Aqualtune

Aqualtune Ezgondidu Mahamud da Silva Santos (fl. 1665) was a Kongo princess who was the daughter of an unidentified Manikongo. According to the tradition, she was the mother of Ganga Zumba and the maternal grandmother of Zumbi.[1]

Aqualtune Ezgondidu Mahamud da Silva Santos
BornKingdom of Kongo
IssueGanga Zumba

Gana Zona

Sabina
HouseKongo

In 1665, Aqualtune led a force of ten thousand Kongo men and women in the Battle of Mbwila, where she was captured in defeat.[1][2] She was then transported to the Port of Recife, a warehouse and sugar mill. She was purchased as a breeding slave, and was later sold to a mill in Porto Calvo, already pregnant.[3] She then escaped her enslavement, reaching the Palmares quilombo. She then became the leader of the Subupuira quilombo, which was northeast of the capital of the Palmares. She had two sons, Ganga Zumba and Gana Zona, who both took on leadership roles in the Palmares. Zumbi was the child of her daughter Sabina. Her fate and later life is unknown, dying a mysterious death in 1675.[4]

References
  1. da Costa, Maria Suely. "REPRESENTAÇÕES DE LUTA E RESISTÊNCIA FEMININA NA POESIA POPULAR" (PDF). III CONEDU Congresso Nacional De Educacao (in Portuguese). Universidade Estadual da Paraíba. Retrieved May 2, 2018.
  2. Schwarz-Bart, Simone; Schwarz-Bart, André (2001). In Praise of Black Women: Heroines of the slavery era. Univ of Wisconsin Press. pp. 7–9. ISBN 9780299172602.
  3. "The story of the Kongo princess who led 10,000 men into battle and was later enslaved by the Portuguese". Face2Face Africa. 2018-06-29. Retrieved 2020-10-08.
  4. Casoy, Julio (2009-02-07). "BLACK HISTORY MONTH: BLACK HEROINES, PART 2: AQUALTUNE: AN ENSLAVED CONGO PRINCESS". BEAUTIFUL, ALSO, ARE THE SOULS OF MY BLACK SISTERS. Retrieved 2020-10-08.
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