Casa de Farinha ( manioc flour production ) at Itamatatiua Quilombo in Alcântara, Maranhão, Northeast Brazil. Worker carries a tapiti, a long, tube-shaped basket of woven plant fibers, usually the guarimâ, which narrow when pulled, used to remove the excess of water out of the manioc mass for making flour ( farinha ). A quilombo is a Brazilian hinterland settlement founded by people of African origin. Most of the inhabitants of quilombos were escaped former slaves and, in some cases, a minority of marginalised non-slave Brazilians that faced oppression during colonization.