“Everyone should come out between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. stealthily,
and after doing what they could, they should gather at Cabrito
opposite Itapagipe, in a large hollow there. There would be people
from another nearby engenho (plantation), because they had been
alerted. In the event they did not come, they would proceed to the
engenho, taking considerable care in steering clear of soldiers until
they had all left town.”
–Seized document from a conspirator

Colonel Malenfant, Des colonies et particuliere de selle de St Domingue (Paris: Audibert, 1814)

Shareef, Muhammad. The Islamic Slave Revolts of Bahia, Brazil. Pittsburg: Sankore Institute, 1998. Print..

The Bahia Rebellion

The rebellion was meant to begin at 4:00 a.m. on Sunday January 25 1835. Unfortunately, the rebellion was betrayed by a woman who was married to one of the conspirators. A house belonging to one of the conspirators was raided by the authorities three hours before the scheduled time forcing them to begin the revolt early.

Some 600 Africans, a third of whom were free, ran through the streets of Brazil shouting “Death to the whites.” They fought with clubs, knives, sowrds, and a few pistols against at least 1500 National Guard troops and policemen who were better armed than they were. They attacked the jail and police station attempting to free the prisoners while acquiring the weapons of the guards and police.The Brazilian authorities managed to put the revolt down after a lot of resistance.

Seventy Africans and nine soldiers were killed in the fighting.

After the rebellion ended, 500 Africans were put on trial: 4 were executed, 45 were flogged one thousand in the course of three months, 36 were deported, and 24 were jailed or sentenced to hard labor.

Islam

All of the participants in the rebellion were Muslim.

Like the rebellion itself, the Muslim community in Bahia also existed in secret.

As soon as they arrived in Brazil, all Africans were baptized into the Catholic faith and were given Christian names. (This was the standard practice in colonies where Catholicism was the official religion.)

The Muslims in Bahia came from many tribes in West Africa including the Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani, and Nupe. Most Muslims could also read and write their own languages using the Arabic script. Some were scholars of Islamic law while others were warriors who had fought in wars to expand Islamic empires in West Africa.

They did not internalize the European view of Africans as inferior or accept Christianity as other slaves. Instead, thy continued to fast, pray five times daily, and recite the Qur’an as Muslims. They operated mosque and Qur’an schools in spite of surveillance by the authorities. The secret mosques were not places of worship but also became places where people could gather in secret to discuss. Written communication could be done in Arabic which the Portuguese could neither read or write.

Islam also gave Africans a sense of superiority not only over non-Muslim Africans and Creoles but also over their white masters. Interactions between African Muslims and the rest of Bahian society could only enforce this view. At the same time, African Muslims had no intention of imposing an Islamic order on society. Instead, they wanted to kill all white people and to get rid of the system that enslaved them. They had hoped to attract black people of al backgrounds to their cause.

Nonetheless, Islam was an important organizing force in the rebellion.