Zumbi dos Palmares

Zumbi dos Palmares
Bronze head of Zumbi in Brasília, Brazil
King of Quilombo dos Palmares
Predecessor	Ganga Zumba (Uncle)
Successor	Camuanga (son) (de jure) of the resistance, kingdom destroyed.
Born	Nzumbi, Francisco 1655 Alagoas, Portuguese Colony of Brazil
Died	November 20, 1695 (aged 39–40) Quilombo dos Palmares (Today Alagoas, Brazil)
Spouse	Dandara
Religion	Islam
Occupation	King of Palmares

Zumbi (1655 – November 20, 1695), also known as Zumbi dos Palmares (Portuguese pronunciation: [zũˈbi dus pɐwˈmaɾis]), was one of the Muslim pioneers of resistance to slavery, and the last of the kings of the Quilombo dos Palmares, a fugitive settlement in the present-day state of Alagoas, Brazil.

Quilombos were fugitive settlements or African refugee settlements. Quilombos represented free African resistance which occurred in three forms: free settlements, attempts at seizing power, and armed insurrection. Members of quilombos often returned to plantations or towns to encourage their former fellow Africans to flee and join the quilombos. If necessary, they brought others by force and sabotaged plantations. Anyone who came to quilombos on their own were considered free, but those who were captured and brought by force were considered slaves and continued to be so in the new settlements. They could be considered free if they were to bring another captive to the settlement.

Quilombo dos Palmares was a self-sustaining kingdom of Maroons escaped from the Portuguese settlements in Brazil, "a region perhaps the size of Portugal in the hinterland of Bahia". At its height, Palmares had a population of over 30,000. Forced to defend against repeated attacks by Portuguese colonists, many warriors of Palmares were expert in capoeira, a martial arts form that was brought to and enhanced in Brazil by kidnapped Angolans at about the 16th century on.

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. It is unknown if Zumbi's mother was also daughter of the princess, But still makes him related to the Kongo nobility. He was raised a Muslim, after the Battle of Mbwila. The Portuguese won the battle eventually killing 5,000 men and captured the King, his two sons, his two nephews, four governors, various court officials, 95 title holders and 400 other nobles. which were put on ships and sold as slaves in the Americas. is very probable that Ganga and Sabina were among these nobles. The whereabouts of the rest of them is unknown. Some are believed to have been sent to Spanish America, but Ganga Zumba his Brother Zona and Sabina were made slaves at the plantation of Santa Rita in the Captaincy of Pernambuco in what is now northeast Brazil. A Portuguese province at that time a controlled by the Dutch Brazil. From there they escaped to Palmares.