Felipa Maria Aranha
Felipa Maria Aranha | |
|---|---|
| Leader of the Mola quilombo | |
| In office ? - c. 1780 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1720 Gold Coast, Guinea |
| Died | c. 1780 |
| Occupation | Rebel 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
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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
[edit | edit source]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
[edit | edit source]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
[edit | edit source]- ^ 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
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- ^ 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.
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- ^ Pinto, Benedita Celeste de Moraes. «Rural Black Women: Resistance and Struggle for Survival in the Tocantins Region (PA)» (PDF) . XXVI National Symposium on History.
- ^ 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.
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