Brazil's Islamic Legacy: The History of Muslims in Brazil
The Muslim presence in Brazil can be divided into 4 phases:
The Muslim presence in Brazil can be divided into 4 phases:
- African Muslims' contact with Brazil before the Portuguese colonisers
- Enslaved African Muslims in Brazil between the 15th and 19th century
- Arab Muslim immigration to Brazil in the 20th century
- African Muslim immigrants and rise in conversion to Islam since 1990
The History of African Muslims in Brazil
Islam and blackness was a dangerous combination for the Portuguese elite in nineteenth century Brazil. The Portuguese were threatened by the presence of African Muslim slaves due to their strong faith, literacy and the fact that they were experienced in the art of warfare from their homeland. Inspired by Qur’anic injunctions to fight oppression and the Haitian slave revolt, a group of West African Yoruba Muslims unified multi-ethnic African Muslims under the banner of Islam and unified non-Muslim Africans under the banner of blackness to lead a revolt in Bahia in 1835. Though unsuccessful, the revolt led to the abolishment of slavery in 1888. The ending of slavery resulted in the exclusion of black and mixed raced Brazilians from the nation’s wealth and resources. Today, many black Brazilian activists draw inspiration from the courage of the African Muslims in their modern day struggle against anti-black racism and white supremacy. In a country that is as ethnically mixed as Brazil, white remains the colour of aspiration and success, whilst black continues to be the colour of poverty and a history, that some would prefer to forget. This book (Illuminating the Blackness) examines this history.
Islam and blackness was a dangerous combination for the Portuguese elite in nineteenth century Brazil. The Portuguese were threatened by the presence of African Muslim slaves due to their strong faith, literacy and the fact that they were experienced in the art of warfare from their homeland. Inspired by Qur’anic injunctions to fight oppression and the Haitian slave revolt, a group of West African Yoruba Muslims unified multi-ethnic African Muslims under the banner of Islam and unified non-Muslim Africans under the banner of blackness to lead a revolt in Bahia in 1835. Though unsuccessful, the revolt led to the abolishment of slavery in 1888. The ending of slavery resulted in the exclusion of black and mixed raced Brazilians from the nation’s wealth and resources. Today, many black Brazilian activists draw inspiration from the courage of the African Muslims in their modern day struggle against anti-black racism and white supremacy. In a country that is as ethnically mixed as Brazil, white remains the colour of aspiration and success, whilst black continues to be the colour of poverty and a history, that some would prefer to forget. This book (Illuminating the Blackness) examines this history.
Africa's greatest explorer traveled to Brazil 200 years before the Portuguese colonists. He was a 14th century West African Emperor from Mali called Mansa Abubakari II.
African Muslim Explorers in Pre-Colonial Brazil
An African emperor who ruled Mali in the 14th century landed in Brazil nearly 200 years before the Portuguese colonists. Fourteenth century Malian emperor (Mansa) Abubakari II ruled what was arguably the richest and largest empire on earth - covering nearly all of West Africa. In 1311, the Malian Emperor left with 2000 boats', as he gave up all power and gold to pursue knowledge and discovery.
Abubakari II handed the throne over to his brother, Mansa Musa, and set off on an expedition into the unknown. Researchers claim that Abubakari's fleet of pirogues, loaded with men and women, livestock, food and drinking water, departed from what is the coast of present-day Gambia. In 1312 Abubakari II is said to have landed on the coast of Brazil in the place known today as Recife. "Its other name is Pernambuco , which we believe is an aberration of the Mande name for the rich gold fields that accounted for much of the wealth of the Mali Empire, Boure Bambouk." Written accounts of Abubakari's expedition is also found in a book written by Egyptian historian al-Umari in the 14th century.
An African emperor who ruled Mali in the 14th century landed in Brazil nearly 200 years before the Portuguese colonists. Fourteenth century Malian emperor (Mansa) Abubakari II ruled what was arguably the richest and largest empire on earth - covering nearly all of West Africa. In 1311, the Malian Emperor left with 2000 boats', as he gave up all power and gold to pursue knowledge and discovery.
Abubakari II handed the throne over to his brother, Mansa Musa, and set off on an expedition into the unknown. Researchers claim that Abubakari's fleet of pirogues, loaded with men and women, livestock, food and drinking water, departed from what is the coast of present-day Gambia. In 1312 Abubakari II is said to have landed on the coast of Brazil in the place known today as Recife. "Its other name is Pernambuco , which we believe is an aberration of the Mande name for the rich gold fields that accounted for much of the wealth of the Mali Empire, Boure Bambouk." Written accounts of Abubakari's expedition is also found in a book written by Egyptian historian al-Umari in the 14th century.
African Muslims Enslaved in Brazil
An estimated 5 million Africans were enslaved and transported to Brazil between the 16th and 19th centuries. Despite being the minority, the enslaved African Muslims left a significant impact in the abolishment of slavery. Historian John Geipel explores how the African Muslims helped shape South America's largest nation during the enforced diaspora of teh slave trade .
"It was, however, the Islamicised blacks, known collectively in Brazil by the Yoruba name, Malê, who, while numerically inferior to the largely Bantu and Nagô masses, were to have the greatest impact on the ultimate destiny of Brazil’s slave population: for it was they who spearheaded the insurrections which punctuated the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and accelerated the end of bondage.
Outstanding and most influential among the various peoples classed as Malê were the Hausa of northern Nigeria, a highly urbanised nation whose so-called ‘holy war’ against the white oppressor was a continuation of the jihad against the infidel which was part of Islamic tradition. In Brazil, many of these Malê, despite having obtained their freedom, remained unassimilated and aloof from white society. Besides the Hausa, the Mandinga and the Fula were solidly Muslim, while many of the Nagô had converted to Islam long before their arrival in Brazil.
The Hausa, esteemed as house slaves for their imposing bearing and courteous manners, were frequently superior, in both intellect and erudition, to their masters and many, notably the alufás (imams), were literate in the Ajami (Arabic) script and well versed in the Koran.
The most spectacular of the slave insurrections, such as the 1835 ‘Malê Uprising’, were fomented and organised by these highly motivated people whose primary objective – alongside casting off the yoke of slavery – was to prosyletise their fellow Africans, many of whom had either adopted Catholicism or continued to observe their atavistic forms of worship. The crusading spirit of Islam was thus a dominant and unifying factor in the slave revolts that spread terror through a white population for whom the Haitian revolution of 1791 was still a fresh memory. When the uprising was finally put down, its ringleaders were either executed or exiled to Africa. Although many of these uprisings were well organised, the sheer size of the country meant that they could not be co-ordinated as they had been in the compact geographical setting of Haiti. Threatening though they were on a local scale, the Brazilian slave insurrections were much easier to isolate, contain and extinguish than their successful Haitian exemplar. Moreover, they could not boast a charismatic, supra-regional leader of the stature of Toussaint L’Ouverture or of Antonio Maceo, the mulatto general who waged guerrilla war against the Spanish in Cuba in the 1870s."
Click here to read the full article
An estimated 5 million Africans were enslaved and transported to Brazil between the 16th and 19th centuries. Despite being the minority, the enslaved African Muslims left a significant impact in the abolishment of slavery. Historian John Geipel explores how the African Muslims helped shape South America's largest nation during the enforced diaspora of teh slave trade .
"It was, however, the Islamicised blacks, known collectively in Brazil by the Yoruba name, Malê, who, while numerically inferior to the largely Bantu and Nagô masses, were to have the greatest impact on the ultimate destiny of Brazil’s slave population: for it was they who spearheaded the insurrections which punctuated the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and accelerated the end of bondage.
Outstanding and most influential among the various peoples classed as Malê were the Hausa of northern Nigeria, a highly urbanised nation whose so-called ‘holy war’ against the white oppressor was a continuation of the jihad against the infidel which was part of Islamic tradition. In Brazil, many of these Malê, despite having obtained their freedom, remained unassimilated and aloof from white society. Besides the Hausa, the Mandinga and the Fula were solidly Muslim, while many of the Nagô had converted to Islam long before their arrival in Brazil.
The Hausa, esteemed as house slaves for their imposing bearing and courteous manners, were frequently superior, in both intellect and erudition, to their masters and many, notably the alufás (imams), were literate in the Ajami (Arabic) script and well versed in the Koran.
The most spectacular of the slave insurrections, such as the 1835 ‘Malê Uprising’, were fomented and organised by these highly motivated people whose primary objective – alongside casting off the yoke of slavery – was to prosyletise their fellow Africans, many of whom had either adopted Catholicism or continued to observe their atavistic forms of worship. The crusading spirit of Islam was thus a dominant and unifying factor in the slave revolts that spread terror through a white population for whom the Haitian revolution of 1791 was still a fresh memory. When the uprising was finally put down, its ringleaders were either executed or exiled to Africa. Although many of these uprisings were well organised, the sheer size of the country meant that they could not be co-ordinated as they had been in the compact geographical setting of Haiti. Threatening though they were on a local scale, the Brazilian slave insurrections were much easier to isolate, contain and extinguish than their successful Haitian exemplar. Moreover, they could not boast a charismatic, supra-regional leader of the stature of Toussaint L’Ouverture or of Antonio Maceo, the mulatto general who waged guerrilla war against the Spanish in Cuba in the 1870s."
Click here to read the full article
The 1835 Malé (Yoruba) Slave Revolt in Bahia
The Malé Revolt is perhaps the most significant slave rebellion in Brazilian history.On a Sunday during Ramadan in January 1835 some 600 black slaves and freed men, inspired by Muslim teachers (Muslims were called malés in Bahia at this time), and bearing talismans containing texts from the Qur'an, rose up against the Portuguese-Brazilian government.
The 1835 slave rebellion in Bahia was led primarily by well learned Muslims from the Yoruba West African ethnic group. The Yoruba Muslims managed to unify the African slaves based on racial and religious solidarity. The uprising was ultimately quelled by the Portuguese but the rebellion left a lasting impression upon the other African slaves who created fear in the hearts of the Europeans and eventually led to the abloshment of slavery in 1888.
Click here to read the article Palestra Islamização da África e Revolta dos Malês (Islamization of Africa and Malês Revolt) by Zaid Mohamad Abdulazizi in Portuguese
The Malé Revolt is perhaps the most significant slave rebellion in Brazilian history.On a Sunday during Ramadan in January 1835 some 600 black slaves and freed men, inspired by Muslim teachers (Muslims were called malés in Bahia at this time), and bearing talismans containing texts from the Qur'an, rose up against the Portuguese-Brazilian government.
The 1835 slave rebellion in Bahia was led primarily by well learned Muslims from the Yoruba West African ethnic group. The Yoruba Muslims managed to unify the African slaves based on racial and religious solidarity. The uprising was ultimately quelled by the Portuguese but the rebellion left a lasting impression upon the other African slaves who created fear in the hearts of the Europeans and eventually led to the abloshment of slavery in 1888.
Click here to read the article Palestra Islamização da África e Revolta dos Malês (Islamization of Africa and Malês Revolt) by Zaid Mohamad Abdulazizi in Portuguese
“Muslims who came to Brazil as slaves laid the foundation of the country.” – President Lula
Brazil's First Educational System started by West African Muslims in the 19th Century
The first system of private education in Brazil was started by the African Muslim societies in 19th century Brazil. The enslaved Africans Muslims, primarily of Yoruba and Hausa origin, from the literary and West African college system, were hired to teach the children of the Portuguese slavemasters. At the same time, the Africans established their own private schools to teach Arabic, Islamic law and Qur#anic studies.
In the early 20th century there were a number of alufás (religious leaders) African Muslims residing in Rio de Janeiro. Many of the Hausa and Yoruba Muslims were very knowledgeable about the Qur’ān and taught their students the tenets of Islam in private Qur’ānic schools. The God-fearing Muslims were
Oftentimes keeping themselves distant from the non-Muslims out of fear of persecution, the God-fearing Muslims practised their faith in secrecy after the revolts. Unfortunately the Muslim community was not able to preserve their faith for successive generations due to the difficult conditions they faced.
The first system of private education in Brazil was started by the African Muslim societies in 19th century Brazil. The enslaved Africans Muslims, primarily of Yoruba and Hausa origin, from the literary and West African college system, were hired to teach the children of the Portuguese slavemasters. At the same time, the Africans established their own private schools to teach Arabic, Islamic law and Qur#anic studies.
In the early 20th century there were a number of alufás (religious leaders) African Muslims residing in Rio de Janeiro. Many of the Hausa and Yoruba Muslims were very knowledgeable about the Qur’ān and taught their students the tenets of Islam in private Qur’ānic schools. The God-fearing Muslims were
Oftentimes keeping themselves distant from the non-Muslims out of fear of persecution, the God-fearing Muslims practised their faith in secrecy after the revolts. Unfortunately the Muslim community was not able to preserve their faith for successive generations due to the difficult conditions they faced.
Quilombo dos Palmares - Brazil's Independent African Kingdom, its Leader Zumbi and the Help of African Muslims
The Africans established political power in Palmares and managed to remain an independent nation (quilombo) in Brazil for almost one hundred years until 1695, when their inspirational leader and African warrior chief, Zumbi of Palmares, was captured and executed.
The independent society was organised similarly to an African kingdom with a King of Assembly. The King was chosen from the best warriors; Zumbi was chosen this way and, under his leadership, the Palmares fought bravely for sixty-five years against the colonialists from Portugal and Holland, before it was finally destroyed in 1695.
African Muslims were involved in its formation. Documents had registered the role of Muslims (Muҫulmanos) in the structuring of the quilombos, among them a certain Karin ibn ‘Alī Saifudin, considered a builder of its fortified structures. Another document referred to a "Moor" who was most likely a dark-skin Arab or Berber Muslim from North Africa, teaching the heroic leader, Zumbi, military warfare tactics. Little is known of this man, except that he helped Zumbi and was distinguished from other Africans, briefly noting that he had fled Palmares and designed a fort at the Palmarian citdel of Macaco.
Quilombo dos Palmares (literally, in an Angolan Bantu language, the 'warrior town' of Palmares) is fast becoming a politically potent symbol of black consciousness within modern day Brazil.
The Africans established political power in Palmares and managed to remain an independent nation (quilombo) in Brazil for almost one hundred years until 1695, when their inspirational leader and African warrior chief, Zumbi of Palmares, was captured and executed.
The independent society was organised similarly to an African kingdom with a King of Assembly. The King was chosen from the best warriors; Zumbi was chosen this way and, under his leadership, the Palmares fought bravely for sixty-five years against the colonialists from Portugal and Holland, before it was finally destroyed in 1695.
African Muslims were involved in its formation. Documents had registered the role of Muslims (Muҫulmanos) in the structuring of the quilombos, among them a certain Karin ibn ‘Alī Saifudin, considered a builder of its fortified structures. Another document referred to a "Moor" who was most likely a dark-skin Arab or Berber Muslim from North Africa, teaching the heroic leader, Zumbi, military warfare tactics. Little is known of this man, except that he helped Zumbi and was distinguished from other Africans, briefly noting that he had fled Palmares and designed a fort at the Palmarian citdel of Macaco.
Quilombo dos Palmares (literally, in an Angolan Bantu language, the 'warrior town' of Palmares) is fast becoming a politically potent symbol of black consciousness within modern day Brazil.
“Some of those imported into Brazil were from areas of most advanced Negro culture. This explains why some Africans in Brazil - men of Mohammedan faith [i.e. Muslims] and intellectual training - were culturally superior to some of their European, white, Catholic masters. More than one foreigner who visited Brazil in the nineteenth century was surprised to find the leading French bookseller of the Empire’s capital had among his customers Mohammedan Negroes of Bahia; through him these remarkable Negroes, some of them ostensibly Christian but actually Mohammedan, imported expensive copies of their sacred books for secret study. Some of them maintained schools, and the Mohammedan in Bahia had mutual-aid societies through which a number of slaves were liberated.” - Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre
Afro-Brazilian architecture in West Africa
In an article about the legacy of the Afro-Brazilians in present day Nigeria architecture, journalist, James Brooke writes,
“Nigeria’s Brazilian architecture is a legacy of the thousands of freed slaves who returned to West Africa in the 19th century. Trained as carpenters, cabinetmakers, masons and bricklayers in Brazil and borrowing from the baroque styles popular in Brazil through the 18th century, these freedmen stamped their exuberant and individualistic style on doorways, brightly painted facades and chunky concrete columns.”[1]
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/26/garden/in-nigeria-touches-of-brazilian-style.html
In an article about the legacy of the Afro-Brazilians in present day Nigeria architecture, journalist, James Brooke writes,
“Nigeria’s Brazilian architecture is a legacy of the thousands of freed slaves who returned to West Africa in the 19th century. Trained as carpenters, cabinetmakers, masons and bricklayers in Brazil and borrowing from the baroque styles popular in Brazil through the 18th century, these freedmen stamped their exuberant and individualistic style on doorways, brightly painted facades and chunky concrete columns.”[1]
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/26/garden/in-nigeria-touches-of-brazilian-style.html
The Islamic Revival in Salvador, Bahia
The Muslim community in Salvador, the place of the 1835 revolt, is particularly strong and close-knit since the establishment of its mosque and cultural centre. A wealthy Arab-Brazilian Muslim from São Paulo established the Centro Cultural Islâmico da Bahia (Islamic Cultural Center of Bahia), also known as Mesquita Salvador (Salvador Mosque), in 1991. He wanted to revive the African-Muslim heritage of the city. Initially it was a small place that he rented for Muslim students to come and meet, and in time it became the Islamic Cultural Centre. With the help of Misbah Wale Akanni, a Muslim entrepreneur and the current Nigerian Liaison Officer of Bahia, the Islamic Centre was created, also serving as a mosque for daily prayers. Akanni came to Brazil from Nigeria in the late 1980s as a student but, after being requested by some Muslims from Saudi Arabia to help recreate the ‘lost glory’ of Salvador’s Islam, he returned in 1990 to help build the Islamic community in Salvador.
The Muslim community in Salvador, the place of the 1835 revolt, is particularly strong and close-knit since the establishment of its mosque and cultural centre. A wealthy Arab-Brazilian Muslim from São Paulo established the Centro Cultural Islâmico da Bahia (Islamic Cultural Center of Bahia), also known as Mesquita Salvador (Salvador Mosque), in 1991. He wanted to revive the African-Muslim heritage of the city. Initially it was a small place that he rented for Muslim students to come and meet, and in time it became the Islamic Cultural Centre. With the help of Misbah Wale Akanni, a Muslim entrepreneur and the current Nigerian Liaison Officer of Bahia, the Islamic Centre was created, also serving as a mosque for daily prayers. Akanni came to Brazil from Nigeria in the late 1980s as a student but, after being requested by some Muslims from Saudi Arabia to help recreate the ‘lost glory’ of Salvador’s Islam, he returned in 1990 to help build the Islamic community in Salvador.
Hip-Hop Music And Afro-Brazilian Muslims
Hip-hop music was influential in the rise of Islam amongst people descended from Africans in Brazil’s favelas. North American hip-hop’s ghetto music appeals to impoverished blacks, not only in Brazil, but across the world. Though not all themselves Muslims, many of the African-Americans rappers used Islamic references, had Arabic names and spoke highly of Muslims like Malcolm X and Muhammad ‘Alī, which created more interest in the religion.
Afro-Brazilians identified with the rappers’ socially-conscious lyrics about being downtrodden in society and found aspiration in their music. Hip-hop is often used as a tool for conversion of Afro-Brazilians to Islam, where many Afro-Brazilians first learned about their country's Islamic legacy with the history of the African Muslim revolts in 19th century Bahia.
The heroic exploits of the African Muslims in Bahia re-connected many Afro-Brazilians with their Islamic heritage and served as an inspiration to embrace the religion of their forefathers.
Hip-hop music was influential in the rise of Islam amongst people descended from Africans in Brazil’s favelas. North American hip-hop’s ghetto music appeals to impoverished blacks, not only in Brazil, but across the world. Though not all themselves Muslims, many of the African-Americans rappers used Islamic references, had Arabic names and spoke highly of Muslims like Malcolm X and Muhammad ‘Alī, which created more interest in the religion.
Afro-Brazilians identified with the rappers’ socially-conscious lyrics about being downtrodden in society and found aspiration in their music. Hip-hop is often used as a tool for conversion of Afro-Brazilians to Islam, where many Afro-Brazilians first learned about their country's Islamic legacy with the history of the African Muslim revolts in 19th century Bahia.
The heroic exploits of the African Muslims in Bahia re-connected many Afro-Brazilians with their Islamic heritage and served as an inspiration to embrace the religion of their forefathers.
African Muslims in 19th Century Brazil by Habeeb Akande
Historically, the impact that African Muslims had on Brazilian history is often overlooked. Between the 16th and 19th centuries over 5 million enslaved Africans were transported to Brazil, in which approximately 30% of the slaves brought over in the 19th century were reportedly Muslims from West Africa. The Muslims, primarily from the Yoruba and Hausa ethnic groups, led a series of revolts between 1807 and 1835, set up Islamic schools and valiantly tried to preserve their faith in horrid conditions. Over a century later, the heroic exploits of the African Muslims inspired the revival of Islam in Brazil in the 1990s as growing numbers of Brazilian Muslims cited the African Muslims as a source of encouragement in converting to Islam, as well as fighting social inequalities in modern day Brazil.
Read full article here at Kube Publishing.
Historically, the impact that African Muslims had on Brazilian history is often overlooked. Between the 16th and 19th centuries over 5 million enslaved Africans were transported to Brazil, in which approximately 30% of the slaves brought over in the 19th century were reportedly Muslims from West Africa. The Muslims, primarily from the Yoruba and Hausa ethnic groups, led a series of revolts between 1807 and 1835, set up Islamic schools and valiantly tried to preserve their faith in horrid conditions. Over a century later, the heroic exploits of the African Muslims inspired the revival of Islam in Brazil in the 1990s as growing numbers of Brazilian Muslims cited the African Muslims as a source of encouragement in converting to Islam, as well as fighting social inequalities in modern day Brazil.
Read full article here at Kube Publishing.