1609 and "the revered ancient one" had delegated military organization to his aid, the Angolan Francisco de la Matosa. Upon receiving word of the Spanish expedition that had left Puebla, Yanga had General de la Matosa gather fighters for a defense. The General dressed in clothing fitting a commander, in the hope of instilling military decorum on troops which had little weaponry and nothing in the way of a military uniform. Their combat had been guerrilla raids. The maroon band whipped into shape by de la Matosa, aided by Yanga's son Ñanga, had but a hundred fighters with firearms, and some were using old muskets of the conquistadors. Four hundred others prepared to fight with rocks, poles, machetes, and bows and arrows. Into their mountains marched the well armed Spanish war party of 550. There were 100 crack Spanish troops, but the rest were a mix of adventurers looking for spoils and conscripted Mexicans, including Indians and "mulatos" some of them also armed with bows and arrows.

cont.

A retreat further up into the wilderness, no doubt, tempted Yanga. The 39 years that he had lived in the mountains gave him knowledge of the routes in and out of the ravines, around the 200 foot waterfalls, and through the forests of 150 foot high vine and fern covered trees. But should he flee? "The revered ancient one" had already moved many time while creating a community that tried to farm land and tend cattle. The band included ever more children and elderly. Yanga gambled on standing up to the enemy. The reports Riva Palacio found in the Inquisition led him to conclude that Yanga had decided ahead of time that he would join de la Matosa and his son with the troops, and that they would make a show of force that they hoped would inflict enough damage to interest the Spaniards in negotiations for peace. The terms? Perhaps the Spaniards would be interested in granting a form of peace treaty similar to the one that had ended hostilities with many Indigenous groups in Mexico, that is, a "homeland" in which there would be self-rule on local matters, but from which would come tribute taxes for the King of Spain and loyalty to the Crown in case of foreign attack. There was, however, a major difference between the Indian and Afromexican situation. Because of the slavery inflicted upon the Blacks, any free "homeland" would soon be crammed with African runaways from servitude. Yanga offered an answer to this worry of the slave masters. He promised to return any new slaves who sought asylum in his free territory. Early in February word reached the Yanga settlement that the Spanish war party was near. Yanga all but lit the way to his village by sending the enemy a captured Spanish prisoner, who carried a message that offered the deal. The message also included gratuitous insults to the Crown and a warning that to take on the Yangans would prove costly.

A deal was not forthcoming and a fierce engagement was fought downslope from the settlement with heavy losses on both sides. The maroons retreated back through their settlement, which the Royal troops entered and burned. The prospect of chasing the maroons further up the mountains was not, however, an inviting one for the Spanish war party. A priest was then sent to seek out Yanga, and hopefully convince him the cause was lost. Yanga reiterated his terms: In return for a grant of farmable land and the right of self-government, Yanga offered that he and his followers would return to the Crown authorities any of the slaves who, in the future, might flee to such a Black refuge. In addition to their own town, the rebels wanted it in writing that all the slaves who had fled before 1608 should be free; that only Franciscan friars should attend to their people; and that Yanga should be their governor and that the succession should go to his descendants. In spite of the opposition of the slave holders of the sugar plantations, the Crown acceded to Yanga's petitions, and the maroons were officially settled on the slopes of Mount Totutla in 1630.

Riva Palacio had titled his Yanga account The 33 Negroes. They were not of Yanga's band. Their fate was the horrifying evidence of the long term impact of his achievement upon the psyche of White Mexico, and thus, upon the history of the whole long stay in Mexico by the Spanish rulers. Riva Palacio explains that news of the agreement with Yanga was greeted with great alarm and misgiving among the resident Spaniards of Mexico City. Slave owners in the city were livid and demanded assurances no such breech of private property rights as the massive manumission of Yangaistas would ever happen again. Rumors of Blacks scheming with Yanga for further gains abounded. "Was it true that along the road from Veracruz to Mexico City there was an encampment of thousands of Blacks?" it was asked. Would not the freedom given the band in the Veracruz mountains embolden them to try to free all Blacks? Was not a muleteer from Veracruz seen talking in suspiciously hushed tones with local Blacks? Did not the local Blacks seem to have a chip on their shoulder since the word has spread about Yanga? Were the Blacks about to rise up and kill everybody, especially us, the Spaniards seemed to be asking.

Rumors reached a boil on Easter week 1612. The authorities canceled all celebrations for fear the parades would be used by the Afromexicans of the city to spark an uprising. Then in the middle of the night on Easter a butcher was parading a pack of pigs into town and something bothered the pigs. They began a horrible squeal. Shutters were flung open. Shouts were heard. It was assumed the Blacks and mulatos were rising up. By mid-day 33 Blacks had been rounded up for execution, 29 men and 4 women, While paraded by government authorities to the gallows they were beaten by a drunken mob. The mass hanging did not satisfy the mob, which tore the bodies to pieces and placed the heads and other parts on poles which were left hanging for a considerable time, until the authorities determined that the stench was too strong and the parts were buried. "Thus was snuffed out the sound of conspiracy in the year 1612," writes Riva Palacio.

Yanga's town survived. And it was moved to better farm land in the lowlands. The Yangans had asked for a better location, and the Viceroy agreed, having concluded that he prefered to have the Yangans live near his newly build military base than up in the mountains. The military base became the present large city of Cordova. The town of Yanga, then known as San Lorenzo de los Negros, had 719 people at the time of Mexican independence. Today it is a city of over 20,000, with the majority being people from the highlands rather than Afro-Mexicans from the region. Nonetheless, since 1986 the city has celebrated its founder in an annual August "Festival of Negritude."

interesting article.

"You might study the history as it was offered in our system from the elementary school throughtout the university, and you would never hear Afrika mentioned except in the negative".

by Carter G. Woodson

"A race of people is like a individual man ; until it uses it's own talent, takes pride in it's own history, pxpress it's own culture, affirms its own selfhood, it can never fulfill itself. "

by Malcolm X


"The American Negro must remake his past in order to make his future... History must restore what slavery took away."

by Arthur Schomberg

__________________
Agitate until we create a stable society that benefits all our people.
Instigate the nation until we remedy the injustices of society.
Motivate our people to set a meaningful path for coming generations.
Educate our people to free our minds and develop our consciousness

Mwongozi Cudjoe (Chedmond Browne)
Chairman of Free Montserrat United Movement

300 Years of Zumbi

The system of slavery in Brazil was the longest and well structured of the Americas, with about 4 million Blacks being brought here who, enslaved over three centuries, built the fortune of the Brazilian ruling classes and increased that of the Europeans. But while they were enslaved in Brazil, the blacks resisted it in various forms: assassination of masters, of overseers, of jungle captains, flights, guerrillas, urban insurrections, quilombos. The quilombos were built into a form of basic resistance and spread from the XVII century to the XIX century, the most famous of these being Palmares.

The Republic of Palmares resisted with arms for almost a century, being defeated in 1695, 300 years ago, with the assassination of its chief, Zumbi.

Since then, Zumbi has become an example of courage and human dignity which inspired blacks throughout the country to break their shackles and he is today one of the heroes of the Brazilian people.

Palmares, more than signifying a place to which the blacks fled and found refuge, became a check on the slave system adopted in Brazil by the Portuguese colonizers. Initially formed by a few slaves who fled at the end of the XVI century, its population approached 25 to 30 thousand inhabitants, which for its population density in that epoch (the XVII century) was not insignificant. Located in the province of Pernambuco, today the area belongs to the State of Algoas, between the cities of Serinhaém (PE) and Vicosa (AL), in the Zone of Mata, an area of difficult access.

Palmares was an elected Republic, of free, united people, living communally and in prosperity. Besides blacks, there were also Indians and poor whites who fled the misery in which they lived on the sugar plantations.

Unlike the monoculture of the sugar cane of the colonizers destined for export, in Palmares they planted maize, beans, manioc, sugar cane, potatoes and vegetables. Ownership of land was collective, a tradition that the blacks brought from Africa, as well as for reasons of security, since to protect themselves from the attacks of the colonizers the whole population had to relocate from time to time to other regions.

There was also fishing and hunting, and the raising of hens and pigs. They extracted oil from the pulp of the palm trees. They worked in iron which was present in the region. They did artistic work in wood and ceramic. Their legislation was severe and there was the death penalty for robbery, adultery, murder and desertion. They spoke their own language which was a mixture of African languages, Portuguese and some indigenous languages. They practiced a synthetic religion which was a mixture of African and Christian beliefs.

Periodically the inhabitants of Palmares came down to the nearby cities to rescue other slaves, obtain arms, powder, tools and mete out justice to overseers.

The Torture of Slavery

The form utilized by the colonizers to cultivate the land in the country and to produce products for export was slavery. Initially with the Indians, later with the blacks. The system alienated the condition, the human identity of the slave. In the legislation in force in that epoch, the buying and selling of Negro slaves was regulated in the same section as that dedicated to animals.

The slaves worked from morning to night, without rest on Sundays and holidays. Those who worked in the cane fields and sugar mills had an average productive life of five to seven years. At 30 years, generally, they were physically exhausted and to the masters were no longer worth what they ate. Some were killed, others emancipated, but these were not suitable for any job or task and were only able to beg.

They were incessantly subjected to the terror of punishments, of tortures so that they would not stop working. For the slightest faults, they were tied to a tree trunk, with their feet, hands and neck immobilized in pieces of wood, for days, weeks or months. The whipping in the pillory, leaving the skin as raw flesh and afterward pouring salt and vinegar on it, were frequent and witnessed both by the slaves as by the master of the plantation and his family. Other forms of torture and sadism were employed to subjugate them. While there were many deaths, others sought to recapture their humanity by fleeing.

cont

40 Expeditions Against Palmares

During almost a century, the Portuguese, then the Dutch, and then again the Portuguese attacked Palmares, in the hope of recapturing fugitive slaves and defeating the Republic which threatened them with new attacks and with a life that was more abundant, egalitarian and happy. There were about 40 expeditions, with the most experienced fighters of the crown, which achieved little or no results. The inhabitants of Palmares utilized the so-called "jungle warfare," in which they avoided the enemy, with very rapid encounters, confusing him and hiding themselves in the jungle. The Palmareans also relied on news of the enemy expeditions from the slaves in the plantations and from the settlers with whom they maintained contact to buy arms and tools.

In 1677, an expedition commanded by Fernao Carrilho managed to wound Ganga-Zumba, at that time the supreme chief of Palmares, and to capture 200 Negroes, among them sons, nephews and grandsons of Ganga-Zumba. Carrilho reached the city of Porto Calvo announcing that he had destroyed Palmares, but he was not able to convince the governor Pedro de Almeida who understood that the Republic, with more than 25 thousand people, had not been defeated. He resolved then to seek negotiations with the Palmareans, which would provide him a breathing spell, since he was already without the resources to organize more and more expeditions.

Zumbi - General in Arms and Grand Chief

After the surrender [or capitulation] of Ganga-Zumba Zumbi, who was already recognized as a great warrior, a geat "general in arms," led the resistance and took up residence in the capital of Palmares, having been acclaimed Grand Chief. Knwoing that he would have to confront new attacks of the oppressor, he organized life in the Republic in a manner that would prepare it for imminent war.

The Grand Chief was born in Palmares in the beginning of 1665, the year in which one of the expeditions against the Republic took some prisoners, among them Zumbi, who was only a few days old. The child was given as a present to a Portuguese priest, Antonio de Melo, who baptized him with the name Francisco. The priest taught him to read and to be an altar boy at the age of ten. According to a letter from the priest himself, the lad demonstrated "skill which I never imagined in the black race, and which I have very rarely seen among whites" and at the age of ten "knew all the Latin that he needed and continued with Portuguese and Latin very satisfactorily." Surprisingly to the priest, at the age of 15 Zumbi fled with other blacks to Palmares. He would return three more times, as chief of Palmares, to visit the priest, whom he found in a situation of misery and he suffered rebuke from the residents for having been with Zumbi.

"Better to Die than to Live as a Slave"

For about twenty years, Zumbi was at the head of Palmares, defending at the side of his people the Republic which they had established. Many masters of plantations condemned these attempts at negotiations, but the most categorical of the arguments - against - was that of priest Antonio Vieira, who influenced the crown to desist from them and to prepare for a more decisive confrontation. For this, there was called up a Paulist, the colonial expedition leader Domingos Jorge Velho, the hunter of Indians and blacks, known as the major assassin of the country for his cruelty and barbarous methods. Jorge Velho made various expeditions against Palmares, from the end of 1691, without managing to succeed i his intentions.

In January of 1694, at the head of an army of nine thousand men, he left for the capital of Palmares. The solidity of the fortifications of the city left those who came there to fight surprised. Jorge Velho ordered his men to raise a counter-wall to be able to fight, but there army was bombarded by the Palmareans in this assault. The expedition leader ordered his men to construct, during the night, a second counter-wall, at an oblique angle to the Palmarean fortification. Zumbi, at dawn, saw the enemy maneuver and ordered the sentry to be executed for allowing this to take place unnoticed.

Next to this, there was an abyss and along this was a passageway that Jorge Velho did not manage to shut. Zumbi organized a contingent, which he joined, that moved along this passageway at night to attack the enemy from the rear. When a good part of the warriors had begun to pass the enemy sentry saw the maneuver and gave the alarm signal. Jorge Velho ordered his men to fire on them and against the city, with cannons, arms with which Zumbi had not counted. The soldiers penetrated the city and killed and decapitated those whom they saw in front.

The soldiers returned to the coast exulting in the defeat that they had inflicted on Palmares, believing that the valorous Zumbi had fallen. Domingos Jorge Velho was not so optimistic. In fact, Zumbi escaped with his life, at 39 years old, suffering much of the time from a leg that had been hit in combat. Shortly thereafter he was seen with his comrades attacking a small town in search of arms. He regrouped the surviving Palmareans and continued the activity of armed groups.

Antonio Soares, the leader of one of these groups, was captured and handed over to a Paulist column. He was subjected to tortures to tell the whereabouts of Zumbi. Having achieved nothing, they proposed to guarantee his life and liberty if he located the warrior chief. Antonio gave in and went to look for Zumbi. Having the enemies close but , Soares called for Zumbi. He appeared and prepared for an embrace when he was struck in the stomach by a blow of a dagger from Antonio Soares. Zumbi still struggled, killed his enemy, wounded several and fell dead. This was November 20, 1965.

His body, struck by fifteen bullet holes and innumerable dagger wounds was further mutilated, and then his head was separated from his body and carried off to Recife, wrapped in salt. There the governor ordered it impaled on a stick and it was placed in a public place in the city. The warriors who survived hid in the jungle to build new quilombos. One of the most famous was Cumbe, in Paraiba, which was only destroyed in 1731. In the XVIII century, revolts took place principally in Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Goias and Mato Grasso.

By William Loren Katz* 4/17/2002

This weekend's overthrow and sudden return of Huge Chavez to the Presidency of Venezuela should remind millions of Americans that he was not the first president of a major Latin American country whose ancestors included Africans. Chavez was born to a family of African, Native American and European stock, but he was certainly not the first or the most famous. That honor belongs to Mexico's Vicente Guerrero.

Vicente Guerrero has been a towering figure in the Americas, masterfully commanding Mexico's liberation army during much of its independence movement, and later assuming his country's presidency where he again fought off foreign invaders. Born poor to a Black Indian family and growing up without formal schooling, he taught himself to read and write as he trained his troops in the Sierra Madre mountains. He was able to help write Mexico's constitution, free its slaves, take steps to educate and elevate its poor and people of color, and serve as his country's first president of African and Native American descent.

Guerrero at 27 was a hard-working mule driver until the spirit of freedom moved him to action along with tens of thousands of other men and women of his racial and economic background. In 1810 he cast his skills and offered his sacred honor in the struggle against a Spain that dominated his country and most of Latin America.

African American historian J.A. Rogers calledm Guerrero the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln of Mexico an assessment that indicates the man's stature. Now, Theodore G. Vincent, no stranger to Mexican cultural development or the African American experience, has written a thorough study of this important figure, The Legacy of Vicente Guerrero, Mexico's First Black Indian President (University of Florida Press, 2001, 336 pages). More than just the biography of a public figure, Vincent weaves an inspiring addition to the freedom-fighting heritage of the Americas and uncovers the untold story of "Mexican cultural nationalism."

In 1810 Guerrero joined the struggle in which he would fight in "491 battles without a defeat" and began his rise from the ranks of other "pardos" or people of mixed races. His attributes included an ability to speak many indigenous languages and a command of military tactics. When first given command, Guerrero had 500 unarmed troops, but he soon remedied this with a midnight cavalry attack on a Spanish fortification that gained his men guns and ammunition. In his first year when he was elevated to Captain, he was able to convince many Indian men of military age to support the revolution.

The Mexican Independence war was one of the first modern guerrilla wars against an imperialist army that burned villages. It was also one of the first instances where guerrilla fighters without an urban base maintained a political base. The revolutionaries lacked enough guns and ammunition, and had to battle against local militias determined to settle old scores. Roadsides were marked by crucifixes bearing the rotting bodies of bandits and insurgents. Guerrero had to make it up as it came along.

Guerrero's humanitarian impulses, close identification with his soldiers and public speaking skills helped cement a relationship with his "pardo" army. When he won a victory he would claim he was a soldier in the ranks and, "It wasn't me . . . but the people who fought and triumphed." He appointed Pedro Ascencio Alquisiras to be the first Native American General in Mexico's army -- and this when more citizens considered not Africans but Indians as the lowest rung of the social and political ladder.

Vincent is carefully tuned to the complicated racial structure of Mexico caused by the Spanish invasion, and he paints a vivid and sharp picture of the changing social relations caused by the revolution. He points out that the great liberator, Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon who mentored Guerrero, was also a Black Indian as were many other high officers. By 1800 Africans were a majority of settlers in Durango, Sinaloa, Sonora, and California and Acapulco was 95% pardo. By 1820 the Independence movement boasted only one standing army, the dark freedom-fighters under the command of Guerrero.

Spain's obsession with race led to laws that denied people of color advancement, but permitted many to bribe their way up the caste ladder. Even the first revolutionary Constitution of 1812 included article #22 that excluded African Americans from benefiting from many reforms such as political rights and freedoms. But this only mobilized Guerrero and others to see that the overthrow of Spanish officials also included an agenda of freedom and equality for all.

Guerrero also had to defeat efforts of the white elite of Mexico to highjack the revolution won by his dark-skinned soldiers. Terms such as pardo, zambo, mulatto lobo were erased from the Mexican language. In 1823 he declared "We have defeated the colossus, and we bathe in the glow of new found happiness." True freedom, he declared is "living with a knowledge that no one is above anyone else, and that there is no title more honored than that of the citizen" and this applies equally to soldier, worker, official, cleric, landowner, laborer, writer and craftsman.

On April first, 1829 Vicente Guerrero assumed the presidency of Mexico and his partisans riotously celebrated this "father of his people." Decades before Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address spoke of a democracy of, by and for the people, Guerrero promised to be guided always by "that important truth that those in office are for the people, and not the people for those in office."

In his first address to the Mexican Congress, Guerrero said:

"The administration is obliged to procure the widest possible benefits and apply them from the palace of the rich to the wooden shack of the humble laborer. If one can succeed in spreading the guarantees of the individual, if the equality before the law destroys the efforts of power and of gold, if the highest title between us is that of citizen, of the rewards we bestow are exclusively for talent and virtue, we have a republic, and she will be conserved by the universal suffrage of a people solid, free and happy."

On his third day in office, the president invited people of all races to his 47th birthday party, a fiesta held on the city outskirts. On the fourth day he addressed a letter to his constituents in the "land of the pintos" meaning darker people, commending their 33 martyrs in the fight for liberty. At the same moment, Guerrero was being roundly denounced by conservative and liberal politicians for being of a lower class and lower caste and was snidely called "the commoner" as though this made him unable to lead. He rejoiced in his own common touch.

In Oaxaca he was supported by a 23-year old Indian campaign worker, Benito Juarez, who would become the first Indian president and drive out the last foreign invasion of Mexico in the 1860s. Guerrero sought out the wisdom of his wife Maria Guadalupe Hernendez de Guerrero who became an important advisor known as "la Generala." She later became the leader of his movement.

Guerrero began his term by ending the death penalty by edict, and also commuted all death sentences. Next he raised taxes to pay for improvements in the lives of the poor. Then he proclaimed "Slavery is abolished in the Republic" on Independence Day, September 16, 1829.

However, Guerrero, concerned with the plight of his people rather than distant investors, did not repay foreign loans and little investment capital reached Mexico from abroad. The rich staged a tax rebellion against his policies and as his army went unpaid units became muntinous. Some of Guerrero's officials were assassinated, and army desertions rose. The Mexican Congress finally declared by a vote of 23 to 17 he had abused his presidential power and had provided funds for revolutionaries in Haiti. His foes wanted to have him declared morally unfit and "crazy" but this did not happen. However, his foes had him kidnapped at a dinner party aboard an Italian ship in Acapulco and executed by a firing squad in February, 1831.

Vincent relates Guerrero's story with verve and style. He also modernizes it, using phrases such as "funky neighborhoods," "closet white bigots" and "affirmative action" unknown in the nineteenth century and hardly useful to understanding old Mexico. However, his fine, detailed study restores one of the great figures of the Americas, and places him along with others of his class and color in the limelight of history they earned through daring, courage and sacrifice.