São Paulo – Youths from 372 schools in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro studied and wrote, last year, about the history of an African queen that communicated in Arabic. The students participated in a creative writing competition at the Centre for Articulation of Marginalised Populations (Ceap), whose theme was Luiza Mahin, an African leader in the Malês group of Muslim blacks who came to Brazil as slaves. They wrote in Arabic and historic records show that many came from Sudan, an African Arab nation.
According to the strategic councillor at Ceap, Ivanir dos Santos, the competition is promoted every year, always with a different theme connected to Africa and Afro-descendants. The objective is to spread law 2003, which made compulsory the teaching of the history of Africa and Afro-Brazilian culture in schools in the country. The Camellia of Freedom Creative Writing competition is at its fifth edition in Rio and at the fourth in São Paulo.
The awarding ceremony in Rio took place on Wednesday (2) and in São Paulo it is scheduled to take place on Friday (4). Six authors were awarded in Rio and three in São Paulo. In São Paulo, the competition is turned solely to Secondary Schooling, whereas in Rio it also includes Primary Schooling. The award was given to student compositions and the schools also got awards for the texts, as did the teachers. The schools are given information technology laboratories and the teachers and students win electronic equipment, like tablets, computers, scanners and printers.
Luiza Mahin, according to Santos, was one of the leaders of the Malês revolution. She was also, supposedly, a queen in Africa. There are, however, few records of her lifetime and much of what is known comes from the writings of her son, the abolitionist Luiz Gama. "I am the natural son of a free African, from Mine Coast, named Luiza Mahin, a pagan, who always refused baptism and Christian doctrine,” wrote Gama in a letter. And to her, Gama also wrote several verses, like the following stretch: "Era mui bela e formosa, era a mais linda pretinha, da adusta Líbia rainha, e no Brasil pobre escrava!" (She was beautiful and perfect, / oh, so pretty a black sheen, / in dry Libya, a queen -, in Brazil, a woeful slave).
Muslim blacks sold by the winners of wars in Africa were learned and, despite being slaves, did not accept such condition. They would also not accept conversion to Catholicism. Therefore, in the early 19th Century, in Bahia, the Malês Revolution took place. But they were defeated. Mahin was deported from Brazil and her son, Luiz Gama, remained with his father, who sold the boy due to financial troubles. He later sought his mother, but never found her. A maker of sweets, Luiza Mahin sent messages in Arabic to her partners who organised the revolution.
*Translated by Mark Ament
