During the final days of Ramadan in 1835, hundreds of the Malês, the name given to Muslim slaves in Brazil, moved through the streets of the province of Bahia armed with blades and dressed in their traditional clothing. They were heading towards the prison to free their leaders, who had planned an uprising against the oppression and persecution Muslims were suffering at the hands of white authorities and slaveholders.
However, the actions of an angry wife led to the arrest of several of those involved and may have exposed the entire plan for the uprising. The result was tragic: dozens of rebels were killed, while those who survived were subjected to punishment and torture, as were even some enslaved people who had not participated in the revolt.
Planning the Malê Revolt in Brazil
In 1835, the population of Salvador, the capital of Bahia, was approximately 65,000 people. Around 40% were either enslaved people or formerly enslaved people who had obtained their freedom. Most were of diverse African origins and cultures, including many Muslims. The rest of the population consisted largely of Portuguese and other European settlers.
Muslim slaves in Brazil were not only able to read and write Arabic, but many were also well acquainted with different fields of knowledge. A significant number were skilled craftsmen, including shoemakers, blacksmiths and carpenters. They became known as the Malês.
Some Malês were able to earn money and hand a large portion of it to their white masters. In time, some also managed to purchase their freedom and live in the city as free people, or at least that was what they believed freedom would mean.
Even when they were legally free, professionally skilled and relatively educated, they continued to live under racism, persecution and injustice. Many were also prevented from practising their religion, and copies of the Qur’an were confiscated from some of them.
Preparatory meetings for the uprising were held in different locations across the city. Muslim leaders collected money to purchase weapons and wrote their plans in Arabic in an effort to avoid detection.
They also gained sympathy and support for the coming revolt from non-Muslims, including enslaved people, formerly enslaved people, and even some indigenous Brazilians who had themselves experienced marginalisation.
Many of these groups were receptive to Qur’anic teachings that showed concern for the oppressed and marginalised, and they developed considerable respect and admiration for the ideas of Brazil’s Muslim community.
The Revolt Plan Was Leaked by an Angry Wife
The uprising was scheduled to begin on 25 January, during the final ten nights of Ramadan. The leaders chose the night associated with Laylat al-Qadr as the moment to launch the revolt.
But events did not unfold as planned.
Sabina da Cruz, a formerly enslaved woman, had quarrelled with her husband, Vitório Sule, one of the leaders of the uprising.
One day before the revolt, she went looking for him and found him inside a house with several other organisers of the rebellion.
After discovering the plan, Sabina went and told a friend, who was also formerly enslaved. Her friend then informed a white woman about what was expected to happen the following day.
The woman, in turn, informed her husband, who alerted the authorities and provided them with information about the planned uprising and the names of its leaders.
The leaders were arrested, and the authorities began pursuing everyone believed to be involved.
Faced with the collapse of their original plan, the rebels decided to launch the uprising earlier than intended.
They dressed in their Islamic clothing, armed themselves with bladed weapons, and approximately 600 Malês headed towards the prison in an attempt to free their leaders.
However, their weapons were poor, the infantry forces confronting them greatly outnumbered them, and the authorities had already been warned of the plan.
The uprising ended in a massacre of the Malês at the hands of the National Guard, police forces and armed white civilians.
Nine members of the government forces were killed, while approximately 70 rebels lost their lives.
The Malê Revolt Failed, but Its Demands Were Realised 50 Years Later
Following the failure of the Malê Revolt, hundreds of Muslim slaves were put on trial.
Some were sentenced to imprisonment and forced labour, while others were flogged, executed or exiled.
Many of those punished had no evidence presented against them proving that they had taken part in the uprising.
The social pressure and fear created by slave rebellions, of which the Malê uprising was the largest in the Americas, later became one of the factors contributing to the passage of a law ending the importation of enslaved people from Africa in 1850.
Slavery itself was eventually abolished in Brazil in 1888.
According to a report published by the British news outlet Middle East Eye on 16 October 2022, the Muslim community in Salvador, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, has also pressured Harvard University in the United States to return the skull of an enslaved man who is alleged to have taken part in the Malê Revolt.
