“I learned to read and write between the ages of seven and nine years. I learned some geography and all the Bible stories and lives of the saints. Some places in Bahia not even the children of the brancos are taught anything, so I considered the years with Father Tollinare to be fortunate ones.”
With the privilege of being around Father Tollinare, Almeyda had exposure to formal education unlike the majority of the slaves. Indoctrinated in Catholicism at a young age, she familiarizes herself with biblical doctrine more than the traditional dogmas. That said, Almayde would later get in touch with her heritage as a way to honor her grandmother and women like her. Her curiosity plays a significant role in her inclination to learn from all kinds of mentors including medicine women. At its core, the narrative is about enlightenment since Almeyda’s journey is one of learning and surpassing societal expectations.
“Sometimes when I met them I wondered whether they were indeed my grandmother, capable of doing what they said witches in the Old Country could do, transform themselves. Witches in the Old Country, they said, were capable of all sorts of transformations and transmutations. But I don’t know if any of that is true.”
Raised in this colonial period, Almeyda is introduced to Christianity before the ancestral spiritual knowledge, as such, uninformed of it. In the wilderness, Almeyda learns the power of healing by collecting magic from nature and transferring it. The mentors open her world to new possibilities through the magic that has been practiced for generations. Situated in a tale that incorporates magical realism, the enchanted woman acts as the link into the world of spirits and transfiguration. The social climate sees women not treated equally and suffer even as free slaves but enchantment is their protection from evils.
“No, he was a free man. But for him it was a difficult freedom. He wanted to be free. Not in a perpetual fight for it. He didn’t mind taking responsibility for his own freedom. But he wanted out of the whole place, the whole country. But the ones here captured him and brought him back before anyone out there did.”
The statement follows an encounter where Almeyda and other medicine women find a fugitive free slave being tortured. The free slaves in Palmares are not allowed to escape back to their old masters and if they do they are punished by death. Occasionally, the medicine women assist them by relieving their pain by offering a quick and painless death. Nobrega narrates a man in her past who wished to escape the haven however not return to his old master. His sentiment is felt by some of the free slaves; even though they are free it is not true freedom. Colonialism still hounds their reality and the free status is partial, in the sense that they lack complete liberation.
