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ABSTRACT
Luanda, the capital of Portuguese Angola, had a majority female population in the mid-nineteenth century. By 1850, the port town had experienced a “demographic explosion” reaching 12,565 individuals, 57% of whom were women. The foodstuffs that fed the population came from the interior and circulated via the baskets, stalls and shops of street vendors and shopkeepers. As in other Atlantic ports, women represented the majority of retail sellers in the Angolan capital, where they peddled on streets and in markets and owned shops. Drawing upon the documentation of the Municipal Council, this study examines experiences and strategies of women in retail sales in mid-nineteenth-century Luanda. Despite their importance in supplying the population of this urban landscape, retail sellers became a target of Portuguese policies aiming to sanitize overseas territories and “civilize” their inhabitants.
RÉSUMÉ
Luanda, la capitale de l’Angola portugais, avait une population majoritairement féminine au milieu du dix-neuvième siècle. En 1850, la ville portuaire avait connu une « explosion démographique », atteignant 12.565 personnes, dont 57 % de femmes. Les denrées alimentaires qui nourrissaient la population venaient de l’intérieur et circulaient via les paniers, les étals et les magasins des vendeurs de rue et des commerçants. De même que dans d’autres ports sur l’Atlantique, les femmes représentaient la majorité des vendeurs au détail dans la capitale angolaise, où elles colportaient dans les rues et sur les marchés et possédaient des magasins. En exploitant la documentation du conseil municipal, cette étude examine les expériences et les stratégies des femmes impliquées dans la vente au détail, dans le Luanda du dix-neuvième siècle. Malgré leur importance dans l’approvisionnement de la population de ce paysage urbain, les vendeurs au détail sont devenus une cible des politiques portugaises visant à assainir les territoires d’outre-mer et à « civiliser » leurs habitants.
Acknowledgment
I wish to thank CJAS reviewers as well as Mariana P. Candido, José C. Curto, and Franck Luce for their helpful comments. The research for this paper was supported by a Social Sciences and Research Humanities Council of Canada postdoctoral fellowship held at the University of Toronto between 2016 and 2018.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Secos e molhados commonly referred to the area of commerce composed of groceries and alcoholic beverages, respectively. However, there existed variations in the definition. Raimundo José da Cunha Matos, for example, noted that in Minas Gerais fazendas secas referred to goods of the apparel industry and fazendas molhadas to consumables (see Matos and José Citation1981, 237).
2. Eltis, David et al., “Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database,” Online Database, Citation2008, www.slavevoyages.org/.
3. See for example Arquivo Nacional de Angola (ANA), Luanda, Códice 2524, “Registo de Escravos.”
4. Bispado de Luanda (BL), “Livro de óbitos, Freguesia dos Remédios, 1851–52,” fl. 60.
5. For controversies regarding the numbers of whites residing in Luanda in 1850, see José C. Curto, Citation2014, “Whitening the ‘White’ Population: An Analysis of the 1850 censuses of Luanda.” In Em torno de Angola: narrativas, identidades e as conexões atlânticas, edited by Selma Pantoja and Estevam C. Thompson, 225–247. São Paulo: Intermeios.
6. See for example Biblioteca Municipal de Luanda (BML), Códice 42–43, “Termos de Correção.”
7. BML, Códice 044, “Registo de Ofícios Expedidos,” fl. 266 v.
8. BML, Códice 042–043, “Termos de Correção,” fl. 19. The real, or réis in the plural, was the currency in use throughout the Portuguese empire during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
9. BML, Códice 047, “Registo de Bandos e Editais da Câmara Municipal, 1838–1884,” fl. 4.
10. Ibid, fl. 5.
11. Ibid, fl. 7–7 v.
12. BML, Códice 025, “Regimento pelo qual se hão de governar os officiaes do Terreyro Público desta Cidade,” undated.
13. Exeque was the measurement typically used for grains in Angola. Each exeque was equivalent to 60 kilograms or about 132 pounds (Venâncio Citation1996, 56).
14. BML, Códice 055, “Registo de Entradas e Saídas do Milho,” 1850 a 1857, vol. 1 (in spite of the title, Vol. 1 actually refers to manioc flour), fl. 108–109.
15. Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (AHU), Secretaria de Estado da Marinha e Ultramar (SEMU), Direcção Geral do Ultramar (DGU), Angola, Correspondência dos Governadores, Segunda Secção, Cx.1105–110, Doc. 1107, “Apontamentos sobre a Administração Central das Colônias Portuguesas e Especialmente sobre o Governo e Administração de Angola por João de Roboredo, 1851,” fls. 16–16 v.
16. BML, Códice 041, “Registo de Entradas e Saídas de Feijão,” 1816–1817, fls. 68 v–69, 77 v–78, 81 v–82, 98 v–99.
17. BML, Códice 047, “Registo de Bandos e Editais,” fl. 69 v.
18. BML, Códice 030, “Termos de Fiança,” 1784–1787. The Vara and Covado were two principal measures in Portugal and its overseas territories. The vara was 5 palmos (or spans) and the covado 3. The palmo was 8 inches in Lisbon, or 8 ½ English inches (Kelly Citation1811, 246).
19. BML, Códice 042–043, “Termos de correção,” fls. 184, 211.
20. Arquivo Nacional de Angola (ANA), Códice 10,060, “Escritura de compra e venda,” fl. 94.
21. BML, Códice 024, “Registo de correspondência trocada entre o governo e o Senado,” fls. 39–40.
22. Ibid, fl. 39 v.
23. BML, Códice 025, “Regimento pelo qual se hão de governar os officiaes do Terreyro Público desta Cidade,” undated.
24. BML, Códice 024, “Registo de correspondência trocada entre o governo e o Senado,” fl. 192.
25. AHU, SEMU, DGU, Angola, Correspondência dos Governadores, Segunda Secção, Cx.1105–110, Doc. 1107, “Apontamentos sobre a Administração Central das Colônias Portuguesas e Especialmente sobre o Governo e Administração de Angola por João de Roboredo, 1851,” fl. 16.
26. Boletim Oficial do Governo Geral da Província de Angola (BOGGPA), n. 24, 21 February 1846, p. 2.
27. BML, Códice 042–043, “Termos de correção,” fl. 229.
28. Ibid.
29. BML, Códice 051, “Copiador de Ofícios Expedidos, 1848–1851,” fl. 104.
30. BML, Códice 038, “Registo das Condenações,” fl. 209.
31. BML, Códice 024, “Registo de correspondência trocada entre o governo e o Senado,” fl. 192.
32. BML, Códice 051, “Copiador de Ofícios Expedidos, 1848–1851,” fls. 127 v–128.
33. BOGGPA, n. 223, 5 January 1850, p. 1–2.
34. BML, Códice 066, “Copiador de ofícios recebidos,” fl. 56 v.
35. BML, Códice 067, “Registo de Editais,” fl. 14.
36. ANA, Luanda, Códice 2524, “Registo de Escravos,” fls. 17 v–20.
37. ANA, Luanda, Códice 2467, “Registo de Escravos,” fls. 179 v–181.
38. ANA, Luanda, Códice 2524, “Registo de Escravos”; ANA, Luanda, Códice 2845, “Registo de Escravos”; ANA, Luanda, Códice 3186, “Registo de Escravos”; ANA, Luanda, Códice 3254, “Registo de Escravos”; ANA, Luanda, Códice 2467, “Registro de Escravos”; ANA, Luanda, Códice 2862, “Registro de Escravos”; ANA, Luanda, Códice 2482, “Registro de Escravos.”
39. ANA, Luanda, Códice 2524, “Registo de Escravos,” 1867, fls. 68 v–70.
40. Ibid, fls. 108–110.
41. Ibid, fls. 19 v–20.
42. ANA, Luanda, Códice 2467, “Registro de Escravos,” fls. 105 v–106.
43. Ibid, fls. 18 v–20.
44. ANA, Luanda, Códice 2467, “Registro de Escravos,” fls. 65 v–66.
45. ANA, Luanda, Códice 2482, “Registro de Escravos,” fls. 247 v–248.
46. BOGGPA, n. 611, 13 June 1857, p. 3.
47. ANA, Luanda, Códice 2524, “Registo de Escravos,” fls. 20 v–21.
48. BML, Códice 067, “Registo de Editais,” fl. 35 v.
49. BOGGPA, n. 237, 13 April 1850, p. 3.
50. BOGGPA, n. 340, 3 April 1852, p. 4; BOGGPA, n. 241, 11 May 1850, p. 6.
51. BOGGPA, n. 283, 1 March 1851, p. 4.
52. BML, Códice 042–043, “Termos de correção,” fl. 203.
53. Ibid, fl. 211.
54. BML, Códice 038, “Registo das Condenações,” fl. 64.
55. BML, Códice 042–043, “Termos de correção,” fl. 195.
56. Ibid, fl. 201.
57. Ibid, fl. 225.
58. ANA, Luanda, Códice 2524, “Registo de Escravos,” fl. 65 v–66.
59. BML, Códice 038, “Registo das Condenações,” fl. 72.
60. BML, Códice 038, “Registo das Condenações,” fl. 189 v.
61. Ibid, fl. 189 v.
62. Ibid, fl. 203.
63. BML, Códice 038, “Registo das Condenações,” fl. 203 v.
64. BML, Códice 042–043, “Termos de correção,” fl. 211.
65. Ibid.
66. BOGGPA, n. 545, 7 March 1856, p. 2.
67. ANA, Luanda, Avulsos, Cx. 1192, “Relação das Licenças do Primeiro Semestre de 1866.”
68. ANA, Códice 3843, “Registro de Compra e Venda,” fl. 55.
69. ANA, Códice 3928, “Contrato de Arrendamento,” fl. 55.
70. ANA, Luanda, Avulsos, Cx. 1192, “Relação das Licenças do Primeiro Semestre de 1866.”
71. Lista Geral dos Officiaes e Empregados da Marinha e Ultramar (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional, 1850), 131.
72. ANA, Códice 3843, “Registro de Compra e Venda,” fl. 135; ANA, Códice 7741, “Registro de Compra e Venda,” fl. 55.
73. ANA, Luanda, Avulsos, Cx. 1192, “Relação das Licenças do Primeiro Semestre de 1866.”
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Vanessa S. Oliveira
Vanessa S. Oliveira is assistant professor of African History at the Royal Military College of Canada. She has published several articles and book chapters on women merchants, interracial marriage and slavery in Luanda. She is co-editor (with Paul E. Lovejoy) of Slavery, Memory and Citizenship (Trenton: Africa World Press, 2016). Her book Slave Trade and Abolition: Gender, Commerce and the Economic Transition in Luanda is under contract with the University of Wisconsin Press, scheduled to be published in December 2020. Dr. Oliveira has been a member of the Canadian Journal of African Studies editorial board since July 2019.