Women along the Catumbela River, 1797: land ownership, agricultural production, labour and trade

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the multifaceted roles of women along the Catumbela River Basin, the “breadbasket” of Benguela, during a particular moment of its long agricultural history. It draws, first and foremost, upon an as yet unexploited census carried out along this river in 1797, which followed a short period of particularly high numbers of slaves being exported into the Atlantic world through Benguela. My contribution focuses on women in agricultural production, both as owners of rural estates and as free, freed or enslaved labourers, as well as in distributing agricultural produce via trade to the nearby urban market of Benguela, with its slightly less than 3200 permanent consumers. By capturing the various roles of women along the Catumbela River during a particular year, this paper highlights female agency within the context of a male-dominated world, expands our understanding of the development of agricultural properties, and adds to an ever-growing historiography that seeks to debunk simplistic and often anachronistic views of women in the African past.

RÉSUMÉ

Cet article explore les multiples rôles des femmes le long du bassin de la rivière Catumbela, le « grenier à blé » de la Province de Benguela, lors d’un moment particulier de sa longue histoire agricole. Il s’appuie avant tout sur un recensement encore inexploité, réalisé le long de cette rivière en 1797, qui a suivi une courte période d’exportation d’un nombre particulièrement élevé d’esclaves dans le monde atlantique via Benguela. Ma contribution se concentre sur les femmes engagées dans la production agricole - à la fois en tant que propriétaire de domaines ruraux et en tant que travailleuses libres, affranchies ou asservies - ainsi que dans la distribution de produits agricoles par le biais du commerce vers le marché urbain proche de Benguela, avec un nombre de consommateurs permanents s’élevant à un peu moins de 3200. En rapportant sur les différents rôles des femmes le long de la rivière Catumbela au cours d’une année donnée, cet article met l’accent sur la capacité à agir des femmes dans le contexte d’un monde dominé par les hommes, élargit notre compréhension du développement des propriétés agricoles, et complète une historiographie sans cesse croissante qui cherche à démystifier les perceptions simplistes et souvent anachroniques des femmes dans le passé africain.

KEYWORDS:

• Catumbela River
• Benguela
• women
• agriculture
• precolonial

MOTS-CLÉS:

• Rivière Catumbela
• Benguela
• femmes
• agriculture
• précolonial

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the “Women and Trade: Female Entrepreneurs in the African Coast” panels organized by Vanessa S. Oliveira for the Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, San Diego, 19–22 November 2015. My thanks to those participants who offered comments and critiques, as well as to the anonymous reviewers of this version.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. As pointed out sometime ago, these could be small, medium, and large scale agricultural proprieties devoted to polyculture: Venâncio (1996, 82–91 and 203).

2. Arquivo do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro (Rio de Janeiro) [hereinafter AIHGB], DL72,02.0, “Regimento dos Governadores da Capitania de Benguela,” 3 April 1796, article 25.

3. Arquivo Histórico Militar (Lisbon), 2-2-3, Document 14, Francisco Xavier Lopes, “Memoria e Descrição sobre Catumbela … 1846,” unpaginated [henceforth Xavier Lopes, “Memoria e Descrição sobre Catumbela … 1846”]. See also Bouët-Williaumez ([1848] 1978, 176).

4. AIHGB, DL32,02.07, “Relação de diligência do alferes Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa para [Alexandre José Botelho de Vasconcelos], governador de [Benguela], acerca da descrição do Sítio de Catumbela e as relações das casas dos moradores, libatas e cubatas,” 6 January 1798, 1: hereinafter “Relação de Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa.” For reasons of convenience, I have adopted the same orthography with respect to names as found in this late eighteenth-century document.

5. See, for example, the landholdings of the inheritors of Antonio Gomes Cabral, Sergeant-Major Manuel José Martins, and of the freed black female Juliana in “Relação de Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa,” 5, 23–24, and 33, respectively.

6. See the properties of Leandro Gomes Cabral, the freed black female Anna João, the black male Pinda, and Joaquim de Tal in “Relação de Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa,” 3, 4, 8, and 38, respectively.

7. On the unspecified nature of the flour in question, see Miller (1988, 20–22), Harms (1979, 113–116), Vansina (1997, 255–279) and Oliveira (2016c, 96–105). But see the discussion below.

8. See, for example, the rural estates of the unnamed parda widow of Captain Nuno Joaquim, as well as those of Joaquim José de Andrade and the freed black male Belchior in “Relação de Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa,” 12 and 16, respectively.

9. See, in particular, the multiple works of Curto and of Candido in the reference list.

10. “Relação de Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa,” 2–3.

11. Whether Joanna Ribeiro was a resident of Benguela is not currently known. She does not appear in the 1797 nominal census (Curto 2016). As it happens, the “Relação de Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa” provides the residence of but 25 of the women who owned agricultural estates along the Catumbela River: of these, only Catharina preta livre resided elsewhere, in Quilengues, some 250 kilometres away.

12. A total of eight black individuals of unspecified legal condition, “tres negros e cinco negras,” lived in the small hamlet of this enslaved woman: “Relação de Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa,” 33.

13. “Relação de Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa,” 6.

14. “Relação de Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa,” 26.

15. “Relação de Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa,” 33.

16. “Relação de Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa,” 29.

17. “Relação de Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa,” 27.

18. Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino [henceforth AHU], Angola, Cx. 64, Doc. 59, Antonio José Pimentel de Castro e Mesquita (governor of Benguela), 8 December 1781; Corrêa ([1782] 1937, I: 115–130); AHU, Angola, Cx. 131, Doc. 89, “Memória sobre o encanamento do Rio Quanza,” August 1816; Lacerda (1844, 191–192). See also Venâncio (1996, 55–93) and the studies by Oliveira referenced above.

19. The Huntington Library, Sir Richard Francis Burton Papers, Manuscripts, Ladislaus Magyar, RFB 93 (1) – Box 18, 38–41.

20. Boletim Official do Governo Geral da Provincia de Angola, No. 685, 13 November 1858, 3.

21. Plural for cazunguel, a local unit of measure equivalent to 13.8 dry litres (Miller 1988, 415–416 and 710).

22. “Relação de Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa,” 14 and 12, respectively.

23. It is noteworthy that these particular women are predominantly referred to as pretas and not as negras, a more pejorative term used to refer especially to the resident female workers, whether freed or enslaved.

24. “Relação de Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa,” 22, 19, 14, and 12, respectively; Arquivo do Bispado de Luanda, Benguela, Óbitos 1797–1831, unpaginated, entry of 17 March 1797.

25. “Relação de Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa,” 10, 26, 12, and 8, respectively.

26. “Relação de Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa,” 15, 35, and 19, respectively.

27. “Relação de Alexandre José Coelho de Sousa,” 18–19 and 2, respectively.

28. See also Xavier Lopes, “Memoria e Descrição sobre Catumbela … 1846.” This seems to have been the case since the early 1600s: see Felner (1933, 569).

29. See AIHGB, DL32,02.03, “A metada da Cid.e da parte do Norte: Rellação dos moradores q’existem na Cidade de São Felippe de Beng^a de ambos os sexos de brancos pretos, mulatos os seus Nomes empregos e estados a 28 de novembro de 1797,” fl. 26: henceforth “A metada da Cid.e da parte do Norte: Rellação dos moradores q’existem na Cidade de São Felippe de Beng^a.”

30. “A metada da Cid.e da parte do Norte: Rellação dos moradores q’existem na Cidade de São Felippe de Beng^a,” fl. 25v.

31. AHU, Cx. 89, Doc. 88, “Mappa Comparativo das Produções da Parochia de São Fellipe de Benguela … ” for 1798; Arquivo Nacional de Angola [henceforth ANA], Códice 441, fl. 124, “Mappa Comparativo das Produções da Parochia de São Fellipe de Benguela … ” for 1799.

32. AHU, Cx. 89, Doc. 88, “Mappa da Importação … na Parochia de São Fellipe de Benguela … ” for 1798; ANA, Códice 441, fls. 122v–123, “Mappa da Importação … na Parochia de São Fellipe de Benguela … ” for 1799. In Luanda and its hinterland, the weight of each saco was then between fifty and sixty kilograms: see Venâncio (1996, 205) and Freudenthal (2005, 387).

33. AHU, Cx. 91, Doc. 41. “Mappa da Cidade de Benguela, e suas proximas vizinhanças … 1798.”

34. On Luanda, see especially the work of Oliveira cited in the reference list.

35. ANA, Códice 4, fl. 108, letter of Manuel de Almeida e Vanconcelos, 3 March 1794.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

José C. Curto

José C. Curto is a professor of African history at York University, Toronto, Canada. A member of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and its Diasporas, York University, and Past-President of the Lusophone Studies Association, he specializes in the alcohol–slave trades in, the historical demography of, and slavery in Angola.