A quilombo (from a Kimbundu word) is a hinterland settlement originally created by runaway slaves in Brazil and sometimes included a minority of marginalised Portuguese and other non-black, non-slave Brazilians. Some of these settlements were quite near Portuguese settlements and quite active both in defending against capitães do mato commissioned to recapture slaves and in facilitating the escape of even more slaves, and thus were actively fought by the Portuguese and, later, by the Brazilian state and slaveowners. Although, quilombos that were further from the Portuguese settlements and the later Brazilian cities were effectively tolerated and still exist, to the point of having their own African-Portuguese creole languages.
The most famous of the quilombos was Palmares and was lead by the legendary hero Zumbi, who eventually died defending it.
In American Spanish, the word has taken the meanings of "brothel", "mess" and "boondocks".
See also
palenque - the equivalent settlements in Spanish America
A quilombo (from the Kimbundu word kilombo) is a Brazilian hinterland settlement founded by Maroons and, sometimes, a minority of marginalised Portuguese, Brazilian aboriginals, and/or other non-fl, non-slave Brazilians.
Some quilombos that were farther from Portuguese settlements and the later Brazilian cities were tolerated and still exist as towns today, with inhabitants speaking distinctly African-Portuguese Creole languages.
The Brazilian 1988 constitution granted the remaining quilombos the collective ownership of the lands they have occupied since colonial times, thus recognizing their distinct identity at the same level of the Indians.
Brazil’s quilombo population – the last vestiges of the country’s slave culture – is facing increasing hardship on a number of fronts, from land ownership to access to basic services.
Quilombos, a legacy of the nearly 400 years of officially sanctioned slavery in Brazil, were clandestine agricultural communities founded deep in the Brazilian outback, primarily by fls who managed to escape bondage.
Her vision of where quilombos fit into the broader experience of African descendents in Latin America makes her methodology exportable to other countries in the region, and she is already establishing links with fl populations in Central and South America.
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