Canudos

Canudos was a town founded in the racially diverse [Da Cunha, Euclides: "Rebellion in the Backlands", Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944, p. 67.] Bahia state of northeastern Brazil in 1893 by Antônio Vicente Mendes Maciel, an itinerant preacher from Ceara [Della Cava, Ralph: "Brazilian Messianism and National Institutions: A Reappraisal of Canudos and Joaseiro", 406. The Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 48, no. 3, Aug. 1968, p. 406] who had been wandering through the backroads and lesser-inhabited areas of the country from the 1870s onwards, followed by a band of loyal supporters. As his following swelled, he took on the name Antonio Conselheiro ("Antonio the Counselor") and increasingly began to trouble the local authorities, who saw him as a Monarchist [Madden, Lori: "The Canudos War in History", Luso-Brazilian Review, vol. 30, no. 2, Special Issue: "The World Out of Which Canudos Came". Winter 1993, pp. 5,6.] and thus a rival to their legitimacy.

In 1893, following a protest over taxation and a violent melee with the police forces in Masseté, Conselheiro and his band settled on an abandoned farm called Canudos, so called because a plant, "canudo-de-pita" (scientific name "Ipomoea carnea", its popular name referring to its hollow tubes, used for manufacturing smoking pipes) was common in the region. The place was named "Bello Monte" (Beautiful Mount) by Antonio Conselheiro, but the old name, "Arraial de Canudos", prevailed. Over the years people from across Bahia, including landless farmers, former slaves and indigenous people, flocked to join him, and within a few years the fledgling settlement numbered 30,000 people (which made it the second largest urban center in Bahia behind Salvador [Levine, Robert M. “Canudos in the National Context.” "The Americas" (Oct., 1991), 207.] )and had developed a leather exporting business [Madden, Lori: "The Canudos War in History", Luso-Brazilian Review, vol. 30, no. 2, Special Issue: "The World Out of Which Canudos Came". Winter 1993, p. 7.] .

Neither the local nor national government supported the settlement in Canudos. The local government of Bahia felt pressure from landowners to take action against the settlement because of labor shortages caused by migration. [Levine, Robert M. “Canudos in the National Context.” "The Americas" (Oct., 1991), 207.] The Brazilian national government wanted a military expedition sent to destroy Canudos in the name of liberalism and progress. [Johnson, Adriana. “The War of the End of the World or the End of Ideology.” "Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies" (August, 2004). 223] "The mere existence of autonomous movements not subject to state control was antithetical to the national interest. Canudos stood for such autonomy, and therefore had to be destroyed." [Levine, Robert M. “Canudos in the National Context.” "The Americas" (Oct., 1991), 207.]

The first three invasions were amply defeated by the villagers. However, in 1897, a fourth - and considerably larger - invasion force managed to overwhelm the village. Their success was in part helped by the death, from dysentery, of Antonio Conselheiro, during the early stages of the siege. The Brazilian army showed no mercy, brutally massacring the survivors and destroying the entire village. An academician, Alvim Horcades, would thus describe the massacre:

"Eu vi e assisti a sacrificar-se todos aqueles miseráveis (...) e com sinceridade o digo: em Canudos foram degolados quase todos os prisioneiros (...) Arrancar-se a vida a uma criancinha (...) é o maior dos barbarismos e dos crimes que o homem pode praticar".

Translation: "I saw and witnessed the sacrifice of all those poor people (...) and I say with all sincerity: in Canudos almost all the prisoners were beheaded (...) To take the life of a little child (...) is the greatest of cruelties and crimes man can commit."

Today the area is submerged by water, the result of the Cocorobó dam project in the 1970s, which blocked the Vaza-Barris River and flooded the old city. At low water the ruins of the church that was once the village's centrepiece can occasionally be seen. Once a year, in October, a mass is held to commemorate those lost in what is known today as the War of Canudos. The municipality of Nova Canudos was built nearby, at latitude 09º53'48" South and longitude 39º01'35" West, and currently has around 13,000 inhabitants.

The story of Canudos was masterly told by war correspondent, Euclides da Cunha, in the book "Rebellion in the Backlands" (originally published as "Os Sertões" in 1901) and also, in the form of a novel, in the book "The War of the End of the World" by Mario Vargas Llosa.

See also

* Antonio Conselheiro
* War of Canudos
* History of Brazil (1889-1930)

External links

* [http://cadete.aman.ensino.eb.br/histgeo/HistMildoBrasil/Canudos/IndiceCan.htm Military history of Canudos] . Academia Militar de Agulhas Negras, Brazil (In Portuguese)

References