In his historical portrait "Zumbi," Joel Rufino dos Santos traces the unique story of the leader of Quilombo Palmares, a settlement founded around the year 1600 by escaped African slaves. For nearly 100 years, it resisted the Brazilian slaveholding society and presented a radically different vision of society. "Can another society be imagined where skin color, gender, and social status do not create privileges? Perhaps Palmares represents this: a dream envisioned for 100 years, with green palms, in a majestic blue mountain range. The embryo of a country that belongs to everyone. What could have been, but has not yet come to pass." "Zumbi," as the last leader of Palmares chose to call himself instead of his slave name Francisco, remains an iconic figure of black resistance in Brazil to this day. Through him, Dos Santos reads the history of slavery against the grain, a narrative and interpretation that were almost exclusively reserved for white slave owners. His analysis of the social and economic structures of the colonial period vividly illustrates the continuities of this brutal and racist system into present-day Brazil.