Portugal and Africa [Paperback]

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.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

'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 P?lissier, oh, and see whal£5