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CRONOLOGIA DA PRESENÇA DE POVOS AFRICANOS EM PORTUGAL

Pre History
Old Age
Middle Ages
Modern Age
Contemporary Age

DAM – DIGITAL AFRICAN MEMORY IN PORTUGAL

The Platform DAM – Digital African Memory in Portugal aims to research the history and influence of African presence in Portugal. By mapping and compiling disperse and concealed information on a set of public and private archives, DAM looks to historically accompany this absent presence, underlining its scientific, artistic, political, and socio-cultural contributions until today. And, as such, contributing to: i) memorialize historical processes, moments and places relevant for the history of African and black presence in Portugal; ii) encourage future research in various knowledge fields; iii) inform and amplify the scope of the tours held by Batoto Yetu Portugal in the spaces of memory of African and black presence in the country.

 

 

OUT OF AFRICA

The arrival of African populations is a constant in Portuguese history, first of all due to the proximity of the Iberian Peninsula to the north of the African continent through the Strait of Gibraltar – one of the first routes used by modern humans in migrating from Africa to Eurasia, that is estimated to have happened from the final stage of the Upper Paleolithic, about 45.000 years ago.[i] In Portugal, testimonies of the Paleolithic can be found today in the Côa Valley, with a set of rock engravings painted by then-black, blue-eyed populations. To be sure, recent debates have been pointing out for a pan-african theory of modern human development, arguing that the evolution of homo sapiens had been contemporary in the African continent – from Ethiopia to Congo, from Morocco to South Africa – to subsequently spread throughout the rest of the globe, via the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, Sicily, Gibraltar and the Sinai Peninsula,[ii] in a process that became known as Out of Africa.[iii] Groups formed by seventy to ninety people, comprised by wise men in good physical condition, warriors, hunters, women in their fertile period, children capable of long distance traveling, is the number predicted as sustainable to succeed while migrating in search of new places to live and chasing large herbivore herds.

If this presence has led indelible genetic traces in the Iberian Peninsula, the later trade relations or passage and permanency of black people from north Africa and the Middle east such as Phoenicians (VIII b.c.) and Iberos (VI b.c.), Egyptians once governed by the pharaoh Taharqa (25th Dynasty) and Carthaginian headed by general Anibal or yet the romanization of the Iberian Peninsula – which brought strong African influences as well as armies with a large African contingent – testify the weight of these peoples and civilizations in the political organization, institutional architecture, technology, habits and writing in the Iberian Peninsula.[iv] Furthermore, the several moorish caliphates composed by arab, amazigh and islamized persons from the west of Africa – from areas such as Senegambia, between the VII and XV centuries – brought countless important technologic, agricole, medical, social-cultural and linguistic changes and advances, which are translated into present days.

Yet, these contributions remain often invisibilized. Indeed, only after 1492 (the year signaling the expulsion of jewish and islamic elites and parts of its communities from the Iberian Peninsula and the arrival of Cristovao Colombo to north America) can we start finding more consistent information on the history of african presence in Portugal. This happens as the disembarkation of enslaved persons in Portugal – which started in Lagos, in 1444 – increases, raising the  number of enslaved and freed black populations in the country, and had a strong impact on the material and immaterial heritage (i.e., architecture, religiosity, music and dance, such as fado or fandango). While the exploitation of people’s lives was fundamental to the accumulation of wealth, black persons from diverse latitudes of the African continent would become a structuring element in the rural and urban living in Portuguese society. The African population in cities such as Braga or Lisbon rose to 10% across the fifteenth century.[v] If it is true that currently the absence of ethno-racial data collection makes it impossible to have an accurate portrait of the African and black population in Portugal, sociologists Pedro Abrantes and Cristina Roldão have estimated that, in 2019, people with nationality from African Portuguese-speaking Countries (PALOP) represented 0.9% of the Portuguese population.[vi] Yet, nowadays, we know that the African and black population is diverse in its origins and that its contributions stretch out to several areas and sectors, from the arts to knowledge production, medicine to  gastronomy, construction industry to agriculture, music to writing, sports to water conservation, among many others.

The Platform DAM aims to be a repository of the testimonies of this/these history/histories, Articulating with a set of initiatives promoted by Batoto Yetu since 1996 aimed at the valorization of African cultural, artistic, social and political heritage in Portugal, such as artistic research – namely in the fields of music and dance -, the publication of books, the promotion and realization of visits to the spaces of memory of the African and black presence in the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon and in the Sado Valley or, more recently,the placement of statues and plaques that add the African and black presence to the toponymy of the city of Lisbon. All this aims to inscribe and celebrate the history of the African and black presence in Portugal.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[i] Alcaraz‑Castaño, 2021.

[ii] Padilla-Iglesias, 2023.

[iii] Tattersall, 2009; Wilshaw, 2018.

[iv] Moreira, 2013.

[v] Henriques, 2008.

[vi] However, the authors point out the limitations of their approach since an important part of the black population with Portuguese or Brazilian nationality is not covered by this estimate as well as that not all people with PALOP nationality are black (cf. Abrantes and Roldão, 2019).

 

References

ABRANTES, P. e ROLDÃO, C. (2019). The (mis)education of African descendants in Portugal: towards vocational traps?. Portuguese Journal of Social Sciences 18 (1): 27-55.

ALCARAZ‑CASTAÑO, M. (2021). First modern human settlement recorded in the Iberian hinterland occurred during Heinrich Stadial 2 within harsh environmental conditions, Scientific Reports 11 (1): 1-25.

HENRIQUES, I.C. (2009). A Herança Africana em Portugal. CTT Correios Portugal. Lisbon.

MOREIRA, A. R. (2013). “Desorientalização”, mestiçagem e autoctonia. O discurso historiográfico moderno sobre a nação periférica. In M. C. da Silva, Castelos a Bombordo. Etnografias de Patrimónios Africanos e Memórias Portuguesas. Lisboa: Etnográfica Press, pp. XX.

PADILLA-IGLESIAS, C. (2023). Did Humanity Really Arise in One Place?

TATTERSALL, I. (2009). Human origins: Out of Africa, PNAS 106 (38): 16018 –16021.

WILSHAW, A. (2018). Out of Africa hypothesis, in Wenda Trevathan (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Biological Anthropology, pp. 1-7.








MEMÓRIAS RELACIONADAS

Prehistory

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PREHISTORY
2.58M BCE - 10.000 BCE | PALEOLITHIC

Out of Africa – hominization process and major climate changes; world of hunter-gatherers. Beginning of the settlement of the region. The main foci of human occupation coming from the African continent reached their peak between c. 200 000 BC and c. 30,000 BC Oct

10.300 BCE - 5.000 BCE | MESOLITHIC
Tagus Shell Middens

Mummified burial sites under shells, traditional West African mounds. The stature of these peoples was similar to that of the Twa (small stature) peoples of the Congo Basin.

A skeleton of an enslaved African from the modern age was found in Muge, who would have lived between the 17th and 18th centuries. Denoting some continuity of practice by enslaved African communities living in Portugal in the 17th and 18th centuries, preserving their values ​​and sociocultural identity. Seeking to maintain specific beliefs and traditions, since shells similar to those of Muge are used until today in West Africa.

12.000 BCE - 3.000 BCE - NEOLITHIC

Old Age

C
Old Age
3000 B.C. – C. 1800 B.C. | CHALCOLITHIC

Network of beaker villages: small settlement units, with family roots. Need to visualize the space from a great distance (control) and some type of fortification.

2000 B.C. UNTIL C. 800 B.C. | BRONZE AGE

Centralization of ancient settlements: emergence of centers of political-economic power, in height, dominant over the landscape and over other settlement nuclei. Indigenous elites who will be the interlocutors with the Phoenicians African people from North Africa (probably arrived in the 9th century BC, judging by the dates in Almaraz).

1070 B.C. | TALINKA IS ELEVED

Bratrikus entered the south of the Iberian peninsula and built his capital in Talikha, close to present-day Seville.

878 B.C. | Phoenicians

Phoenician peoples of North African origins prior to Arab colonialism, founded Carthage. Over the next few hundred years waves of Phoenician and Western Phoenician (Carthaginian) trade arrive in Olisipo.

750 B.C. At 138 B.C. | OLISIPO

The settlement, later known as Olisipo (-ipo means «place on a height», in the Turdula language of the south of the peninsula), appears on the Castelo hill and next to the riverfront.

700 to 646 B.C. | PRESENCE OF PHARAOH TAHARKA IN THE IBERIAN PENINSULA

Presence in the Iberian Peninsula of the general Kemetian (ancient Egypt) Taharka (tarraca in Latin) later becomes pharaoh by resignation of his uncle. Last Nubian king who ruled Egypt. Taharqa, was the son of Piye and took the throne in 690 BC, after the death of his uncle Shabaka. He distinguished himself as a warrior and military leader even before he became pharaoh. Current presence of the protective Egyptian eye on the fishing boats of Costa da Caparica, and of the scarab-shaped amulets found in archaeological excavations in the Sado valley and elsewhere in Iberia.

400 A.C
218 B.C. UNTIL 201 B.C. | PUNISH WARS

II Punic Wars. Punic Wars – War of Rome against the African peoples of North Africa – Carthaginians. Presence in Iberia of Hannibal, the African who asked the local people for help to fight against Rome with his armored elephants.

200 A.C.
100
200
300
409 | BARBARIAN INVASION

Invasion of the Roman Empire by the so-called barbarians. Vandals, Alans and Suebi head to the Iberian Peninsula.

468 | VISIGODS

The last Roman governor of the city of Olisipo, Lusidius, transfers power to the Swabian king. The city will have passed to the government of the Visigoths, shortly afterwards.

476 | END OF THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE

End of the Western Roman Empire.

500
600
711 | BEGINNING OF THE MUSLIM PRESENCE IN THE IBERIAN PENINSULA.

More Africanized dynasties were those of the Almoravids (1086) and Almohads (1145), in the middle between the two, as well as before and after them, there were independent and fractioned kingdoms, the «taifas», until the last days of al-Muslim kingdoms -Andalus in 1492;

Both during and outside the «more Africanized» governments, the Arabs (mainly Yemenis, Egyptians, Syrians) were in the majority, from a numerical point of view, compared to the Amazigh (Berbers) themselves; but there is already a presence of Berbers in the Peninsula (namely in the west) even before there was al-Andalus (before 711);

This was not an invasion (or an occupation), nor exactly an invitation, but a relatively non-belligerent conquest, sometimes favored by the elites, who in some cases were left with a certain amount of local power. That’s why it was quick, taking into account that the Visigoths were in a major crisis (economic, cultural, etc.) and the Muslims were in the dawn of the apogee of their civilization (soon they took with them knowledge, new institutions, greater possibilities of wealth, etc. ); moreover, the very Islamic institution of the dhimmah (pact of protection and coexistence), allowed peaceful coexistence between Jews, Christians and Muslims, facilitated the spread of Islamic power, migration continued over decades.

714 | MUSLIM CONQUEST OF OLISIPONA

Muslim conquest of Olisipona. The city gains a new name, Al – Ushbuna.

Middle Ages

C
Middle Ages
LATE 11TH CENTURY AND MID 12TH CENTURY
Almoravids and Almohad peoples Amazigh, (Berbers), Fulani and other North African converts to Islam, join the Muslims of the Iberian Peninsula to repel the Christian advance.
800
900
1000
1100
1147 | D. Afonso Henriques conquers Al-Ushbuna
Al-Ushbuna has a population of around 12,000. On October 25, 1147, King D. Afonso Henriques conquered the city from the Moors. As allies it has crusaders, coming from the north of Europe.
1170 | Charter to the freed Moors of Lisbon, by D. Afonso Henriques
1200
1300
1348 - Black Death

Black Death, introduced by sea and land, affected all the provinces of the kingdom, causing countless victims. It is assumed that between 1/3 to ½ of the population perished. In the following years, the pestilences were repeated, although with less impact. The sudden decrease in the number of inhabitants caused by disease, famine and war (and earthquakes) translated into problems of labor shortages, especially in urban centers. Artisans were sought out, which resulted in an increase in wages and the rural worker fleeing to the city, where they were paid better.

1391 | The anti-Jewish movement in Spain

The anti-Jewish movement in Spain led to the growth of the Jewish community in Portugal, many were considered black Jews. Hundreds of Jews emigrated from Spain to Portugal. They settled first in the cities closest to their entrance (on the coast for those who traveled by sea and those in the interior of the border for those who arrived by land) and gradually expanded their area of occupation.

1400
1415 | Beginning of Portuguese maritime expansion and wars of conquest

It began with the conquest of Ceuta from the Arab colonizing elite coming from the Arabian peninsula and the African peoples of Morocco already colonized by Islam.

1441 | Antão Gonçalves brings the first enslaved African peoples to Portugal

Antão Gonçalves brings the first enslaved African peoples to Portugal, from the north coast of Mauritania. Three years later, a group of people from the Algarve associated with a kind of temporary company armed six caravels and reached the coast of Mauritania and returned with 235 enslaved people.

Most of these enslaved people would be Amazigh peoples from North Africa (Berbers), but also peoples from West Africa and East Europe Slavic peoples (enslaved whites who gave rise to the term slave – slave during the Ottoman rule in the region of eastern Europe ) – Muslim slave ships brought together people of various origins. The shortage of labor led to the intensification of privateering and piracy, and the use of enslaved people for rural work. The rediscovery of the Canaries brought a new supply market. In the Treaty of Alcáçovas, Portugal recognized the Castilian sovereignty of the islands, abandoning any claim in the Treaty of Toledo, on March 6, 1480. The African peoples who inhabited the islands (Canary Guanches) were known in Portugal, although we do not have enslaved. With the arrival on the coast of Guinea (1441) the market expanded and specialized. The vast majority of these enslaved people were sold to Castile, Aragon and other European kingdoms. Only a part remained in the sugar plantations and in other agricultural and domestic services in Madeira and Portugal. Until 1475, thousands of enslaved people entered and remained in Portugal.

Modern Age

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Modern Age
1492 | ALHAMBRA DECREE

Entry into Portugal of Castilian Jews in large numbers. After the Alhambra decree, after the conquest of Granada from the last Caliph of Granada named Boabdil.

After this period, the number of people enslaved from the kingdoms of Senegambia, Congo, Benin, among other peoples of the African continent. Since this forced presence (until the end of the 18th century) or later “by force” (from colonialism from the end of the 19th century to 1974, and the globalization and migrations of our days), several African peoples have settled in the city of Lisbon.

1496 | EDICT OF EXPULSION OF JEWS AND MOORS FROM THE KINGDOM, BY D. MANUEL I

Edict of expulsion of Jews and Moors from the kingdom, by D. Manuel I. In Lisbon, the Moors with about 5 ha, must not have exceeded 500 souls in the 15th century. The number of Moors throughout the century decreased: some affected by disease and the plague, others emigrated to North Africa and Granada, or even through miscegenation, when they joined Christian society.

Unlike the Moorish communities, the Jewish ones increased both in number and in economic power. Maria José Ferro Tavares estimated the Jewish population at around 30,000 inhabitants. The miscegenation rate was very low – rejection came from the Jewish community itself and from the penalties for those who dared to maintain relations between elements of the Christian and Jewish communities. In Lisbon, there were three Jewish quarters and a housing nucleus (extinct in 1317, in Pedreira): Old or Great Jewry, New or Tercenas Jewry and Alfama Jewry.

1500 TO 1475 | HUNDREDS OR EVEN THOUSANDS OF FAMILIES MIGRATE TO MADEIRA OR THE AZORES

Hundreds or even thousands of families migrated to Madeira or the Azores, and in the following years they also migrated to other places beyond the sea, leaving records of the presence of black Portuguese in all these places. United States, Hawaii among others.

1536 TO 1821 | AFRICAN CULTURAL PRACTICES WERE IN THIS PERIOD QUITE PERSECUTED

African cultural practices were in this period quite persecuted and demonized, with the burning of people in the main places of judgment in the villages.

1600
1600
1701 TO 1800 - REPORTS FROM FOREIGNERS DESCRIBE THE VARIOUS SOCIAL GROUPS

In the reports of foreigners who visited Portugal, the various social groups are described in a generic way. Those of African origin drew attention. They circulated in the streets carrying to the river the waste and dirt produced in the houses, without toilets, or performing other discrediting tasks. As a result of miscegenation between white and black popular classes from Africa or Brazil, mixed-race people also stand out. Enslaved people or freedmen shared the day-to-day life of the white population. Blacks were also accused of witchcraft or sorcery by the Inquisition or served sentences in the galleys by
order of the civil courts.

1755, NOVEMBER 1ST | GREAT EARTHQUAKE

Lisbon had a population of around 250,000 inhabitants. The Moorish population of Lisbon migrates to the west of Portugal, calling itself the saloia region and taking their knowledge and experience in the business and in the production of animals and work in agriculture. His clothes maintained distinctive features that often included a waistcoat and cap. The Moors on the outskirts of Lisbon were formerly called Caloyos or Saloios, a name taken from the name of the prayer performed five times a day, which was called “cala”.

Contemporary Age

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Contemporary Age
1800
1821, FEBRUARY 16 | A BILL WAS INTRODUCED AUTHORIZING JEWS

As early as February 16, 1821, a bill was presented authorizing Jews (sometimes called Black Jews) and Moors to return to Portugal, with all the privileges and rights that medieval legislation had once guaranteed them. Portugal thus reopened itself to the return of the Jewish community. Return already started at the end of the 18th century. Coming from Gibraltar, Morocco and other regions, some families established residence on the Portuguese mainland and on the Islands. Several commercial firms started activity. Until 1851, hundreds of individuals justified the existence of their own synagogues and cemeteries.

1836 | ABOLITION OF SLAVERY OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN THE METROPOLIS

Abolition of slavery of African people in the metropolis

1869 | ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN ALL PORTUGUESE DOMAINS
1884 | BERLIN CONFERENCE

Berlin Conference and partition of Africa by European colonial powers. Conference initially conceived by Portugal following the proposal of the pink map and the annexation of territories by the British between Angola and Mozambique.

1890 TO 1914 – PORTUGUESE EMIGRATION TO AFRICA

Portuguese emigration to Africa was around 2000 emigrants per year and rarely represented 6% of the total. In this migration to Africa and South America were Portuguese of African origins born in Portugal.
The vast majority of emigrants – 59% of men and 87% of women were illiterate. They were looking for better living conditions and to save money to start a family; children of widows or foundlings, in desperate situations they managed to get a godfather to pay for their passage to Brazil; ruined farmers sought to escape proletarianization; poor boys, aspiring brides of superior status, ambitious men. The fascination of the prestige of the few Brazilians who returned rich, bought farms, built palaces, acquired commendations and distributed patacas to poor relatives, led the Portuguese to emigrate!
Many blacks found themselves in a situation of semi-slavery in the first half of the century. They lived mainly in Lisbon, Porto and Setúbal, cities where they worked in domestic services. Their number decreased and they were replaced by Galician labor in some regions such as the Mokambo neighborhood in the city of Lisbon. They also served as street whitewashers in houses or as bullfighters in the arenas.

1900
1939 to 1945 – World War II

Lisbon was the exit door of Europe at war. People of many nationalities such as British or Germans settled here and many Jews sought to obtain travel visas.

1960 to 1970 – Wave of Portuguese emigration

Wave of Portuguese emigration, motivated by the crisis in the agricultural sector, the inability of the economic sectors to absorb the rural population that abandoned the fields, political repression by the dictatorship and the escape from the colonial war. Coming of migrants or refugees from former African colonies.

1974, April 25th | Revolução dos Cravos

Carnation Revolution initiated by African leaders who wanted the independence of countries still under colonial rule. The very message/music at the beginning of the revolution in Portugal takes place in the area of the country with the greatest revolutionary spirit and the fight against labor or slave exploitation in the region with a strong African presence, which is the Sado Valley, and more specifically the city of Grandola, who is a brunette in the song due to her strong African ancestral presence. Peak in the next 10 years of African migrations in large numbers to Portugal.

1975 | Refugees from colonial wars, economic migrations
1980
1990
2000
2022 | Refugees and migrations

Refugees from civil wars, socio-economic migrations, migrations from other diasporas on the American continent (north, center and south)