Portugal and Africa

by D. Birmingham

Overview

The late-medieval Portuguese who arrived in Africa were colonizers in the roman style, gold merchants on an imperial scale, conquistadores in the Hispanic tradition. Although their empire struggled to survive centuries of Dutch and English competition, it revived in the twentieth century on a tide of white migration. Settlers, however, brought racial conflict as well as economic modernisation and the Portuguese colonies went through spasms of violence which resembled those of Algeria and South Africa. Liberation eventually came but the peoples of the old colonial cities clung tightly to their acquired traditions, eating Portuguese dishes, writing Portuguese poetry and studying in Portuguese universities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312223199
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	05/17/1999
Edition description:	1999
Pages:	203
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.02(d)

About the Author

DAVID BIRMINGHAM's career as an academic observer of Africa began in 1955 with a visit to the colonial 'Gold Coast' where he subsequently obtained a degree from the University of Ghana. In 1960 he studied Portuguese at the University of Coimbra in order to consult post-medieval, and later also modern archival records relating to the history of Africa. After teaching in several universities in western, central and eastern Africa, as well as at the School of Oriental and African Studies, the author went to Canterbury in 1980 to take up the post of Professor of Modern History at the University of Kent. Most of the dozen books he has published so far examine the interaction between the peoples of Africa and those of Europe both in the age of the great explorers and in the era of modern colonisation. His books have also explored the postcolonial legacy of empire in Africa, a theme which recurs in the present volume. He is the author of the Concise History of Portugal.

Table of Contents

Preface Portugal's Impact on Africa Colonisers and the African Iron Age The Regimento da Mina Early African Trade in Angola Traditions, Migrations and Cannibalism Iberian Conquistadores and African Resisters Angola and the Church Joseph Miller's Way of Death The Coffee Barons of Cazengo Britain and the Ultimatum of 1890 Colonialism in Angola: Kinyama's Experience Youth and War in Angola The Twenty-Seventh of May Angola Revisited Black and White in Angolan Fiction Index

Editorial Reviews

'Since the 1960s David Birmingham has been one of the most perceptive observers of the unfolding story of Portuguese-speaking Africa...It is very appropriate, therefore, that in the year in which he officially retires this collection of essays should appear to mark the climax of a distinguished career...All these essays are written with an overriding preoccupation to communicate and to present complicated stories in a way that the reader can appreciate and assimilate...The reader of this collection will be taken on a nostalgic journey back through three decades of Afircan historiography and through the turbulent times that Angola has faced since 1961...One can almost hear future generations of history professors telling their students - read Miller, Hilton, Heimer and Pélissier, oh, and see what David Birmingham has to say on the subject.' - Malyn Newitt, African History

'Since the 1960s David Birmingham has been one of the most perceptive observers of the unfolding story of Portuguese-speaking Africa...little classics, intelligent, witty, informed and always enlightening.' - Malyn Newitt, Journal of African History

From the Publisher