Opinion – Guia Negro: Shall we do Palmares again?

A place where about 30,000 black people were free for more than 100 years, with its own administration system, at the beginning of the period of enslavement in Brazil (between 1580 and 1695). Palmares is more than a mythical chapter of history, it is a place that exists and can be visited, the Quilombo dos Palmares Memorial Park, in Alagoas, just 90 kilometers from Maceió. It is important to emphasize that everyone needs to know. And if it is not part of your travel wish list, you can instill in the account the structural racism that does not allow this place to be revered and known as it should, a reproduction of the slavery period in which black stories and heroes were systematically erased.

Those who overcome the barriers and arrive at the place where Zumbi lived discover other important characters in the fight for freedom, such as Acotirene, Aqualtune, Ganga Zumba and Dandara. For that reason, Palmares is a destination to be visited with a tour guide, who can contextualize and locate each phase and event that passed there. Mine was the griô (storyteller) Helcias Pereira, who I recommend to everyone for being one of those responsible for rebuilding the park, in addition to being very welcoming.

Stories are not just in the past and can be felt. The quilombo is a place of many energies, ancestry and transforms those who visit. “I touched the tree and felt my ancestors”, reports cultural producer and photographer Heitor Salatiel. “It is a landmark of black resistance. It was the land of freedom there and, therefore, it is a very powerful journey. When I visited, I felt as if my body and cells were organizing themselves, reconnecting. It is something physical”, says the relations public Luciana Paulino. As much as I try to describe it in text, images and testimonials, it’s the kind of place you only understand when you’re there.

Each space brings strong energies. Among them, the enchanted lagoon, the iroko (tree of time), the contribution of indigenous peoples. In addition to narratives and a feeling of connection with the past, the park is also about silence, the noises of nature and voduns. The famous palm trees that gave the name to the quilombo are still spread across the land. The ashes of journalist and black movement activist Abdias do Nascimento were spread around a baobab tree that is still taking shape. The experience is completed with lunch at chef Mãe Neide’s restaurant, which serves food from the African diaspora full of affection and axé, and is very close to the park.

The trip from Maceió there is easy, the BR 104 is good and the journey takes about 2 hours. The immensity that can be seen from the Memorial Park, where the headquarters was located, gives an idea of ​​the grandeur of what it was. After all, Serra da Barriga has about 28 thousand square kilometers, which were occupied by several quilombos.

It is interesting because the mocambo, as it was also called, ends with the death of those who lived there on February 6, 1695. Zumbi was only captured and killed on November 20 of the same year, which is why the Day of Conscience is celebrated on this date Black. But the history of Palmares is not limited to that. There is a feeling that fighting is worth it, after all they were free for many years, in a complex period of history. Traveling to this territory gives energy to guerrilla warfare against today’s racists who still don’t understand the magnitude and power of black people. In addition, each black person carries this heritage, this ancestry and has the mission to keep it alive. “If Palmares doesn’t live anymore, we’ll make Palmares again”, is a phrase by the poet José Carlos Limeira that became a cry of the black movement as a call to settle down, resist and that I replicate here as a call: “Let’s make Palmares again? “.