Subscribers can listen to the audio of today’s post here.
Dandara was an enslaved woman in Brazil turned warrior queen. Fighting alongside her husband, King Zumbi, the pair led many battles against Portuguese colonists in defense of the Quilombo dos Palmares, a large community of people who had escaped enslavement.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: February 6, 1694--
Have you ever seen the martial art capoeira? It’s truly beautiful; it looks more like a dance than a fighting style. And that was the idea, because the enslaved were forbidden from practicing any fighting skills. Incorporating acrobatics and music, it fooled the enslavers enough that it provided a needed skill to allow the enslaved to escape and fight back.
The formerly enslaved in Brazil would form communities called quilombos, usually located in difficult to reach places surrounded by dense vegetation. Such was the case with Palmares. Little is known of Dandara, not even if she was born in Africa or South America. But when she was young, she escaped to Palmares, married Zumbi, and had three children with him. She helped set up agriculture in the community, growing corn, beans, potatoes, and bananas. She had a lot to protect and became known as a fierce fighter against those who sought to recapture those in the community.
And she would not violate her principles even to secure her own freedom. The attacks on Palmares were becoming more frequent, and Zumbi’s uncle, Ganga-Zumba, made a treaty with the government in 1678 that would allow all those in Palmares to stay there and remain free, except there was a catch. They couldn’t accept any new escaped enslaved people into the community. The treaty stipulated any runaways would need to be returned. Dandara said fuck that because it would make them complicit in the perpetuation of slavery, and convinced her husband to reject the treaty and lead a coup against his uncle. Ganga-Zumba was killed and shortly thereafter Zumbi was made king. They would fight another 16 years to remain free.
In the 1690s Palmares numbered approximately 11,000 inhabitants, making it the largest community of former enslaved in Brazil by a significant margin. Alas, some dicknut governor named Pedro Almeida was tired of its existence, pissed that numerous previous efforts to conquer the settlement had failed, and raised an army to conquer it.
Almeida’s army was successful. Defiant to the end, when she was captured on February 6, 1694, Dandara took her own life rather than be returned to slavery, as did hundreds of others. Zumbi escaped and lived to fight in a resistance for almost two years but was eventually captured and beheaded.
Slavery did not end in Brazil until 1888.
Support keeping this daily column free and get access to subscriber only content:
Get the book On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down.