My history hero
1865–1958
Ella Al-Shamahi chooses Cândido Rondon
*ow FiF[ou rUt Jear about Cândido Rondon?
It was through reading about different explorers. What jumped out about Rondon was that he was part-indigenous – technically, mostly indigenous – and an explorer. That combination was seen as so unusual.
9Jat kinF of perUon waUJe!
He was a naturalist, he was a scientist, he was an anthropologist. He was the Amazon explorer. He once got shot with an arrow and forbade anyone from returning fire because his belief, which was a paradigm shift at the time, was that you approach indigenous people peacefully. It’s mad to think that an army colonel was essentially a pacifist! His motto was, “die if necessary but never kill”.
9Jat maFe Jim a Jero!
Some people have said that, in the last century, there were three key nonviolent activists. One was Martin Luther King, Jr; one was Gandhi; and Rondon was the third. Yet nobody outside Brazil really knows about him. I think one of the reasons is that he does not fulfil the [white explorer] narrative for us westerners.
His most famous expedition was one that he did with Teddy Roosevelt [surveying the path of the Rio da Dúvida]. In the American press, it was described as Theodore Roosevelt’s expedition. But this was part of a multi-decade project that Rondon was heading up, where he was placing thousands of miles of telegraph in the Amazon. Roosevelt almost died multiple times. At the end, Rondon literally dropped Roosevelt and his American colleagues off, like a bunch of celebrities, turned around and went back into the Amazon.
9Jat waU RonFon’U neUt Jour!
It was when he served as the first director of the Indian Protection Service (SPI) [Serviço de Proteção aos Índios]. This was the predecessor to FUNAI [Fundação Nacional do Índio], the governmental organisation that protects the rights of indigenous people in Brazil.
+U tJere an[tJing about Jim tJat [ou nFFiʛcult!
There is the question of whether he should have communicated with uncontacted people at all. Certainly today, we would not do that as it would be potentially disastrous for them.
+f [ou coulF aUk Jim one queUtion wJat woulF it be!
How do you solve what we’re looking at right now? Indigenous people are often the best protectors of their lands, and yet the Amazon is being trashed, people are being killed and trees cut down. I wonder if his ideas and compromises would actually be more workable than other people’s.
Ella Al-Shamahi was talking to Jonathan Wright
Cândido Rondon was as important as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. But nobody outside of Brazil really knows about him