EP 10 Aqualtune - The Warrior Queen I Women And Resistance 🌍

In this conversation, Aya and Adesoji explore the life and legacy of Aqualtune, an African warrior and leader, highlighting the historical context of her time, the role of women in African society, and the impact of colonialism and slavery. 
The discussion emphasizes the importance of understanding distorted narratives of African history, the resilience of African people, particularly women, and the ongoing struggle for empowerment and freedom. 
Through Aqualtune's story, the conversation connects past struggles to present-day issues, advocating for unity and resistance against oppression.

Takeaways

*Aqualtune's life reflects the strength and resilience of African women.
*The role of women in African societies was significant and multifaceted.
*Colonial narratives often distort the truth about African history.
*Resistance against oppression is a continuous struggle.
*Cultural identity and heritage are vital for empowerment.
*Women have always played a crucial role in the fight for freedom.
*Understanding history is essential for current and future generations.
*Unity among women is necessary for effective resistance.
*The fight for justice and equality is ongoing and requires collective effort.
*Aqualtune's legacy inspires modern movements for empowerment.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Women and Resistance
00:46  Princess Aqualtune's Heritage and Early Life
04:52  Colonial Encroachment and the Battle of Mbuila
09:24 The Role of Women in African Society
13:56  Distorted Narratives of African History
17:43  The Experience of Enslavement
23:59 Resistance and the Formation of Palmares
28:03 The Unyielding Struggle for Freedom
35:03 Lessons from History: Resilience and Resistance
39:21 Empowering Women in the Fight for Justice
43:41 The Importance of Historical Awareness and Unity
48:14 Celebrating Heritage and Continuing the Fight

Welcome  to Women and Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honour the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirit of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla...

You're listening to Women and Resistance with Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla—where we honour the voices of women who have shaped history through courage and defiance...Now, back to the conversation.

That’s it for this episode of Women and Resistance. Thank you for joining us in amplifying the voices of women who challenge injustice and change the course of history. Be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation. Together We Honour the past, act in the present, and shape the future. Until next time, stay inspired and stay in resistance!

Transcript

Adesoji Iginla (00:02.594)
Yes, greetings, greetings, greetings, and welcome to another episode of Women and Resistance. And as usual, I am your host, Ade Soji Iginla, with co-host and in character, Princess Alkutuni Egozindu Mahamud Dasilva Santos, otherwise known as

Ms. Ayayi Fubera NLE Esquire. How are you, sister?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (00:34.643)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (00:39.485)
Good evening, or as my people will say in our original language, Gokongo. Kia'anbote, kia'anbote. So we're very happy to be here. Greetings to everybody.

Adesoji Iginla (00:54.286)
So yes. And we've decided to cross continents. So we are going to start on the African side and cross to the Americas. But before we do that, it's important to put into context who is Princess Aqualtune.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:17.393)
Well, let me just start by sharing some sounds from, ended up being sounds from both my lands. If you just follow the sound.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:33.799)
Can you hear me?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:44.188)
telling you the way these sounds just calms me down and takes me back to my ancestral home. Yes, I was a princess in an area now called the Congo. All the stories I could tell.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (02:04.749)
I grew up knowing who I was, learning how to fight, knowing how to protect my people spiritually and physically. It was a beautiful time. We lived off the land, but...

Centuries before I was born, I have been told at least 300 years before I was born, the white man known as the Portuguese started to come to our shores and they came to our land and they initially presented as friends and we would trade with them. We traded things that they bought things from us that they wanted and we bought things from them that we wanted.

and we saw ourselves as equals. And this was in the 1300s. But then as time continued to pass, it seems like they got greedier and greedier and greedier. And so by the time of my father, there was an issue with the succession. And that is always a very precarious time for any group, for any nation, for any

community when the is trying to figure out what the change in leadership is going to be. And that is a time of weakness or vulnerability when outsiders can definitely come in and involve themselves. And so the Portuguese who had already been infiltrating our culture with Christianity,

Adesoji Iginla (03:24.28)
period of change.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (03:51.376)
many had converted to a form of Christianity, still maintaining some of our traditions, but certainly taking on some of the mannerisms of the so-called Christians, including even the clothes that we wore. And certainly we had been trading in weapons. We bought mosquitos and gunpowder and bullets from them. And

Around this time as well, they were no longer just content with trading for goods. They now wanted our people. Our people were a source of wealth for them. And so what you found happening all around us where different communities, different groups that had bought arms, we're now using those arms against each other. You know, an understanding of if I can protect myself, then

Those other people are the people that they can take into slavery. I don't know that we gave as much deep thought as to where are they taking to these people to and what will their fate be? You know, because even in the wars that we had, there were times when you would capture people from another group, but you integrated them into your community.

Adesoji Iginla (04:59.757)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (05:18.183)
became part of your community. Some of them were adopted. They could still eventually rise up in the community and live as free people. And so I don't know that my people really had an understanding of what these Portuguese were doing. But we should have by the amount of brutality that we saw from them. And so during this portion of, can can all of you hear me well? I just want to make sure, okay.

Adesoji Iginla (05:45.299)
Yes, yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (05:48.05)
So during this time when there was this uncertainty with my people, the Portuguese decided to strike. And of course, there's always, unfortunately in the history of our people, there's always a group that is attempting to get ahead, they think, by colluding with the white man.

and they think that that is going to help them get ahead. And so we had the Mbangala. The Mbangala people were known to be great warriors and they decided to put in their lot with, put in their lot with the Portuguese and to fight against my people. And so with this happening,

The major fight took place along what is called the Ulanga River Valley near the town of Mbuila. It was known as the Battle of Mbuila. And with the Battle of Mbuila, there was a big fight with my king, King Antonio I, and we fought valiantly. I was part of that fight, that part of that battle.

I actually led 10,000 warriors myself. So brutal was this fighting. But unfortunately, in the end, it was the slaughter of King Antonio that so demoralized our people. So many died, over 5,000 men and women. Warriors were killed. And King Antonio was killed and decapitated.

But not only was he decapitated and you are going to see this decapitation again, not only was he decapitated, they took his head.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (07:53.982)
They took his head against our culture, against our traditions, and they buried it as a war trophy in Luanda. They put it in actually what they considered their church and showed off the head of King Antonio. Over 100 people who were considered of the royal line, the nobles, were captured.

and amongst them was me, Aqualtune. And that began my journey from my beloved homeland to another place now called Brazil.

Adesoji Iginla (08:39.776)
Before we go across to Brazil, could you put into context what it was like for women in view of the often blurred history of the role of women in African society?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (09:04.893)
So as I told you, I have so many fond memories of my childhood and growing up as a woman in my community. There were really no barriers against us. Yes, we were women and recognized for our femininity and our ability to nurture, but we fully participated in every aspect of society. In fact, in many respects,

we understood the duality of the genders. And so what you saw

on one side for men, you would see mirrored on one side for women. So for instance, if two women had a dispute, they don't have to go before a court or a group of men. The women had their own mechanisms and their own ways of addressing their disputes. And the men equally had a parallel one. One was not greater than the other.

Yes, we had kings and there was a social hierarchy but the fact that we had some differentiated roles like what the person called king that was not even our term but what they would do versus what the person called the queen would do it was an understanding of they were different but one was not necessarily more important than the other.

everybody knew their role. In fact, when we would kill an animal, they were parts of the animal that only the men could eat. They were parts of the animal that were reserved for women. It wasn't one better than the other. It was just how things were. And there was a lot of respect, which is why I, as a woman, could lead an army of over 10,000 warriors

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (11:07.685)
many of whom were men and they would still follow my leadership because your leadership, yes, I was a royal birth, but you also proved your leadership in your actual work that you did, your abilities. And so that is how it was for me growing up and how it was amongst us.

Adesoji Iginla (11:32.878)
So which leads us to wonder why is it that the European documentation of this time of African history is clearly or can be claimed to be distorted?

Adesoji Iginla (11:49.538)
What would be the motivation?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (11:52.858)
Do you expect the people who came to kill and steal from you to tell the truth about who you are? As I recall, one of the ways that they would go after land and people and resources in Africa and in the Americas was to claim that if the people were heathen, then that meant that it was basically uninhabited land. So when they first started, it was

only land where there were no people living. But their greedy selves couldn't stop at that. Then it became, if you were a heathen, if you were a savage, then of course it's like wild animals living there. We can lay claim to everything. And so we cannot expect them, one, to understand our culture, two, to respect our culture, and three, to ever tell the truth.

Adesoji Iginla (12:23.256)
Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (12:48.657)
Because to tell the truth will be to show themselves as the actual savages and barbarians that they were. So what you do is you project what you are onto the people that you are trying to decimate. And that way you put out this narrative that these people were less than human. And then you talk about the white man's burden.

Adesoji Iginla (13:18.606)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (13:18.871)
though you came to civilize us. We did not call for you. We did not ask for you. We were minding our business and really thoroughly enjoying the gifts that God had given us where we were. So of course, absolutely. In fact, anything you read that they say you should automatically assume is a lie. They cannot tell you the truth. To tell you the truth would be to

provide all the evidence for their own condemnation. Of course, we know that they still managed to do that because one of the things that they would do is to steal from us and go and put it in their museums. How do you justify how the creations of these uncivilized, heathen, savage, less than human people are now good enough to be

Adesoji Iginla (14:16.961)
on exhibition.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (14:17.213)
put up in your best museums that you spend millions of your money to exhibit. Who takes anything from a wild animal to go and exhibit it? Do you understand what I'm saying? You say, a bird made this nest and then now we're going to have a whole museum for the bird's nest. No, you knew what we were. You knew what we were capable of. And when you steal it from us, first of all, it enriches you, but also

Adesoji Iginla (14:28.366)
Yes, yes, yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (14:45.575)
then we no longer have access to the proof of who we actually are. And we're more prone to now believe what you say about us. You cannot believe those people. Anything that they say, turn it around and then you will find the truth. They cannot tell the truth about my people. And you know, when I'm talking about how they came as friends or supposed friends in the 1300s,

Adesoji Iginla (14:51.649)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (15:15.079)
how they killed and slaughtered us and sold us off from really the late 1400s moving on to the 20th century almost, definitely the 19th century. What you see is,

They've never left us alone because that area that my family comes from, that my people came from is still under attack. In fact, I heard that today as we are talking, a representative of the now United States of America, the father-in-law of

The rapist that you people elected, maybe not your people, but some other people elected as their president, his daughter's father-in-law is in Congo, in my homeland today, right now, as we speak, because they have never left us alone. They have never stopped wanting what we have, and they will never stop lying about us.

Don't forget our brother, Patrice Lumumba. We have a long history of being attacked by these people.

Adesoji Iginla (16:42.382)
What you've just spoken about now with regards to the continued colonization of Congo lends itself and reminds us of the dehumanization in crossing in Africans being taken across to the Americas, which is where we're going to go for the next iteration of Akutuni.

Now, would you guess to Akutuna's experience in the Americas? Could you recall, I mean, without going into the traumatic aspect of it? Or if you think that lends itself to how the experience is or how your personality came to be, then do share. But what would you say?

the experience was on the other side.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (17:45.171)
Ha, I wanna tell all the stories.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (17:53.492)
You know how you have a wound and you have to first clean it out. You have to clean it out. You have to clean it out so that it can heal well. Why would I not tell all the stories? I'm not the villain. Why should I hide what these savages did? These people under the guise of Christianity, of brotherhood, of

love. No, I will tell all the stories. If someone murders somebody else, it's not to hide what the murderer did. No, we have to expose it all.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (18:39.793)
I remember the day I was captured.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (18:49.029)
Initially, I didn't even have the time to think about myself and what my captura might mean.

had seen.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (19:04.337)
the head of our king separated from his body. had seen those barbarians hold up the head of our king, my father in victory.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (19:20.339)
thought about my mother. I thought about my younger siblings. I thought about our people. And I wondered who would protect them now. I did not have time to think about myself as they dragged us and chained us and they were all so happy to find out who I was. But I was not going to give them the satisfaction of any fear or any tears.

No matter what land I was on, I was still a warrior. I was still a representative of my people. I was still.

the daughter who had been taught about her divinity, who understood that our ancestors were with us wherever we went.

but I think I was in shock for a while. You cannot imagine the depravity of these people.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:19.475)
I heard, I still hear the cries of our woman. And can I tell you of our men.

being sexually violated by these sadists.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:42.407)
And I told my people, we cannot be broken. As long as we have life, we fight. We cannot be broken. But we had to figure out how to fight as they chained us and put us in the belly of this big ship. Ships that had been used to carry trading goods from us and to us. Now carried our bodies.

how we wept. Some of us. Some of us kept a stiff upper lip. We had to do it for the sake of other people to help keep our spirits up. And we also had to do it so that we were quiet enough to continue to commune with our ancestors, even in the belly of that ship.

We were tossed to and fro, to and fro, to and fro.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (21:44.335)
sometimes brought out to the deck where they would ask us to dance for them.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (21:54.152)
We did not dance for them. We danced for our health. We danced to remember the drumbeats of our people. We danced to stay connected. You know there's power in the African drumbeats. We danced to keep our spirits going, to keep our spirits moving. But some of us overcome, overcome, overcome with the degradation, smelling ourselves.

Haven't been violated more times than we count. Some of us made our way over.

the ship, we'd rather join with our ancestors in the sea and let our souls go to where they may.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (22:45.235)
I was a strong and healthy woman. Beautiful.

Do you know what these people labeled me?

Adesoji Iginla (22:58.861)
Gone.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (23:02.471)
These people labeled me a breeder. B-R-E-E-D-E-R in their language translated to English as a breeder. The same way you would get a prized cow or goat.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (23:26.469)
and breed that animal. That is what they labeled me.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (23:34.781)
but I would not be broken. And so first we landed in an area that we found out was called

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (23:49.232)
Recife. It was one of the largest slave ports in the New World. I was not sold to work in the fields.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (24:04.839)
These people in their minds owned my body, my mind, and my soul. And it was for them to do as they pleased. And because they could not break me, they would throw me to the most savage men that they identified in their words. The most brutal men on that plantation. That is who they would give me to.

day after day, night after night, to have their way with me.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (24:43.951)
Ask me how I survived. There comes a time in your life.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (24:55.527)
where you leave your outer body because that is what can be controlled. And you go into your inner spirit.

and there you commune with your God and your ancestors.

Yes, I felt the physical pain. Yes, I felt the degradation. But it didn't matter what they did to my body. They could not touch my soul. They could not break my spirit.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (25:31.964)
My womb.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (25:39.655)
was to bring forth warriors to free my people.

Hmm. You know on the plantation as much as they tried to keep us separated and so exhausted from working, we still had times that we communicated and ways that we communicated. And we heard that there was a place where there were other Africans who had made community and they were enslaved by nobody.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (26:14.279)
this time I was six months pregnant. Heavy with child.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (26:23.555)
But as some of my daughters who have had children may remember, you get to a point in your pregnancy and all you want to do is prepare for your child. I think the, in English they call it nesting.

Adesoji Iginla (26:39.394)
Yes, you start preparing the surroundings.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (26:45.299)
I to escape. I prepared with some others of us who were also determined not to live the rest of their lives in bondage to these, I can't even call them people. And we escaped. it did not matter.

how far we had to travel in the dark, in the brushes, with the animals. I was a warrior. These things were not unusual to me. I brought my same skill sets and carrying my baby. In fact, I think knowing that I was carrying a baby gave me even more of the power to propel myself forward.

And I did not stop. And I did not let anybody else stop. Till we got to that place. They called it Colombo dos Palmares.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (27:55.474)
And as I tell you this story, I have heard of my other daughters in many parts of the world. One, I'm, I meant that, right? Harriet Tubman, same thing. The DNA is there. What runs in our genes, what flows in our veins. And we women have always fought for our liberation. Don't let them.

sell you this stuff of now feminine what is feminism what is the weaker sex what what what ask yourself where did that come from and why go back and study your history what are you talking about

Adesoji Iginla (28:29.518)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (28:45.907)
Now you're equal? What are you? You bring life into the world! Anyway, we ran and ran and ran.

Adesoji Iginla (28:50.702)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (29:00.819)
covering our tracks. Not exactly certain of which direction, but following

the information that had been given us and we were not going to give up. Just like we danced on the boat to keep ourselves going, we tapped into that inner spirit. We did not allow ourselves to be consumed by fear that we would not succeed.

We knew we were surrounded. knew that they had all kinds of guns and dogs and everything.

But to surrender.

is no life at all. And yet we were bringing forth life. So we had to continue. And so we fled inland, deep into the lush mountainous terrain, like my other sister, Nani, of the Maroons. It's a place that was called Cerra da Bariga.

Adesoji Iginla (30:07.019)
ruins.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (30:13.499)
It is now in a Brazilian state of Alaguas in the northeastern part of the country. That is where we arrived. And there were already a group of fortified, a settlement, a fortified settlement there of escaped Africans who refused to die enslaved. We knew we would die. Our physical bodies would die at one point, but we refused to die enslaved. Do you know that at the height

Adesoji Iginla (30:38.382)
you

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (30:43.367)
This place, Colombo dos Palmares, we had, it is estimated, between 20 to 30,000 Africans. We were fully set up, structured society. Everybody knew what role they would play. Colombo comes from the Kumbundu word, meaning war camp or settlement, and Palmares,

is just for the surrounding palm trees. Some say that that settlement started as far back as the 1500s, so way before I was born, way before when most of my ancestors were still in Congo. But when we came, and with the knowledge I had from having been part of a nation, we created a nation.

Adesoji Iginla (31:23.15)
Mmm.

Adesoji Iginla (31:29.71)
people were already resistant.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (31:43.923)
and one of the things that I am best known for.

First of all, let me tell you that we women, have always had our weapons. I hear you've been studying some of my other sisters, those who came after me, those who came before me, and there will be more that will come again.

My weapon amongst many things was a sword. Ha ha! Can you see the glint of my sword?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (32:21.255)
I was not afraid to fight for my liberation. Some of my daughters, their weapons might be a gun. Some it might be a dagger. Some it might be knowledge of poison. Some it might be knowing how to cook and be in places where you are a spy and you're getting information.

Some might use their bodies. Some might use their pen.

All of my children need to ask, what is my weapon? And you may have more than one. In fact, you should have multiple. Because if you ever got rid of my sword, I was trained in understanding plants as well. Wasn't my sister Nanny as well? What can you use to fight for your liberation? That's what I did. And my womb.

Adesoji Iginla (33:18.968)
Yep.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (33:27.995)
was one of my weapons as well.

Adesoji Iginla (33:31.15)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (33:31.827)
Cause from my womb, I brought forth three children that we know of. One of them was known as Ganga Zumba. And he organized Colombo dos Palmares into an even more centralized maroon polity.

Adesoji Iginla (33:42.551)
Zumba.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (33:54.748)
We grew food. We trained soldiers. We preserved our African religion. We practiced capoeira. what a beautiful... Listen, we practiced capoeira when we were enslaved under the Portuguese, under the white man. They didn't understand because you can do capoeira and it looks like a love dance. But the whole time you're strengthening your body.

and you know how to move and you know how to disarm people. I was a spiritual leader and I was revered for this. But you know these people, they couldn't leave us alone. They never leave us alone. They never leave us alone. All we say is leave us alone. Do your own thing. Let us do our own thing. Leave us alone. If we are so barbaric, if we're such savages, if we're so lazy.

Leave us alone. We didn't ask for your civilization. We didn't bother you. Leave us alone. What I can tell you is that it's not enough anymore to run from these people.

Adesoji Iginla (34:59.362)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (35:07.731)
Because for them, there's nowhere to hide. They don't stop.

They have to be destroyed. This might be hard for some people to hear, but they have to be destroyed. Not because we want bad for anybody, but because they will not leave us alone. They will not live and let's The only way we live, our children live, is if we get rid of these people. There's no reasoning with them. I don't know what else to tell you, but when I look at our history, that is what my history teaches me.

I don't know what your history teaches you. So they fought, fought, fought, fought, fought with Ganga Zumba.

But then tell you what, Ganga Zumba now wants to sign a treaty with them. I'm telling you that these people always use the same tactics. Where in our history has a treaty ever protected us? Whatever they tell you doesn't mean anything.

Adesoji Iginla (36:00.296)
the treaty.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:15.603)
My grandson, his nephew, who was the son of my daughter, said no. Here again, whenever there's an issue with power and change of leadership, we're so vulnerable.

Adesoji Iginla (36:32.75)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:37.016)
Zumbi, known as Zumbi dos Palmares.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:43.503)
eventually did take over leadership from his uncle but it weakened us and then Zumbi was fighting the Portuguese but finally in 1694 a final siege led by not just the Portuguese banderantes these are armed slave hunters but also combined with

Adesoji Iginla (37:06.19)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (37:11.833)
other enslaved Africans. Ha! Ha! When will we stop fighting and weakening ourselves? How many times have we seen the same story? They never defeat us by themselves. They always need our help to defeat us. And those of us who think that we're going to gain anything from them, we get betrayed as well. Listen.

I'm so happy that you are sending these stories out into the world because we must learn. I heard in a place called United States of America that there are some of you who look like me, who voted against a black woman and for a man who had already told them.

I don't even think you're human.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (38:14.023)
that he is treating all of them as less than human. Some of them are acting surprised.

Adesoji Iginla (38:16.974)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (38:23.571)
When will we learn? When will we learn? So finally, remember I told you about this decapitation. Their tactics are the same. They fought using some of our own people and in 1694, they brought Palmares to its knees. And do you know what they did?

Adesoji Iginla (38:51.18)
one.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (38:52.263)
They cut off the head of Zumbi. They captured him in 1695 and they cut off his head and they took his head to Recife as a warning to others. This is what we do to Africans who don't know their place.

They paraded his head. Tell me again who are the savages?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (39:27.281)
But you know what?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (39:31.249)
You can kill our bodies, but you cannot kill our spirits.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (39:39.544)
My body bore so many scars.

But I brought forth warriors. I'm from the ashes of Palmaris.

grew the spiritual roots of Afro-Brazilian identity today. In fact, every November 20th, we celebrate Black Consciousness Day, Dia da Consciencia Negra. It is the day we commemorate the death of Zumbi. Our struggle continues. Today, Brazil

is home to the largest population of African people outside of Africa.

Adesoji Iginla (40:30.422)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (40:32.285)
These people still won't leave us alone though. The black, the darker skinned people in Brazil, we are still suffering more poverty, more police brutality, more under-representation. Just like black people in the United States, black people in Dominican Republic, black people in Mexico.

they've gotten to our minds.

Adesoji Iginla (41:01.41)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (41:04.069)
but Afro-Brazilians.

keeping in keeping with our identity. We are preserving our, we are preserving who we are through Kandomblé, through Samba, through Kapowera, and through our renewed pride in our Maroon ancestry, even like our brothers and sisters in Jamaica and in so many other places where you had Maroons.

Descendants of Palmares today are still known as Quilombolas and they continue, my children continue to fight for land rights and recognition.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (41:52.282)
When you hear the drums, when we are dancing, when we are doing capoeira, if you listen, you will hear my name, Akwaltuni. She was a general. She was enslaved. She was a mother of nations. And she was the fire that would not go out. My name means resistance.

My name means resistance. It's not just an idea. It's a symbol of Black autonomy, African heritage, and resistance. That is what I want my children to know, and my daughters in particular.

Adesoji Iginla (42:42.99)
I mean, you outline a very serious line for consideration in terms of history and memory recall. What would you say an added lesson from that time period would be, judging by the fact that you alluded to a present existential threat to the very existence of black people in the United States? that country.

to the north of Brazil. They have a very interesting character short of a better word to describe his persona in power and the machinery around him are working in overdrive to sort of go back to the early 16th 17th century.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (43:43.261)
What I would say is...

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (43:51.356)
As I try to answer your question, I'm in the belly of a ship being tossed to and fro. The clanging of chains creating their own rhythm against the backdrop of the water. Hmm. Of the ship cutting through the water. It's a very

Disturbing Melody

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (44:26.149)
In the bowel of that shit.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (44:33.169)
Looking around when you could barely see, but just every once in a while when the sun was high, there were little shards of light that would come in. We could barely make ourselves out. It would have been so easy and so understandable to give up. Which way to turn? How? How do you fight? How do you live?

You are the complete mercy of these. I hesitate to call them animals only because once you dehumanize another person, then you can start to treat them like an animal. But even we understood that you treated animals with a certain amount of spiritual understanding because we are all one, we're all interconnected. But in the bowels of that ship,

Some died of despair.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (45:38.44)
because it looked incredibly bleak. Can you imagine now being still shackled, pushed out onto the shores of a land that you've never seen? You don't know the direction. You can only look to the skies to see, okay, the sun is over here. That must mean East. It's over here now. That must be.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (46:05.649)
and then to be mixed with other people who didn't even share the same language with you.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (46:14.077)
we did not despair. If we despaired it was for a moment. We knew that what was important was to stay alive and to never give up fighting. And that is what I will say to my children everywhere right now. I don't care how bad it looks. I don't care if you feel like you have nothing but your mind, then hold on to that mind.

and hold on to each other. Hold on to each other. Sometimes as they were marching us into the interior and one of us would get weak and the rest of us would try to hold them up. We would encourage them. We would share whatever little food they gave us in however way that we could.

Imagine a grown person taking the horrible food they gave us and masticating it into a mush and then spitting it into the mouth of another because they were too far gone, too tired to be able to chew. We did whatever it took to keep each other alive. So what I would say to my children is it doesn't matter what weapons they have, how they may have physical control over your body.

Do the work to keep your mind free. Do the work to keep your spirit free. And never give up on your freedom. Never give up fighting. That's what I would tell them.

Adesoji Iginla (47:47.212)
Mm. Mm.

Your story is more than history. Actually, it's a roadmap for resistance. Especially the last part where you said about the passing of food to people. It's an act of resistance. You will not go this way. You will go with honor.

So in the continuing quest for justice, both in the United States and in places where injustice reigns,

How do you think women, and especially black women?

can continue to lead the fight. We've been doing a series of stories on here about women who have taken it upon themselves. I mean, they're not wearing capes. They're just normal women, resistance being the mainstay of their actions. How is it that, what would you advise to women who feel, well, I'm no Superman or I'm no superwoman. I'm using the

Adesoji Iginla (49:01.676)
social structure term now. What do you think they can do to organize how we resist and how they resist and help the community to move forward?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (49:20.189)
First, I would say to my daughters, we do not lead or fight alone. We lead recognizing and celebrating the power in our duality. And so in all of these stories,

You will see women trained by men men trained by women women bringing forth men men supporting women We must fight together. So that's the first thing is there must be unity within so that we can withstand the the the enemy without

Adesoji Iginla (49:51.084)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (50:01.879)
So one of our biggest weapons as women is that of understanding and nurturing. It is that of holding together our families. It is that of continuing to birth babies. Because I will tell you that part of...

I will call it an agenda to have women, black women, to stop having babies. Whether it's the birth control that is being flooded in African countries, and I'm not saying that I want any woman to go and bear 17 children like some of our foremothers used to, but I am speaking to us understanding when we are.

making decisions of our own clear will versus being manipulated and being convinced to wipe our own selves out. So I would say understand your power, the power in your femininity. In addition to the fact that yes,

We have masculine energy as well as feminine energy. But do not feel that to be a warrior, to fight, lead requires you to.

Dull or ignore a part of who you are. You must come to this fight with everything. And that includes our femininity as well. It is not a weakness. It is actually a great strength.

Adesoji Iginla (51:43.863)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (51:45.721)
In addition to that, what I would say to my sisters across the world is...

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (51:56.98)
to understand that we have always played this role and it should be no different during their time. Even if, as in the past, there were forces that tried to diminish who we are, expect it, rise up to it, but continue. Because every step we take as women leaves a pathway.

for the next group of women to follow, to know that what they're doing is not new, is not impossible. I think that would be the essential advice that I would give my daughters in addition to everything else that I've shared already, which is.

Identify your gifts, your weapons, and be good. Become excellent with your weapons so that when the time arises, you are already prepared. You are not waiting to get prepared. You are already prepared. That is what I would say to her. I hope that answered your question.

Adesoji Iginla (53:11.234)
Yep, yep, that did, that did. Yes. In terms of, I mean.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (53:18.515)
And one more thing I want to say. I want to say that we women should not allow ourselves to be excluded from the seats where decisions are being made. And that we should make sure that as we're breastfeeding, as we're carrying that baby on our back, that we are telling, we are whispering to our children the stories of who they are.

Because as I think of my homeland of Congo, if our people, if our leaders knew and understood our history and these stories, when the next set of white people show up, whether they showed up by boat or aeroplane or drone brought them, we will automatically see them

in the truth which is that they are enemies. Doesn't matter how much oil they put on their mouth. Doesn't matter what trinkets they bring to you. Look at your history and know, nah, these people do not mean any good for you. We've been here before. Resist. The best time to resist is before you allow them to even land on your soil and then you lay out hospitality for them because we're very hospitable people.

Adesoji Iginla (54:17.08)
for what they are.

Adesoji Iginla (54:30.926)
We've been here before.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (54:46.055)
and then say, come and eat, get your strength. No, if you're gonna lay out anything, make sure it has all been poisoned. That is what I would say to my people.

Adesoji Iginla (54:53.229)
You

Adesoji Iginla (54:58.882)
Well, do you have any reading material with regards to the history of...

yourself and your people.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (55:12.957)
There is a lot that has been written about me and my people, but you will probably have to learn Portuguese. Now today, I hear you people have this technology where you can copy something and then you, it's called Google Translate, and then it will translate it for you. But there many books.

Adesoji Iginla (55:20.12)
Don't guess, yes?

Adesoji Iginla (55:29.774)
It's called Google Translate.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (55:37.958)
Aqualtune, Umsonho, Shamado, Liberadede by Anita Costa Prado. There's another one written by Manuela Gonzaga, Aqualtune, A Princess Do Congo. There's another one written by Ana Cristina Massa, Aqualtune, Aes Historias de Africa. There's another written by, if you Google, will find so many stories about me and my people, but most of them are in Portuguese. But you know what?

Adesoji Iginla (55:43.854)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (56:01.191)
Yeah, most of them are in Portuguese, though.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (56:07.539)
As much time when we when we talk about gifts and how we work together and how we understand that we are all connected because Just right now we've talked about my people in Congo. We've talked about being in Brazil We've talked about what my sisters did in in Jamaica and what my sister did in the United States of America We can talk about what we did in Haiti. We're all connected and our fight is the same

Adesoji Iginla (56:08.344)
That's the beauty of technology as well.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (56:36.391)
And the tactics they use are the same everywhere. So maybe for some of you, what your gift is, what your weapon is, is language. You learn language and you get the knowledge and then you translate it and you share it with other people. That might be your gift because some of us might not know, wait a second, you mean the same thing that they did in South Carolina? They did it in South Padre. They did it in...

We need to know these things and then we can see the links. But I want to tell you that when we resist, we win. Even if the winning doesn't always look like we want it to, as long as we're alive, we still have, we're still getting there, which is why they're still fighting us, which is why they won't leave us alone. Because they know better than we do our strength.

Adesoji Iginla (57:23.896)
chance to fight you.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (57:34.172)
because they know what they have done to try and get rid of us and they can't. Right? So in 1988, Brazil's new constitution officially recognized Quilombola land rights for the first time. That was almost 300 years after they decapitated my grandson, but her spirit was strong. Today, thousands of Quimbola

Adesoji Iginla (57:39.502)
you

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (58:02.235)
communities exist across Brazil and we're still fighting for our legal recognition. And as I told you, every November 20th, instead of them leaving my grandson and maybe today he'll be forgotten, they have made it where every November 20th, the whole country, the people who have consciousness celebrate him. And now those of you who are not even in Brazil,

you will celebrate him too. You will never forget November 20th. Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (58:29.548)
know that date. Yes, and on that very happy note, we've come to the end of another exciting episode. Yes, Gadget Weapon. for next week, we'll be going to the land of Kenya.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (58:44.977)
Get your weapon. Get your weapon.

Adesoji Iginla (58:58.742)
and recounting the story of another ancestor, Wagari Mafai, the Queen of Greens, as she's known. And yes, I will be going to Kenya to look at the story of Professor Wagari Mafai. And so that will be our story for next week. And sister.

Any final thoughts?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (59:32.382)
Totally leaving character here. Adesaji, I'm so grateful to you for deciding to provide this platform, this forum for us to do this. Many of these women I had already studied and written about. Akwaltune was not, she was on my list, but I had not yet done the research on her. But with each passing week, I am just...

getting so strong in my spirit in terms of the work that we must do and the history that we don't know and the ways in which we women are allowing ourselves to bind to a narrative that weakens not just us but weakens our community and weakens our pathway to liberation. Lorna says November 20th is my granddaughter's birthday. There you go.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:31.436)
There you go. You have something to remember now.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:00:32.243)
Absolutely. That is Black Consciousness Day, Black Consciousness Day, your granddaughter's birthday. And imagine telling her that. Imagine how our children could show up differently. You know, there's this whole concept of imposter syndrome.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:40.184)
Consciousness Day.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:47.85)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:00:57.629)
There's this whole concept of us feeling like we have not earned to be in certain rooms. But if we really had an understanding of what we've endured, what we've come through, the joy, the joy, the creativity, regardless of the trauma. If I may, that is one thing that she had wanted me to share that I did not write down and I forgot to share. So many.

Women and and now I'm say specifically black women experience sexual trauma and it just reconfigures our brains in a way that we never see ourselves as whole anymore There's always this shame and that's why she wanted to tell that story of being a breeder and the way her body was abused Because what they do to your body does not in any way diminish who you really are

And so even if that is your story of, you know, being sexually assaulted or physically assaulted, you know, or even emotionally assaulted understanding, but definitely for those who experienced that assault on their bodies to just know that that doesn't define who you are. And like our Qua Ptune, your spirit is strong, your spirit is beautiful, and your spirit endures.

So thank you and for everyone watching, please like please subscribe, please share I don't know about you guys, but I'm learning so much from these women And I hope you are too

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:29.942)
No,

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:40.556)
I mean, like you said, the use of technology has helped lift the veil on who our Quattrone is. Because when we started the research, it was basically Portuguese, Portuguese, Portuguese. Google Translate, you you have to have to make do. Yeah, so

Next week, we're looking at Professor Wangari Maifai, like I said earlier.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:03:15.567)
And I would say on her, anybody who thinks I already know her story, if you haven't really, really researched her, yeah, yeah. There things that are out there in the, known about her, if you've heard about her, but there is so much more. And I'm very excited to bring her to life, hopefully, next week, yes. Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (01:03:39.308)
Next week, yes. yes, so until next week, sister Aya, final thoughts, final, final thoughts.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:03:48.689)
Just grateful, grateful that we live in this day and age and that we have access to this history and these stories. Very grateful.

Adesoji Iginla (01:03:56.588)
Yes. And from me, it's always grateful for having to learn about most of these women. Some of them I've never heard of. I mean, some of them I knew by reading some of their works, but the extent to which the veil has been lifted on their backgrounds has been truly informative and enlightening.

and also, dare I say, empowering in the sense that you now have a broad idea of who these people are and what they represent to the larger polity, not just Black women. And you know what they say in the African parlance, when you want to nurture a village, give the wealth of that village to the woman. And as they say, the rest is history.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:04:50.599)
And I mean, it just, I know we're trying to end here, but you know what, what just came to mind is how, you know, for all this time, many of us have been lied to and told, you know, we didn't resist. We didn't fight back. You know, what is it? What did Kanye West say? If if you, if you're enslaved, it's your fault. You know, it's a choice, you know, all of that kind of stuff. Like bull crap.

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:06.176)
It was a choice.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:05:11.795)
Bullcrap like we fought we've always fought and we better not stop stop fighting now So in in the United States of America where people are like, well, you know black women have fought enough We're gonna just rest we're gonna sit this one out. That is not our heritage We have never sat out fighting for our liberation Never we might regroup we might it might look different, but we have never just sat out and hoped

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:25.74)
Mm-hmm

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:05:35.985)
that it would work out for us. We've always, always been in the midst of the fight and many times leading the fight. So sisters, come on. And the fight continues, the struggle continues. And guess what? We win. I don't know when, but we will win. We will win.

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:43.438)
And the fight continues as

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:50.051)
Yeah.

I mean the mere fact that we're still here fighting is a victory in itself. yeah. So next week Wangari Maafai and good night and God bless.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:05:58.119)
That's right, we will win. Thank you.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:06:05.501)
Yes.