Para os países que falam Inglês
In 1938 ended
the career of Lampião, his wife Maria Bonita and his band –
http://www.fabiobelo.com.br
After
Lampião’s death, Corisco continued to scour the countryside with his men for
nearly two years. In March of 1940, in a small village of the caatinga of
Bahia, surrounded together with his partner Dadá by the macacos (who
also had a machine gun), he refused to surrender. He died almost an hour later.
That was the
end.
The cangaceiro gave
evidence in himself of the possibility of shaking off the yoke of oppression,
which is neither invincible nor eternal. Judgment can always fall, unexpected,
upon the rich and powerful. The cangaceiro only caused the pieces to
be put back in play, also showing that the struggle is pitiless and that
freedom must be conquered. The cangaceiro was energy directed
toward a new form of life. All things considered, the cangaceiro was
the revolution.
This epic poem
has been sung at fairs and feasts where poems are improvised. This one tells of
the Arrival of Lampião in Hell:
There was
great damage
In hell that day.
All the money that Satan
Possessed was burned.
The registry of control and more than six hundred million cruzeiros
Of merchandise alone
Were burned.
In hell that day.
All the money that Satan
Possessed was burned.
The registry of control and more than six hundred million cruzeiros
Of merchandise alone
Were burned.
Starting in
1940, the northeast territory was completely pacified. Order was maintained
through terror. The northeast was under armed occupation, even if it wasn’t
under ideological occupation.
It was not
always this way. This omnipresence of the state generated the sleep of the
Mind, a true nightmare for the poor. It prohibited any discussion about the
world. The idea of the state was beyond any critique; the world had become a
fatality.
The Brazilian
messianic movements, on the other hand, had developed at a time when discussion
was still possible. For nearly century in that distant region, the poor had
debated about the world.
The
anthropologist Lanternari
The historical
or human dimension seem to be absent both in Vittorio Lanternari’s
interpretation[46],
which sees in them a reaction of oppressed people that “attempts to escape an
oppressive situation that holds the entire society in subjection”, and in
Pereira de Queiroz’s interpretation[47],
that, contrarily, notes an aspiration to order in a society in which “a freedom
that is much too great reigns, a freedom that degenerates into licentiousness.”
The historical
conditions that controlled the development of these movements are comparable to
those that we encountered at the end of the Middle Ages in the west: a social
organization that has become archaic is decomposing while a new social order is
progressively established. The world debates about the world: the mercantile
spirit versus the feudal spirit. The poor participated in their own way in the
debate. They didn’t want to hear about either one, especially not the
mercantile spirit, of the world that will be. For them it wasn’t a
question of choosing between the past and the future; they weren’t paid by the
state like sociologists or historians. Much more simply, it’s a matter of
implacably resisting the bourgeois spirit, not because this overturns their
customs, but because it is completely opposed to the idea that they developed
of a human society. This is an excellent reason! They really struggled against
progress, progress in the world of capitalist thought.
Thus they
initiated in practice a debate of ideas between their social project and the
social project of capital; between the idea they have of a human social
practice and money as social practice.
The
millenarian movements of the medieval era were at the center of a historical
mutation from feudal to mercantile society. This mutation was already completed
almost everywhere in the world when the Brazilian movements appeared. It was as
if they found themselves at the historical edge of the mutation, a situation
that explains their purely messianic character. They were expecting a cosmic
upheaval, the hour of god’s vengeance was supposed to arrive at any moment. For
the most radical medieval millenarians, the hour had come to
accomplish that upheaval; with god’s help, they participated actively in the
earthly realization of the Millennium, whereas the Brazilian messianic
movements could only prepare for it.
Typical
housing in Northeast Brazil – http://www.infoescola.com
The
millenarian insurrections of medieval Europe had to confront an old and new
principle. They were immediately critical in the face of the Church and Money.
The fact is that the Church was a historical tradition and Money was a
historical novelty. The society of northeast Brazil was religious in essence,
but the Church had few roots there. As to the bourgeoisie, they were
nonexistent. The poor wouldn’t have entered into direct conflict with the
Church or merchants. They would have risen up against a mentality that
insinuated itself into society, transforming minds. When conflict broke out, it
was immediately against the state.
The messianic
movements developed in a region that still did not know modern conditions of
exploitation; an arid, often desert-like region that didn’t interest either the
big merchants or industrialists. The wageworker was practically unknown there.
But this area was surrounded by the modern world and modern mentality. To the
south, the capitalist point of view had been imposed since the beginning of the
previous century with the great coffee plantations. This monoculture addressed
itself solely to exportation; it was completely dependent on the laws of
competition, from the international market and stock market speculation. It
required a modern organization of work, an industrial discipline. It
constituted this social control by itself. It was its essence, because it
created the conditions of an absolute dependence on money in practice. To the
east, the seacoast, which had been employed in mercantile exchange with the
metropolis from the start, very quickly found itself in a process of
modernization of this activity. The “senhores de engenho”, the masters of the
primitive sugar refineries, could no longer bear foreign competition. Slavery
itself, which cost much too much, had been abolished by the republic and
replaced with a more rational form of exploitation, wage labor, that made the
worker directly dependent on money. With the aid of foreign capital, new
factories were built, leading to a growing demand for sugar cane. The masters
launched themselves into the acquisition of land: a devouring eagerness, no
problem of fertility, it was enough to plant more and more there. And where one
could not plant, one raised livestock.
This is how
the capitalist mentality penetrated bit by bit into the sertão, deeply
disrupting customary relationship; it was necessary to make money, and as
quickly as possible. Furthermore, the conditions of exploitation became
draconian; many found themselves without land or work, in the darkest, most
desperate misery. They fled in mass from the coast where it was impossible to
survive, taking refuge in the interior. Since this disoriented population was
not integrated in force into the system, they went to swell the ranks of those
who followed the millenarian prophets. In the end the exchanges between the
interior and the coast (leather for saddler-making or for packaging rolls of
tobacco, oxen for sugar mills and plantations) that balanced social life in
the sertão, was to be brutally compromised by capitalist
industrialization. This rupture in the exchanges would have tragic consequences
for small farmers, cowhands and sharecroppers; it would call the relationship
that linked the cowhand or the sharecropper to the owners of the land back into
question. All this was reflected in local disputes, exacerbating them.
It is still
common in the Northeast of Brazil the use of animals for transportation –
http://portaldoprofessor.mec.gov.br
It is
necessary to understand the origins of the millenarian movements. They
developed in a region of relative freedom, where neither the state nor the
church was omnipresent. But this region suffered the repercussions of the
capitalist offensive from within this process due to the force of circumstance.
Little by little, the traditional “client” relationships were replaced with
indifferent, impersonal relationships, money relationships. From that
moment on, betrayal was in the air. Respect for giving one’s word was replaced
with the value of money that respects no one’s word. Deprived of all dignity by
the allurements of profit, the large property holders betrayed customary rights
without scruples and did their best to make the existence of the poor
abominable. There was now something rotten in the sertão.
Once the
animal breeders, property owners, cowhands and sharecroppers generally led the
same life. The family formed the basic cell of society, not the conjugal
family, but a great family, an “extended family”. The ties were formed from a
familial nucleus (brothers and sisters, cousins, godchildren) and from one’s
clientele (bastard branches, sharecroppers and old slaves). But these lineages
had a leader. Within the family group, all those who had the same preeminent
position received the title of colonel, but there was also a “colonel of
colonels”.
An unspoken
contract of exchange of services existed that insured the cohesion of
the group and reinforced the position of the colonel, who had the duty of
helping relatives and his faithful men: transfer of land, respect for
sharecropping contracts (the cowhand possessed a part of the herd just like the
sharecropper had a part of the harvest, a part fixed by custom), loans,
guarantees of judiciary defense… this entailed a moral obligation that
put those involved at the colonel’s service. Repayment in money was rare if not
nonexistent.
Political
power always formed the biggest stake in the struggles that opposed clans to
each other in the interior of Brazil. The colonel was born to command; he had
inherited the land and derived his power from this. The state only reinforced
him with its safeguards, with its legal aid. The colonel was determined to
jealously defend his social position. He enjoyed absolute impunity. It was said
that the activity of a colonel who was respected was envisaged by every page of
the penal code. He protected and conserved his power and prestige, by
maintaining genuine bands of armed men, into which the men that depended upon
his jurisdiction were conscripted during times of conflict between families. He
was the real authority of the region.
Long periods
of drought affecting the economy of Northeast Brazil –
http://vereadorgilsondejesus.blogspot.com.br
No limits were
imposed on the colonel, except respect of his word and tradition; all were at
the mercy of his will. Greed could make him a terrible man. Thus, treachery was
the immediate danger; everything was in danger of falling into the most
arbitrary abuse. This led to a susceptibility to edginess capable of provoking,
at the least sign, a series of conflicts within and among the clans.[48]
Millenarians
and cangaceiros rose up in a society where relationships were still
personal, where solidarity still had a meaning, but where latent unrest existed
due to the progressive disintegration of these relationships. They originated
in a crumbling society, undermined a bit at a time by capitalist ideology that
made traditional relationships fall away. This ideology would aggravate
society, exacerbate touchiness, arouse appetites. The large property owners
would get involved in an implacable competition that would lead to the
elimination of the weakest and the increase of the power of the strongest.
Continuaremos
na próxima semana...
Extraído
do blog: "Tok de História" do historiógrafo e pesquisador do cangaço
Rostand Medeiros
http://tokdehistoria.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/cangaco-millenarian-rebels-prophets-and-outlaws/
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