Imperialisms, Revolutions, and Resolutions in the Caribbean Amazon - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 109

The “internationalization” of the neutralized zone was becoming more pronounced,
and in the midst of the deadly serious business of territorial control, what seemed to be
an odd filibuster unfolded on the Rio Cunani, where residents declared themselves an
independent republic. The Rio Cunani was part of the Calçoene district, where gold was
discovered by an escaped African slave, Clement Tamba. Trajano Benitez, a small loc-
al trader who had been a runaway slave from the cacau district of Cametá on the main
Amazon channel, proclaimed the “independent Guianan Republic of Cunani” in 1885.
The “republic” lasted until 1891. The Cunani settlement was basically a quilombo that
sought to legitimate itself as a state with international recognition. With just six hundred
people scattered along the river, whom Arthur Reis described as “runaway slaves, crim-
inals, deserters who had contact with a few river traders, the regatões , the little town
claimed the entire demilitarized zone from the Oiyapoc to the Araguary.” 90 French geo-
grapher Jules Gros was named Cunani's president, while his colleague and fellow ex-
plorer M. Guignes became his chief.
Figure 7.3. Striking it rich: rubber barons were not alone in their taste for gramophones and opera.
Note also the African stool.
Whiletodaysuchtropical“utopias”haveanairofabsurdity,thispracticeoffilibuster-
ing was well honed by the end of the nineteenth century and had its adepts in icons like
Sam Houston in the United States and, as we will see later, Luis Galvão in Acre, so its
strategyasameansofannexationbyamorepowerfulstatewasnovelbutnotunheardof.
Themapoftheself-proclaimedrepubliccoveredmostofthedemilitarizedzone,ahighly
distressing bit of cartography from the Brazilian point of view, especially because the
“republic” wanted to base itself on French legislation and the national language would
be French. As described by their colonial advocate, geographer Henri Coudreau, the
populace was munching baguettes and drinking wine, and the charming village squares
reflected Gallic taste, not to mention the absence of slavery (Brazil wouldn't abolish
slavery for another three years). The Cunani flag displayed the French tricolor in the up-