8/6/2019 The Portuguese_Black History Month
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The Portuguese/Black History Month
Twenty-five years would elapse between the first Portuguese
voyagesalong the northwest coast of Africa and the taking of
captives at Rio doOuro (modern Rio de Oro) byAntao Goncalves and
Nuno Tristao duringtheir voyage of 4141.
The Portuguese recognizing that voyages of the sort could be
self-financingand revenue generating accelerated the rate of
exploration along the westAfrican coast.Portuguese activities took
an aggressive commercial and political turn.By the 1450s and 1460s
trade in goods and people had become commonplace.Portuguese
contacts with Africa, from Mauretania to Kongo, were
primarilycommercial ventures.The Portuguese entered a half century
of peace and friendship with leadersin sub-Saharan Africa. They
established cooperative working relationshipswith African middlemen
and suppliers of slaves and other goods.In the beginning being far
removed from the Mediterranean supply and demandcycle to obtain
slaves from the Black Sea, Crimea, or the Caucasus, the
Portugue
sewere on the lookout for alternative sources for labor.Soon
attacks on Moorish vessels in the Straits of Gibraltar, transits
betweenMorocco and Granada and raids on Guanches, indigenous to the
Canaries,provided the Portuguese with labor.Acts of piracy in the
guise of armed offensives against non-Christians first exposedthe
Portuguese to sub-Saharan blacks in transit from the Maghreb to
Granada.
The African presence in Portugal
Much information has been lost due to an earthquake in 1755
which destroyed theCasa dos Escravos de Lisboa (founded 1486) which
was the section of Casa de Guin
eresponsible for the administration of the slave trade from West
and Central Africathe collection of duties, and the farming out of
royal contracts.Evidence which is available indicates that the
number of slaves exported from upperGuinea in the latter part of
the century varied from year to year.According to Portuguese
historian Vitorino Magalhaes Godinho between 1,000 and2,000 slaves
were exported from Mauritania and the Sahel in the period
1441-48.Establishing relations with Sudanese traders and later with
traders between Senegaland Cape Verde, these numbers increased
dramatically.
The period 1450-60, there were 800 and 1,000 exports annually
through Arguim.Exports through Argium for the period 14500-1505
were not less than 25,000or as high 40,000.Some 5,000 slaves were
estimated to have been exported from between Senagaland Sierra
Leone in the decade 14450-60 and the number doubled in thefollowing
decade.From 1480s 3,500 slaves were exported from the region
annually, with numbersdeclining in the 1490s.Estimate number of
slave exports from Africa prior to 1492 about 1,500 forcoastal
Sahara; 25,000 through Arguim; 55,000 for Senegal-Sierra Leoneand
2,00 for Elmira.Exports of 80,000 persons as slaves from areas
between the Saharan littoraland Kongo in the half century preceding
Columbus's landing in the Americas.
(CORNER TALK REPORT)......Butch LeakeFirst published Sunday
February 7 2010
