Page 5 - Brugger Karl The chronicle of Akakor

The Chronicle of Akakor

Karl Brugger is a German journalist who lives in Brazil

INTRODUCTION

Amazonia begins in Santa Maria de Belém, 120 kilometers from the shores of the Atlantic. In 1616,
when 200 Portuguese under the leadership of Francisco Castello Branco took possession of this territory
in the name of His Majesty, the King of Portugal and Spain, their chronicler described it as a friendly
and inviting piece of land with giant trees. Nowadays, Belém is a large city with skyscrapers, traffic
jams, and a population of 633,000. It is the point of departure for white civilization in its conquest of
Amazonia’s virgin forests. But throughout 400 years, the city has managed to preserve traces of its
heroic and mystic past. Dilapidated palaces in colonial style and tiled houses with enormous iron portals
bear witness to the notorious era when the discovery of the vulcanization process for rubber had raised
Belém to the level of a European metropolis. The two-story market at the port also dates from this
period, and just about everything can be bought here: fish from the Amazon River or the ocean;
sweet-smelling tropical fruit; medicinal herbs, roots, bulbs, and flowers; crocodile teeth, which are
thought to have aphrodisiac properties, and rosaries made of terra cotta.

Santa Maria de Belém is a city of contrasts. Noisy business streets in the center, but the jungle world of
Marajó Island, once upon a time settled by one of the great civilized populations that tried to conquer
Amazonia, is a mere two-hour journey upriver, on the opposite bank. According to traditional history,
the Marajoaras reached the island around A.D. 1100, when their civilization was at its height, but by the
time the European explorers arrived, the people had already vanished. All that remains are beautiful
ceramics, stylized figures clearly expressing grief, joy, dreams. They seem to tell a story, but what is it?

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