Here Africans are Africans, I can't / Speak for others, but I only wish / To be / Myself.
-- Afranio (Song for Almeyda, Part I)

Importance: The author utilizes this moment in the text to introduce her thematic inspection of identity. During the colonization of Brazil by Portugal and active participation in the slave trade, African cultures, traditions and languages were systematically erased. When Afranio introduces Anninho to the quilombo, he asserts that he does not want to be defined by Eurocentric definitions of the Black experience. His identity is his own to create and define.

We learn their languages and / They learn / Ours.
-- Afranio (Song for Almeyda, Part I)

Importance: The author explores allyship through the collaboration of the Angolan fugitives and the indigenous peoples in Brazil. Members of the Mundurucus and Tupi tribes joined the Palmares settlement, and later the smaller quilombos, in order to build a stronger resistance to Portuguese colonial rule. Within the quilombos, the community respected different cultures and languages, in direct...