Summary

In "Song for Anninho", Part 2, Almeyda imagines the New Palmares where her name and the names of her compatriots are emblazoned in the chronicle. She tells Anninho that the soldier who defiled her, tore her seed necklace from her throat and cut her breast from her body, has no name. Ganga Zumba, and Zumbi, and Anninho are the names that shall inform history. They will build a new city with new voices and “make [their] love songs” like the birds that are “trying to sing in one voice, / but one discordant voice, / one voice with many variations” (151). The narrator thinks that if she sang a song for Anninho now, he would not be able to hear her, her voice would be harsh and unrecognizable. She resolves to form a new voice. Zibatra continues to tell her that she must search for...