From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Male Revolt is perhaps the most significant slave rebellion in Brazil, which took place in 1835 in the city of Salvador da Bahia. On a Sunday during Ramadan in January 1835 some 600 black slaves and freed men, inspired by Muslim teachers (Muslims were called "males" in Bahia at this time), and bearing talismans containing texts from the Koran, rose up against the government. Brazilian slaves knew about the revolution in St. Domingue (as Haiti was then known) and wore necklaces bearing the image of President Dessalines, who had declared Haitian independence. Fearful that the whole state of Bahia would follow the example of St Domingue and rise up and revolt , the authorities quickly sentenced four of the rebels to death, sixteen to prison, eight to forced labour, and forty-five to flogging. The remainder of surviving Muslims in Bahia were then deported back to Africa by the authorities; it is believed that such ethnicities as the Tabom People of Ghana are descended from this deportation, although descendants of these Afro-Brazilian repatriates are reputed to be widespread throughout West Africa (such as Sylvanus Olympio, the first president of Togo).
[edit] External links
