MALUNGOS E PARENTES: "SUMÁRIO CONTRA OS PRETOS DE ANGOLA DO CONTINENTE DE PERNAMBUCO" (1779)

Abstract

Among the numerous cases and denunciations of the Portuguese Inquisition preserved in the Archive of Torre do Tombo, there is the unpublished "Summary against the Blacks of Angola of the Continent of Pernambuco" ("Sumário contra os pretos de Angola do continente de Pernambuco"), 1779, transcribed and published here. The document is constituted by a set of denunciations rich in information on the social, cultural, identity and religious practices of a community formed in Pernambuco by enslaved people from Angola. In addition, the document offers new evidence on the dynamics underlying the emergence of the word "Malungo" in the eighteenth-century Brazilian Portuguese lexicon.