1. Zumbi was the last of the kings of the Quilombo dos Palmares, a settlement of Afro-Brazilian people who liberated themselves from enslavement in the present-day state of Alagoas, Brazil.
13 Facts About Zumbi
1. 2.
Zumbi is revered in Afro-Brazilian culture as a symbol of African freedom.
3.
Zumbi's mother Sabina was a sister of Ganga Zumba, who is said to have been the son of princess Aqualtune, daughter of an unknown King of Kongo.
4.
Zumbi was born free in Palmares in 1655, believed to be descended from the Congo.
5.
Zumbi was captured by the Portuguese and given to a missionary, Father Antonio Melo, when he was approximately six years old.
6.
Father Antonio Melo baptized Zumbi and gave him the name of Francisco.
7.
Zumbi was taught the sacraments, learned Portuguese and Latin and built a Kongo kingdom in Palmares.
8.
Zumbi became known for his physical prowess and cunning in battle and he was a respected military strategist by the time he was in his early twenties.
9.
Zumbi sought to implement a far more aggressive stance against the Portuguese.
10.
Predictably, when Zumbi gained authority, tensions with the Portuguese quickly escalated.
11.
In 1694, fifteen years after Zumbi assumed kingship of Palmares, the Portuguese colonists under the military commanders Domingos Jorge Velho and Bernardo Vieira de Melo launched an assault on the Palmares.
12.
Zumbi has become a hero of the 20th-century Afro-Brazilian political movement, as well as a national hero in Brazil.
13.
Today, Zumbi is considered a hero of great magnitude amongst Afro-Brazilians who celebrate his courage, leadership qualities, and heroic resistance to Portuguese colonial rule.