Black Liberation Networks between Brazil and Angola in Contemporary Fiction”

• In Event: Black Sovereignty: Narrative Continuities Across the South Atlantic

Description for Program

This paper considers several 20th-21st-century fictional narratives of Zumbi dos Palmares (Nascimento; Diegues; D’Salete;), Brazil’s famed 17th c. leader of the maroon community Palmares who died defending Palmares against Portuguese incursion. Stories of Zumbi proliferated in the 20th century as a symbol of Black resistance, particularly during Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-1985) and in the transition to democracy in the 1980s, a period that overlapped with the Portuguese-speaking African nations’ fight for decolonization and independence (1961-1975). Collaborations such as the Brazilian-based Afro-Brazilian Movement for Angolan Liberation (MABLA) attest to the notion that Brazilian and African activists saw their struggles as parallel fights for Black sovereignty. I hypothesize that these late-20th century celebrations of Zumbi are influenced by the image of the masculine revolutionary hero forged during African decolonization, serving as evidence of a diasporic Zumbi whose influences traverse the Atlantic Ocean.

Author

• Lanie Millar, University of Oregon