Ganga Zumba is a Brazilian film made in 1963 by Carlos Diegues and released in 1972 about slavery in Brazil. It portrays the life of the leader of the Quilombo dos Palmares, Ganga Zumba. When he took power the Quilombo (which was how the havens built by runaway slaves were called) already had existed for approximately one hundred years. Its soundtrack was composed by Moacir Santos and played by Nara Leão, with African rituals and dance performed by the Sons of Gandhy group. It was filmed in accurate locations as proposed by the Cinema Novo. Also present in the movie were the musicians Cartola and Dona Zica.

Plot

In a sugarcane plantation in Pernambuco, in the 17th century, Antão is a young a slave born in the below decks of a slave ship which brought his mother, a captive, to the Portuguese colony of Brazil. When he is older, he is told that his mother (who by then had already passed away) had been a queen, and that he was destined to become Ganga Zumba, African king. The wise and old slave Sororoba tells him also about Palmares, a free kingdom hidden in the hills and protected by the Orisha Oshosi, formed by runaway slaves.