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The Trade Revolution in Central Africa and Portuguese Imperialism

1.   Letter from Sobba (Ruler) Equique-of Viye or Bie.  Letter dated 18^th September 1886 addressed to the Portuguese “Ceffe of Catumbella)  showing the cordial relations between this African ruler and the Portuguese.

 “The caravan routes already are opened, and as for the question concerning the Soba (ruler), we have already made peace, and there is absolutely no obstacles…howevewr, I wish your excellency to send me a box of large envelopes for official correspondence, and three boxes of pens and five penholders, seeing that here I cannot obtain them. I hope that your excellency to remember me as a fried, and not to forget to write.

 I again say to your excellency to send to say to your government that they should send a priest here, in order to carry out baptisms, and to open a school for education…

 God protect you and guard your life and that of your people

 Dom sobba Ecuhique Elangarangongo Quipucu Caquianua Lonjilla

2 .Arquivo Historico Ultraarino, Maco A, 1885 Pasta 4, Confidential Letter from Governor Amaral [of Angola] to Minister of Colonies 15/5/1883—Here the Portuguese suspect that the American missionaries who were undertaking missionary work in Mbailundo had ulterior motives.  

“From the enclosed you will see that the American evangelical mission  continues

to employ all tactics to become dominant in the region, trying to see that our trade

suffers a blow that could become disastrous (fatal)..In view of these special circumstances I authorize the governor of Benguela to undertake the necessary precautions which would secure and guarantee our interests without, however, loosing sight of the idea that Portugal has to preserve its reputation as a hospitable

country, which opens its door to all nations, without excluding egoists, and with great tolerance which permits the exercise of all legitimate activities, attempting to allow modern processes of legal trade to dominate. 

After a Portuguese trader had convinced Equiqie that the Americans had come to take away his land, he expelled the missionaries, and gave the following  reason for the explusion.

 ‘”You treat me well enough but you don’t give my noblemen as you as you should.

You don’t give whisky, powder nor guns…your motives and customs are not in accordance with ours…” (As reported by missionary, May, 1884).

3.  Annie Fay, American missionary, writing in 1889 about the involvement of the Ovimbundu men in long distance trade and the impact of the trade.

      The chief occupation of the men is trading, and in this they manifest

     A great deal of shrewdness…a man will start off with two pieces of cloth

     Of 16 yards each…with which he buys a load of rubber of twenty pounds

     … after a rest, he trades this rubber for more cloth at the coast, and after

     one or two more trips in the interior, he has enough capital to buy a horn

     ivory and a slave to carry it to the coase.  He then makes double profit by

     selling the slave.  Or perhaps he may keep his for future use.

     (American Board Missions For Foreign Lands (ABCFM) Fay to

      Friends, 6 June 1889.

4.  Silva Porto, commenting on the changing economic and social position of

Lower status Ovimbundu during the period of the long distance caravan trade

Silva porto, Journal Vol. 11 1884-1885

 “Presently Bailundos and Bienos have now become traders, and thus they are only interested in their own transactions.  They do not care anything about the sertenejos (Portuguese/resident/merchant in the interior) to whom they owe

this position despite the many financial harm which they cause them.  Among the

new traders are some who were formerly our porters…and now we meet

them well dressed, in hat, trousers, and riding in tipoia, carried by their own

carriers like any European… (Sociedade de Geografia, 5A Sieri, 1885)

 “When they are pombeiros (caravan leaders)…they gain many advantages,

they leave the lower class for the nobility, they can have a great number of

wives, ransom kinsmen and followers, and by paying the soba (ruler) a sum

in the value of one slave, they can obtain an honorary title [such as macota,

sergeant or quinduras] being enabled to establish new villages, they become

indebted to the sertenejos (Portuguese inland traders) because, driven by

ambition, they credit fazendas (goods for trading), remaining always in

debt to those they serve.”  Silva Porto, Viagens e Apontamentos (Lisbon, 1942)

5.  Portuguese official writing in 1899 on the emergence of rubber as a mono-crop and the impact of this trade on the central Angolan environment.

“rubber trade increases, it appears because of the good price on the

local markets…wax trade has decreased because the native only thins

of rubber as it is more profitable, skins because of the extinction of

livestock owing to rinderpest [livestock disease], ivory because of the

extinction of the animal, not very numerous and pursued by hunters they

have now almost all gone to the Belgian zones.  The aguardent [local rum

trade] actually decreases, but it is easy for it to pick up and even increase

(Boletim Oficial –Official Bulletin-, 4 Februray 1899: 76-77)

5. Portuguese conquest of Bie in 1890 after Silva Porto’s suicide, and the penetration and slow conquest of other Ovimbundu polities, set the stage for the subordination of the Ovimbundu.  The following was written by a Portuguese official Fort at the new military fort that the Portuguese established in Bailundu 28/4/1897

Autos of submission made by some seculos (local rulers) and sobas (rulers of larger areas) of the region of Bailundo to the Portuguese

1. Come to the fort to find out orders of the government.
2. Furnish laborers when they are needed.  Their wages will be paid

according to the price set by the government.

3. Furnish food to the fort whenever it is needed for the value that the government set.