Felipa Maria Aranha

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Felipa Maria Aranha
Leader of the Mola quilombo
In office
? - c. 1780
Personal details
Bornc. 1720
Gold Coast, Guinea
Diedc. 1780
Brazil
OccupationRebel leader

Felipa Maria Aranha (c.1720 – c.1780) was a rebel leader as the Leader of the Mola quilombo-community in Brazil. She was enslaved in Guinea as a child, who escaped slavery and became the leader of the Mola quilombo in Pará, Brazil. Her leadership enabled the community to resist the incursions of slave-owners and Portuguese troops. She is remembered by the remaining quilombolas and the Brazilian black community as an inspirational figure in their history.

Biography

Zacharias Wagner - Mercado de escravos no Recife

It is thought that Aranha was born in the Costa da Mina (Gold Coast) region of what is now Guinea.[1] She was probably born between the years 1720 and 1730.[1] She would have been enslaved as a child, around 1740.[1] It is likely she was sold as a slave in the square of Santa Maria de Belém do Grão in Pará; the identity of the person who purchased her is unknown.[1] Aranha was sent to Cametá, where she was forced to work as a slave on a sugarcane plantation.[citation needed] It is not known how she managed to escape, however, with hundreds of others, she managed to form one of the largest and best structured quilombos in Brazil at Mola, a site at the headwaters of the Itapocu River.[citation needed]

The Mola quilombo consisted of approximately 300 formerly enslaved people and had a high degree of political, social and military organization.[2] Aranha was the first leader of the community.[3] The group was also led by Maria Luiza Piriá.[4] It was organised as a republic, with democratic voting in place.[5] Over the course of the Mola quilombo's life, it expanded to include four other similar settlements in the region and was known as the Confederation of Itapocu.[6][4] In 1895 there were still traces of the settlement to be seen; they have now disappeared.[7]

Historiography

Historians, such as Benedita Pinto and Flávio Gomes, interpret the organisation of the group as an ideal model of resistance to slavery.[8][9] Aranha herself is seen as an inspirational leader and is increasingly viewed as a feminist role model.[10]

Legacy

In 2017 the poet Jarid Arraes published an eight-page work about her life.[11] In 2020 a virtual exhibition entitled Exposicao Heroinas com Moldura was hosted in Brazil to honour of the International Day of Latin American and Caribbean Black women; it featured the life of Aranha.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d PINTO, Benedita Celeste de Moraes. «Slavery, Fugue and the Memory of quilombos in the Tocantins Region». Electronic Journals of PUC-SP. Retrieved on March 25, 2016
  2. ^ "Tucuruí - Informações, Imagens e Vídeos". Amazônia (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-01-02.
  3. ^ Galeano, Eduardo (30 April 2013). Children of the days: a calendar of human history. London. ISBN 978-1-56858-971-8. OCLC 895700030.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^ a b "Brasil de Fato". Brasil de Fato (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-01-02.
  5. ^ "Quilombolas: quem são, origem, tradição, condições". Brasil Escola (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-01-02.
  6. ^ Guimarães, José (2012). «Settlement in Southern Pará and Historical Origins of the Carajás Movement». Carajás Youth Debates (interview). Interview with Teixeira de Souza, M .. Teixeira de Souza, M. Belém.
  7. ^ Moura, Clóvis (2004). Dicionário da escravidão negra no Brasil. São Paulo, SP, Brasil: Edusp. p. 47. ISBN 85-314-0812-1. OCLC 62236622.
  8. ^ Pinto, Benedita Celeste de Moraes. «Rural Black Women: Resistance and Struggle for Survival in the Tocantins Region (PA)» (PDF) . XXVI National Symposium on History.
  9. ^ Gomes, Flávio dos Santos. In the labyrinth of rivers, boreholes and streams: black peasants, memory and post-emancipation in the Amazon, c. XIX-XX. [Sl]: História Unisinos, 2006. p. 282.
  10. ^ Domingues, Andrea Silva. (2014). Cultura, Trabalho e Cidadania (in Brazilian Portuguese). Rodrigues, Socorro Doriedson do., Moraes Pinto, Benedita Celeste de. São Paulo: Paco Editorial. ISBN 978-85-8148-678-9. OCLC 1114974895.
  11. ^ Arraes, Jarid (2017). Maria Aranha (in Portuguese). Jarid Arraes.
  12. ^ Exposicao Heroinas com Moldura
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