Chapter 4, “Flying Home?,” continues the exploration of spirituality and asks where “home” was for Palmaristas. Using the famous stories of “flying Africans” that appear regularly in African American folklore and novels by authors such as Toni Morrison and Alejo Carpentier, the chapter suggests why other forms of posthumous or “supernatural” flight must also enter discussions of Palmares. The chapter also uses Inquisition records to paint a fuller picture of spirituality and religious practices in Palmares and the larger captaincy, Pernambuco. What Catholic officials treated as “witchcraft” was a complex and varied spiritual matrix. Of special interest are Saint Benedict, who in one case from Minas Gerais was correlated in a fascinating way with Zumbi, and goats, which had various sacred meanings and uses in West Central Africa and Brazil, and surprising potential links to Zumbi and Ganga Zumba, who preceded him as Palmares’s most powerful ruler.
Advertisement
