Quilombos: Afro-Brazilian Communities Built On Resistance

quilombo dos palmares procession
Via Wikimedia Commons
Adé Hennis
May 15, 2024

Nearly 40% of enslaved Africans ended up in Brazil.  Brazil was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery. It should be no surprise, then, that Brazil has a long history of African resistance to oppression.

Established in the mid-1500s, quilombos are communities formed by Africans who escaped enslavement on Brazil’s plantations.  The residents of the quilombos developed their own society, culture, and way of life.  They created free communities in the faces of colonizers and enslavers.

In the Bantu language,  quilombos are described as forest-based warrior camps. Some members of the quilombos did raid Portuguese settlements, but most concentrated on sustaining their own communities.

Today, more than 1.1 million people live in nearly 6,000 quilombos. Brazil’s government has denied them the indigenous land titles and doesn’t recognize their history.

Quilombos still exist today despite efforts by Brazil to ignore and disenfranchise them. Our identities belong to us. We don’t need the government or anyone else to tell us who we are. We create the futures we desire.

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