Page 87 - Brugger Karl The chronicle of Akakor

The Chronicle of Akakor
The German Indian scholar Egon Schaden collected the legends of the Brazilian Indians and combined them
for a magnificent presentation of their prehistoric past.

The last ten years have seen a decisive advance in the archaeological opening up of Brazil. During the
construction of the Transamazonica and the Perimetral Norte (two trunkroads through the jungle),
bulldozers and road gangs repeatedly came across previously unknown fields of ruins. The Brazilian Indian
Protection Service discovered white-skinned, blue-eyed Indians in the Altamira region. In Acre, white
settlers were attacked by Indians who were "tall, well-built, very beautiful, and white-skinned." But the
most amazing discovery was made by a surveying team of a Brazilian frontier post in the Pico da Neblina
area. They established contact with an Indian tribe where women played the predominant role. According to
the Chronicle of Akakor, Akahim lies on the eastern slopes of the Pico da Neblina, the highest Brazilian
mountain.

The Extinction of the Jungle Indians

The existence of the mysterious Amazons still remains a legend. The extinction of the jungle Indians is real,
however, caused by disease and the unique form of the white colonizers’ violence. Immediately after their
arrival they relegated the natives to a rank below slavery. The indigenous population was robbed and
suppressed to such an extent that they had no other means of survival than to feed on caterpillars, herbs, and
roots. Their leaders were killed by the Europeans under cruel torture to break the resistance of the
"savages"once and for all. As the Spanish historian Oviedo put it, "Five or six young dogs were let loose on
each of the sixteen chieftains to train them for this kind of manhunt. As they were still young, they only ran
around the Indios and barked. But when the Indios thought they had beaten them off with sticks, two
experienced bulldogs were let loose which skinned and gutted them immediately and devoured as much as
they liked."
Even the declaration of independence of the various South American national states after the victories of the
patriot Simon Bolivar over the Spanish mercenaries in the battle of Ayacucho brought little relief to the
indigenous population. A small white upper class directed each of the countries like a family establishment.
Revolts of the enslaved Indian population were cruelly put down. Angelim, the leader of Brazil’s most
important social-revolutionary movement, died in prison. The movement he had led, the Cabanagem,
disintegrated under the firepower of Portuguese and British men-of-war. Two thirds of the Amazonian
population were massacred.

Only marginal reference is made to these popular revolts in the Chronicle of Akakor. The Ugha Mongulala
scouts observed the atrocities of the White Barbarians in terror and otherwise used the lull in the fighting for
their retreat into the central territory of Akakor. But the unexpected remission was soon over, and the
Indians played out the last act of the tragedy that had started with Columbus, a saga of crime and violence.
Center stage is occupied by adventurers, prospectors, and the infamous Winchester rifle. Opponents to
genocide also play their parts, such as the Brazilian Marshall Rondon, the founder of the Brazilian Indian
Protection Service. But even this organization, founded by white civilization to protect the natives,
developed only to accelerate their doom. Since the discovery of the New World 500 years previous, only the
form of the white conquerors’ lust for power has changed. The London journal Economist reported in its
issue of May 15, 1968, on the situation of the Brazilian Indians: "The list of crimes is without end. The
original version of the survey of the results of the inquiry ordered by the Minister of the Interior,
Albuquerque Lima, weighs more than 100 kilograms. The abridged version amounts to twenty-one volumes
with 55,115 pages. It records the crimes against the persons and property of Indios, murder and prostitution,
slavery, down to the problems in connection with the sales of land and crafts. As mentioned by the
government reporter Jader Figueira, the crimes include the extermination of two Pataxi tribes in the state of
Bahia by smallpox carried in pieces of candy. In the Mato Grosso, the Cintas Largas were exterminated by
dynamite bombardments from low flying aircraft; employees of the Indian Protection Service mowed down

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