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Abstract
This article seeks to analyze the mission that the Luso-Brazilian Catholic priests Cipriano Pires Sardinha and Vicente Ferreira Pires made to the Dahomey, in the Bight of Benin, between 1796 and 1798. Both were appointed ambassadors of Portugal and sent by the Prince Regent Dom João to convert this African kingdom to Catholicism. It also was their mission to produce an account of the journey, describing the parts of the continent that they traveled. The study of this journey allows to discuss many aspects (on science, religion, ethnic, history of Africa, etc.), and it offers an interconnected history of Brazil, Africa, and Portugal. It also highlights how the scientific discourse in the report is constructed, and what sort of a vision of African culture emerged from these contacts.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful for financial support to CNPq (Productivity in Research 1A Fellow) and FAPEMIG (Researcher from Minas Gerais Program) and Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. I am also grateful to Flora Thomson-DeVeaux for translating this article into English and to Alberto da Costa e Silva, who kindly read my first reflections on the subject with perspicacity and provided a few observations. This study, born of his vibrant book on Xaxá, is dedicated to him, as he inspired it, albeit unknowingly.
Notes on contributor
Júnia Ferreira Furtado is a professor of Modern History at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais/Brazil. She has published extensively on Colonial Brazil and slavery. Among her publications are Chica da Silva: A Brazilian Slave of the Eighteenth Century, Cambridge University Press, 2009 (Original Brazilian edition: Honnor, Casa de lasAméricas 2004).
Notes
1. CitationVerger, Fluxo e Refluxo, 287–293; CitationCosta e Silva, Francisco Félix de Souza, 66–67; and CitationAraujo, “Images, Artefacts and Myths,” 180–202.
2. Parés, “Cartas do Daomé: Uma Introdução,” 299.
3. CitationVerger, Fluxo e Refluxo, 288.
4. For more on the embassy, see: Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (AHU). ManuscritosAvulsos da Bahia (MAB). Box 100, docs.19.560–19.572; box 107, docs.20.931–20936; box 147, docs.29.494-29.499.
5. Arquivos Nacionais da Torre doTombo (ANTT). Ministério dos Negócios Exteriores (MNE).Book 365.Passports, f.16.
6. CitationFurtado, “The Journey Home,” 149–173.
7. AHU.MAB.Doc.16.780.
8. On 9/22/1799, Father Antônio Pimenta said three Masses for his soul at the Brotherhood of Mercy in Tejuco village. Arquivo Eclesiástico da Arquidiocese de Diamantina (AEAD). Box 520, f.14v.
9. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé.
10. CitationLaw, “Dahomey and the Slave Trade,” 237–267; CitationLaw, “Ideologies of Royal Power,” 321–344; and CitationLaw, “Slave-raiders and Middlemen,” 45–68; CitationCosta e Silva, Um rio chamado Atlântico, 30–31.
11. CitationBrásio, Monumenta Missionaria Africana.
12. CitationVerger, Fluxo e Refluxo, 253; CitationCosta e Silva, “A memória histórica sobre os costumes particulares dos povos africanos, com relação privativa ao Reino da Guiné, e nele com respeito ao Rei de Daomé, de Luís Antônio de Oliveira Mendes,” 251–294.
13. “CitationBibliografia do Benin,” www.costadamina.ufba.br (accessed April 2012).
14. CitationLaw, “Religion, Trade and Politics on the ‘Slave Coast’,” 42–77.
15. CitationDalzel, The History of Dahomy.
16. Parés, “Cartas do Daomé: Uma Introdução,” 299.
17. CitationCosta e Silva, “O Brasil, a África e o Atlântico no século XIX,” 23.
18. CitationAlpern, Amazons of Black Sparta.
19. CitationPrado, O Brasil e o Colonialismo Europeu, 137; and CitationAraujo, “Dahomey, Portugal and Bahia,” 1–19.
20. CitationReis, Slave Rebellion in Brazil; and CitationFurtado, Chica da Silva, 30–39.
21. CitationAlencastro, O Trato dos Viventes.
22. CitationSubrahmanyam, “Connected Histories.”
23. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, XXXIV. In Portugal, persons of Jewish descent – having been forcibly converted to Catholicism under D. Manoel I – were labeled New Christians, as opposed to the Old Christians.
24. AEAD.Record of obituaries of the settlement of Tejuco.1752–1895. Box 350, f.27.
25. According to the Brazilian terms of the time, creole was a child of two African slaves, born in a Brazilian household; CitationBluteau, Dicionário da Lí-ngua Portuguesa, v.1, p.613.
26. AEAD.Record of obituaries of the settlement of Tejuco.1752–1895.Box 350, fl.70v–71v.
27. CitationVarazze, Legenda Áurea, 774–775.
28. CitationSchwartz, Slaves, Peasants, and Rebels, 137–160.
29. CitationFurtado, Chica da Silva, 45–52.
30. ANTT.Habilitações à Ordem de Cristo.Letter s, bundle 5, doc.5, f.4v.
31. Arquivo Eclesiástico da Arquidiocese de Mariana (AEAM). Record de genereetmoribus for CiprianoPiresSardinha. 1785, drawer 34.
32. CitationSoares, Devotos da Cor.
33. CitationCosta e Silva, Francisco Félix de Souza.
34. CitationSouza, Reis Negros no Brasil Escravista.
35. One sees the same behavior in the other ex-slaves, companions of Francisca Pires in captivity. The “Oliveira” in Chica da Silva de Oliveira is a reference to her companion, João Fernandes de Oliveira; and the “Gomes” in Maria Gomes refers to José Gomes Ferreira. See CitationFurtado, Chica da Silva, 52.
36. CitationVenâncio, Famílias Abandonadas.
37. ANTT.MCO. Consultations 038 (1738–1754), 039 (1768–1788), 040 (1786–1796), 041 (1786–1796), 058 (1779–1786).
38. Arquivo da Cúria da Bahia. Shelf 1, boxes, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Of the 165 qualified candidates thus examined between 1778 and 1826, only five were abandoned and four were given dispensations for illegitimacy, but none for color.
39. AEAM. Terms of Ordination 1749–1793. Of the 825 cases of ordinations for ecclesiastical careers in the Bishopric of Mariana, for a variety of ranks, between 1751 and 1780, all are legitimate, white children.
40. AHU.MAB. Box 100, doc.19.560.
41. AHU.MAB.Box 107, doc.20.931, f.1–1v.
42. AHU.MAB.Caixa 100, doc.19.560.
43. On his ecclesiastical career, see AEAM. Record de genere et moribus for Cipriano Pires Sardinha, 1785, Wardrobe 3, folder 408.
44. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 103.
46. CitationSchwartz, “Magistracy and Society in Colonial Brazil,” 724.
47. CitationRussell-Wood, “Relato de um CasoLuso-Brasileiro do SéculoDezessete,” 21.
48. “CitationEstudantes da Universidade de Coimbra nascidos no Brasil,” 272–280.
49. CitationTeixeira, Mecenato Pombalino e Poesia Neoclássica.
50. CitationMaxwell, Conflicts and Conspiracies.
51. CitationSimon, Scientific Expedition in the Portuguese Overseas Territories.
52. CitationTeixeira, Mecenato Pombalino e Poesia Neoclássica, 469.
53. From 1734 to 1777, the diamonds in the Diamond District were extracted by a private company that served as the contractor on the government monopoly – that's why the man heading up the private company was named diamond contractor. See CitationFurtado, Chica da Silva, 69–85.
54. CitationLobo, Os Colégios de Jesus, 99.
55. Real Academia de Ciências de Lisboa. Ms. 373, série Azul, f.244.
57. CitationMaxwell, Conflicts and Conspiracies.
58. ANTT.Real Mesa Censória.Box 161, f.1–4.
59. AHU. Portugal. Box 417. Dispatches from D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho, January 29, 1800. See CitationFurtado, Chica da Silva, 269–271.
60. CitationBödeker, “Academias,” 220–227.
61. CitationJacob, Living the Enlightenment; CitationChartier, “The man of letters,” 142–189; CitationPyenson, and Sheets-Pyenson, Servants of Nature; CitationPratt, Imperial Eyes; and CitationSafier, Measuring the New World.
62. CitationMartins, As Academias Literárias na Época Joanina; CitationPalma-Ferreira, Academias Literárias dos Séculos XVII e XVIII; and CitationMota, A Academia Real da História.
63. CitationSilva, Los Ilustrados de Nueva Grandada; CitationCañizares-Esguerra, How to Write the History of the New World; and CitationPolo, Las Huellas de la Razón; CitationOlarte, Remedios Para el Império.
64. CitationKantor, Esquecidos e Renascidos.
65. CitationFurtado, Oráculos da Geografiailuminista, 211–238.
66. Gazeta de Lisboa, Tuesday, February 1, 1780.
67. AHU. Portugal, bundle 26, doc.2722
68. AHU.MAMG.Box 140, doc.49.
69. CitationFurtado, “Enlightenment Science and Iconoclasm,” 189–212.
70. AHU.MAB. Box 100. Doc.19.562.
71. CitationVerger, Fluxo e Refluxo, 291.
72. AHU.MAB. Box 100, doc.19.562.
73. The original is preserved at the Biblioteca da Ajuda. Cota 51/IV/37.(SARAIVA, 1839, 157–158; and CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, XI.
74. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 12.
75. AHU.MAB. Box 100. Doc.19.562.
76. “These blacks often invited us to disembark, to go ashore to do good business, assuring us that they were not cannibals […]. However, as we knew that they were heathens, it was prudent not to disembark.” CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 11.
77. “These blacks often invited us to disembark, to go ashore to do good business, assuring us that they were not cannibals […]. However, as we knew that they were heathens, it was prudent not to disembark.” CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 12.
78. In the original Alborque: exchange, shady business.
79. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 10.
80. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 21.
81. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 33–34.
82. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 41.
83. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 53.
84. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 80.
85. CitationPriore and Venâncio, Ancestrais, 56.
86. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 8.
87. CitationVerger, Fluxo e Refluxo, 293.
88. CitationSouza, Reis Negros no Brasil Escravista.
89. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 37.
90. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 53.
91. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 20.
92. Priore and Venâncio, Ancestrais, 120.
93. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 40.
94. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 41–42.
95. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 14–15.
96. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 18.
97. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 12.
98. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 18.
99. CitationSouza, Reis Negros no Brasil Escravista.
100. CitationVerger, Fluxo e Refluxo, 291.
101. CitationParés, “Cartas do Daomé: Uma Introdução,” 342.
102. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 113.
103. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 8–9.
104. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 14.
105. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 67.
106. Catana – a sort of sword, dagger or sabre. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 105.
107. CitationLessa, Viagem de África em o Reino de Dahomé, 134–135.
108. CitationRaminelli, “Povos do Império,” 153–169.
109. CitationTeixeira, Mecenato Pombalino e Poesia Neoclássica, 278.
110. CitationTeixeira, Mecenato Pombalino e Poesia Neoclássica, 266–267.