A History of Portuguese in Africa Earliest Portuguese Voyages to Africa South of Zanzibar, the Portuguese possession in Eastern Africa stretched from Cape Delgado to Delagoa or Maputo Bay (a distance of 2,200 kms), the Zambezi River cutting them almost into half and the Limpopo River also flowing through not far from the southern boundary. In addition to this domain, the Portuguese had possession of the Cape Verde Islands and a small possession on the Gulf of Guinea . At one time, in Morocco, the Portuguese managed to dominate a large part of the coast as far as Agadir and Saf. This conquest gave them control of some of the important gold and slave trade routes from Western Sudan through the Sahara and the Maghrib to the Mediterranean . The Europeans diverted part of this trade previously sent to the Muslim world to their benefit, thus reducing the amount of gold reaching the Maghrib. The Portuguese also had the province of Angola, just south of the Congo, running for 1,600 kms along the west coast. Although vast in extent, much of this territory was unhealthful, and of very little value in comparison to some of the areas held by the British and French. One would think the best of Africa ought to belong the Portuguese, for it was largely owing to their explorations that it first became became known to western world. Until about the time the discovery of America the only parts of Africa visited by Europeans were those along the Mediterranean. The Greek writer Herodotus had published a story of Phoenician ships which had sailed about Africa but this was considered a fiction, and no one willingly reconked that Africa was a great continent and that India could be reached by going around it. During the latter part of the 15 th Century, the goods of India and other parts of Asia were greatly desired by Europeans. They were in such demand that they were brought to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea by caravans and send thence by boat to European Ports. Such transportation was big-budget and it was thought that a cheaper way might be had by a sea passage. Columbus tried to find a new route by sailing westwards. He started in that direction and discovered America. At about the same time the Portuguese sailed southwards to find a way to India about Africa. One of their sea captains journeyed along the east coast to Sofala near Zanzibar. Even so, they did not know how far south Africa went and were not sure there was a passage to India about Africa but they surmised to find out. One man who was much interested in the quest was Prince Henry of Portugal, who recorded so many expeditions that he came to be known as Prince Henry the Navigator . He explored the northwestern coast of Africa and by the time of his death in 1460 had sent ships as far south as the Gulf of Guinea. A few years later Ciam, a Portuguese, reached the mouth of the Congo, and in 1487 another Portuguese Bartholomew Diaz went to southern tip of the continent and named it the Cape of Storms which was afterwards changed to the Cape of Good Hope. The next great voyage was made by Vasco da Gama in 1497, or five years after Columbus set out to discover America. By 1500, neither sub-Saharan Africa nor the Americas had been drawn into regular relationships with the rest of the world. Da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and made it to India. His trip created great excitement among navigators all over the western world and his route became a cheap ocean highway to Asia. To the Portuguese, who foremost developed the sea route round the Cape, and to the Dutch, English and French, who followed them round the Cape, it was a perilous dodgy navigational hazard. The mapping of Africa's coastline lessened its isolation, but the consistent lack of interest from Arab and European traders was rather slow. When Europeans did begin to interest themselves in the region, they acted vigorously. In the mid-1700s. The region as a whole was securely linked to Europe and Asia, although it was yet to resolve itself whether the Dutch (who held the Cape from 1652 to 1795) or the British (who seized the Cape in 1795) would be the primary agents. The Portuguese made many voyages and created a great trade with India. They set up trading posts: at the Cape at Sofala, a port at the Indian Ocean notable then for ivory and gold exports; at Mozambique; and in other places on the east and west coasts of the continent. Indeed, for a long time, they claimed that most of Africa was theirs. They warred with the Arabs trading along the Indian Ocean and added their conquest to Zanzibar, Mombasa and almost to the Gulf of Suez. Indian Ocean was sometimes spoken to as the great Portuguese Lake. Later on the Ducth and the English built up their trade with India and Asia. The Dutch drove the Portuguese away from the Cape of Good Hope and they were in turn conquered by the British. So that the East Coast as far as Delagua Bay belonged to Great Britain. Mozambique would become the capital of Portugal East Africa. Voyages – Vasco Da Gama – Published by The Mariners' Museum and Park The Aims of Portugal in Africa The main aim of Portugal in the circumnavigation of Africa was commercial not imperial, to gain control of the oriental sources of wealth in India and Far East. "Over the 15th and the early 16th centuries Portugal established several trading posts on the West African coast and made the coastal population and its rulers participants in trade with Europe. In East Africa the Portuguese used different methods: they crushed the defences of Sofala, Mombasa and other coastal hubs, installed garrisons there and raised taxes for the king of Portugal. At the same time, they tried to take over the trade in gold, ivory and metals along the coast, its hinterland and India" – History of Africa (UNESCO). Their purpose in East Africa was the founding of a transit base for which they needed the cooperation of the existing Swahili states. They proposed to ensure this by imposing treaties. With the exception of Malindi and to a lesser degree Zanzibar the treaties were not honoured and a number of towns were sacked by the Portuguese as a result: Kilwa (1505), Mombasa (1505 and 1528), Zanzibar (1503 and 1509), Oja (1505) and Barawa (1505). Trade with Africa (at El Mina, at the mouth of the River Gambia, in Sierra Leone and in Sofala) and later in India, sped the development of Portugal's trader class that had still been relatively weak in the 15th century. Prior to the arrival of the Portuguese in East Africa, the Omani's took umpteen numbers of slaves as cargo to Oman where they were resold. The existence of a slave market in Oman is mentioned in the mid 10th century. The earliest known Swahili site is that of the 9th century town of Manda thought to be the effort of colonizers from overseas. "This, if correct, confirms a reference by Al-Masudi to Muslim immigrants to the coast in the 8th century A.D." Over the 12th century the focus of this coastwise immigration appears to have been Mogadishu, which became a place of consequence during the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, largely due to the opening up of the gold trade with Sofala. These immigrants are said to be of coastal customs as of Shirazi origin. Toward the end of the 13th century, Kilwa, under a new Shirazi dynasty, took over the control of the gold trade. The status of Mogadishu and Kilwa as major urban centres on the East African coast is confirmed by the eye-witness account of Ibn-Battuta who visited both towns around A.D. 1332. He cited Mogadishu as "endless" in size, where two hundred camels were slaughtered daily to provide for the population. It was a busy port of trade and visiting traders were housed in the residences of local port agents. He found Kilwa wealthy and its rulers pious. It used to conduct periodic raids against the tribal hinterland. Ibn Battuta's description is supplemented by some archaeological evidence which indicates thnt all along the coast were townships: Mogadishu, Barawa, Lamu, Pate, Malindi, Mombasa, Kilwa, Zanzibar and others, mostly independent of each other and living in more or less general harmony with the surrounding tribes. The fifteenth century has left us a large number of mosques and tombs, an indication that the process * of Islamization which probably began two centuries earlier was completed during this century. There is archaeological evidence for many small » settlements between the towns indicating an increase in population. The more important towns were in the region of Mombasa and Malindi, and what is now Lamu District. At the time of the arrival of the Portuguese, at the end of the century, Mombasa, a 17 place of little importance during Ibn-Battuta'a visit, appears to have become the main port of call on the Swahili coast. In most European countries, the period between 1450 to 1630 saw considerable economic, political and cultural expansion. The outreach overseas reached into vast territories bordering the Atlantic and even as far as the Pacific coastline During the sixteenth century the Swahili towns remained generally independant of Portugal's control and under the government of their traditional 18 Shirazi ruling families. However, due to Portugal's disruptive commercial policy, the sixteenth century was a period of decline. During the second half of the century a new oceanic power, Turkey, made two brief appearances on the Swahili coast and succeeded in inciting local revolts against the Portuguese. After defeating the Turks, the Portuguese decided to consolidate their power in Hast Africa by keeping a permanent garrison in order to ensure continued control on their dominions. The construction of Port Jesus of Mombasa began in 1593 to the designs of JSao Batista Cairato, an Italian architect in the employ of the Portuguese in India. It is a heavily fortified building with elaborate outworks, moats and salients to counter the effectiveness and accuracy of the new projectiles. Statue of Prince Henry the Navigator at Belgrave Square, London. The origin of the statue is unknown, as it was erected more than 50 years after the sculptor's death. Wikipedia says it was moulded in 1915. The small plaques attached to the sides of the statue read: (Front) Prince Henry the Navigator, 1394 – 1460; (On the right side of the plinth is a poem about Henry written by Pessoa) "God wills, man dreams, the work is born. God willed that the earth be one, That the sea not divide but unite it. Anointed by Him, you unveiled the foam, And the white crest went from island to continent, Like dawn to the world’s end, And suddenly the entire earth appeared, round, from out of the blue". – Fernando A. Pessoa In the first stage of expansion, the Portuguese rulers managed to monopolize the import of gold from Africa and, to a large extent, the slave trade or at least its indirect profits. In the mid-1 520s the Portuguese encountered their first difficulties in acquiring gold, even in the region ofEl Mina. It seems that they were by then already unable to supply enough goods in exchange and were facing competition from their European rivals who were better placed because they did not have to import the goods they supplied to the Africans. In addition, France, England and Holland were not yet burdened with an overdeveloped administration regulating overseas trade. Their traders had the wherewithal to buy greater quantities and sell more cheaply. The discovery and conquest of America turned Castile's attention away from Africa but this did no: happen with other European countries which were more economically advanced than Portugal and thus more of a threat.

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