Kazuko weaves the supernatural, romance, true historical events, and the brutal horrors of colonialisation and slavery into an easily-readable but gripping tale following the interwoven lineages of Portuguese colonial settlers and the Africans they brought into slavery."
In March 1500, the Portuguese Conquistador, Pedro Álvares Cabral and his fleet head to India to set up a trading port; though Cabral returns home with much more than that. He discovers a huge land farther west, which is eventually named Brazil. The land is fertile and populated by natives who resist being enslaved.
The Jews, introduced Brazil to the hugely profitable sugar agroindustry. Alas, the long arm of the Inquisition of Europe extends to its American colony and cannot behold beyond extermination of the heretics.
Portugal applies its African model to colonize Brazil and imports a huge number of black slaves from Africa as labor.
The blacks fight chains and manacles and set up the legendary Quilombo dos Palmares—a sanctuary for the Maroons, a hugely successful settlement that defies the Crown’s regime. It proves hard work cannot be motivated by pain, freedom fosters progress and its democratic political organization does not need the King of Portugal.
Palmares and its leader—Zumbi—must be destroyed at any cost. How far will the Crown go to achieve its objective?
