Portuguese and Other European Missionaries in Africa
A look at their linguistic production and attitudes (1415–1885)
This study looks at some of the works produced by Catholic missionaries in Africa from the pre-dawn of the Modern Era (Fall of Constantinople, 1453), in particular the Fall of Ceuta (1415), to the Berlin Conference (1884–1885). Particular emphasis will be placed on the linguistic production of a few Franciscan, Augustinian, Capuchin, Dominican, and/or Jesuit clerics, working under the aegis of the Portuguese Crown, who – with the invaluable help of native assistants, usually members of the clergy or closely affiliated with the Church – compiled the first grammars, word lists, glossaries, and dictionaries of the indigenous languages with which they worked and interacted on a daily basis. Their endeavour, though meritorious and not always free from preconceived ideas of the ‘other’, paved the way for future studies in the field.
References (69)
References
Abshire, David M. 1969a. “Early History, European Discovery, and Colonization”. Portuguese Africa: A handbook ed. by Abshire & Samuels, 29–59. London: Pall Mall Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Abshire, David M. 1969b. “From the Scramble for Africa to the ‘New State’”. Ibid., 60–90.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Álvares, Francisco. 1881. Narrative of the Portuguese Embassy to Abyssinia during the Years 1520–1527. Transl. and ed. by Lord Stanley of Alderley. New York: R. Franklin.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Álvares, Manuel S.J. 1632. Emmanuelis Alvari, e Societate Iesu, Grammatica, sive, Institutionum linguae Latinae ad usum studiosorum Societatis Iesu. Liber secundus. [s.l.: n.p.]![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Álvares, Manuel, A. Teixeira da Mota, Luís de Matos & P. E. H. Hair. 1990. Ethiopia Minor and a geographical account of the Province of Sierra Leone (c.1615). [Liverpool]: Dept. of History, University of Liverpool. <[URL]>.
Bal, Willy, ed. 1965. Description du Royaume de Congo et des Contrées Environmentes (par Filippo Pigafetta et Duarte Lopes – 1591). Louvain: Nauwelaerts.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Balandier, George. 1968. Daily Life in the Kingdom of the Kongo from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century. London: Allen & Unwin.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Baudet, Henry. 1965. Paradise on Earth: Some thoughts on European images of Non-European Man. New Haven: Yale University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Beazley, C. Raymond & Edgar Prestage, transl. and eds. 1896–1899. The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, written by Gomes Eannes de Azurara. 21 vols. London: Hakluyt Society.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Beckingham, C. F. & G. W. B. Huntingford, eds. 1961. The Prester John of the Indies: A True Relation of the Lands of the Prester John, Being the Narrative of the Portuguese Embassy to Ethiopia in 1520, Written by Father Francisco Álvares. 21 vols. London: Hakluyt Society.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Benoist, Joseph-Roger de. 2008. Histoire de l’Église catholique au Sénégal: Du milieu du XVe siècle à l’aube du troisième millénaire. Paris: Karthala.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bentley, W. Holman. 1965 [1900]. Pioneering on the Congo. 21 vols. New York: Johnson Reprints.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bitterli, Urs. 1989. “The System of Limited Contacts: The Portuguese in Africa and Asia”. Cultures in Conflict: Encounters between European and non-European cultures, 1492–1800. Transl. by Ritchie Robertson, 52–69. Stanford: Stanford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Boxer, Charles Ralph. 1969. Four Centuries of Portuguese Expansion, 1415–1825. Berkeley: University of California Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brásio, António, C. S. Sp., ed. 1952–1957. Monumenta Missionária Africana – África Ocidental. 111 vols. Lisbon: Agência Geral do Ultramar.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brusciotto, Giacinto. 1650. Doctrina Christiana ad profectum missionis totius regni Congi in quatror linguas per correlatiuas columnas distincta, et Eminentiss. ac Reverendiss. S.R.E. cardinalibus [i.e. Sac.?] Congregationis de Propaganda Fide exhibita, & dicata a F. Hyacintiio [i.e. Hyacintho] a Vetralla. Rome: Typis & sumptibus eiusdem Sac. Cogreg.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Butt-Thompson, Frederick William. 1926. Sierra Leone in History and Tradition. London: H. F. & G. Witherby.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chadwick, Hubert. 1901. Life of the Venerable Gonçalo da Silveira of the Society of Jesus, Pioneer Missionary and Proto-Martyr of South Africa. London: Manresa Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cocchia, Rocco (da Cesinale). 1867–1873. Storia delle missioni dei Cappuccini. 31 vols. Paris: P. Lethielleux.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Couto, Antonio do, Francisco Pacconio, and Antonius Maria da Monteprandone. 1661. Gentilis Angollae fidei mysteriis. Rome: typis S. Congreg. de propaganda fide.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Crone, G. R., ed. and transl. 1937. The Voyages of Cadamosto and Other Documents on Western Africa in the Second Half of the Fifteenth Century. London: Hakluyt Society.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cuvelier, Jean. 1946. L’ancien royaume de Congo. Bruges: Desclée de Brouwer.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dahlmann, Joseph. 1892. Die Sprachkunde und die Missionen: Ein Beitrag zur Charakteristik der ältern katholischen Missionsthätigkeit (1500–1800). Freiburg: Herder. [Translated into Italian by Giovanni Perciballi as Lo studio delle lingue e le missioni. Prato: Tip. Contrucci e Co., 1892.]![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Delgado, Ralph. 1948–1955. História de Angola. 41 vols. Benguela.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dias, Manuel Nunes. 1959–1960. Os campos de ouro do Monomotapa no século XVI. São Paulo: [s.n.]. Repr., 1993.)![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dias, Pedro, S.J. 1697. Arte da lingva de Angola, oeferecida a Virgem Senhora N. do Rosario, Mãy, & Senhora dos mesmos Pretos. Lisbon: Miguel Deslandes.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Documentos. 1962. Documentos sobre os Portugueses em Moçambique e na África Central, 1497–1840. 91 vols. Lisbon: National Archives of Rhodesia, Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos, National Archives of Zimbabwe, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Centro de Estudos de História e Cartografia Antiga do Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Groves, C. P. 1964 [1948]. The Planting of Christianity in Africa. 41 vols London: Lutterworth Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hall, Richard. 1971 [1969]. La scoperta dell’Africa. Transl. by Michele Lo Buono. Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heath, Elizabeth. 1999. “Kongo”. Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience ed. by Kwame Anthony Appiah & Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 000–000. New York: Basic Civitas Books.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Henkel, Willy. 1971–1976. “The Polyglot Printing-Office of the Congregation: The press apostolate as an important means for communicating the faith”. Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide Memoria Rerum: 350 Anni a servizio delle Missioni, 1622–1972 ed. by Josef Metzler, vol. I1, 335–350. Rome–Freiburg–Vienna: Herder.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Henkel, Willy, ed. 1977. Die Druckerei der Propaganda Fide: Eine Dokumentation. München & Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Henrion, Mathieu. 1847. Histoire générale des missions catholiques depuis le XIIIe siècle jusqu’à nos jours. 21 vols. Paris: Gaume Frères.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hergenröther, Joseph. 1902–1909. Joseph Kardinal Hergenröther’s Handbuch der allgemeinen Kirchengeschichte. 31 vols. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hildebrand, P. 1940. Le Martyr Georges de Geel et les débuts de la Mission du Congo, 1645–1652. Anvers: Archives des Capucins.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hutchinson, Margarite, transl. & ed. 1970 [1881]. A Report of the Kingdom of Congo and of the Surrounding Countries: Drawn out of the writings and discourses of the Portuguese Duarte Lopez by Filippo Pigafetta. London: Frank Cass.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jarric, Petrus, de. 1615. Thesaurus rerum Indicarum. 31 vols. Cologne: Sumptib. Petri Henningy.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Johnston, H. H. 1966 [1899]. A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races. New York: Cooper Square Publishers.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jonghe, Édouard de & Théophile Simar. 1919. Archives Congolaises. Vol. I1. Brussels: Vromant.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Labode, Modupe. 1999. “Christianity: Missionaries in Africa, important factor in religious, cultural, and political change into African societies”. Appiah & Gates, eds. 1999. 431–433.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lerbermann, Charles George, ed. 1913–1950. The Catholic Encyclopaedia. 181 vols. New York: Encyclopedia Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Levi, Joseph Abraham. 1999. “Padre Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi (1621–1678), nos Reinos do ‘Congo, Matamba et Angola’: Primeiros contactos europeus com a África”. Estudos Portugueses e Africanos 33/341,29–47.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lips, Julius E. 1937. The Savage Hits Back. New Haven: Yale University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Loveday, Arthur Frederic. 1960. Three Stages of History in Rhodesia: Bantu Invasion of Rhodesia and the History of Zimbabwe, Father Gonçalo da Silveira and the Monomotapas [and] Frederick Courtney Selous, the Greatest of Hunters. Cape Town: A. A. Balkema.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Luke, Harry C. 1969 [1925]. A Bibliography of Sierra Leone. New York: Negro Universities Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Maffei, Giovanni Pietro. 1806 [1589]. Le istorie delle Indie orientali. Ed. by Francesco Ser Donati Fiorentino. 31 vols. Milan: Società dei Classici Italiani.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Major, Richard Harris. 1877. The Discoveries of Prince Henry the Navigator and their Results. 2nd ed. London: Sampson Low.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Matos, Luís de. 1960–1973. Boletim Internacional de Bibliografia Luso-Brasileira. 141 vols. Lisbon.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Meynard, André-Marie. 1865. Missions Dominicaines dans l’Extrême-Orient. 21 vols. Paris: Librairie Poussielgue Frères.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Monclaro, Father. 1898–1903. “Account of the Journey made by Fathers of the Company of Jesus with Francisco Barreto in the Conquest of Monomotapa in the Year 1569”. Theal, ed. 1898–1903, vol. III1: 202–253.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Monumenta Missionaria Africana 1. (1342–1499). 1958.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Monumenta Missionaria Africana 1. (1471–1531). 1952.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mota, Avelino Teixeira da & P. E. H. Hair. 1989. Jesuit Documents on the Guinea of Cape Verde and the Cape Verde Islands, 1585–1617 in English Translation. Liverpool: Department of History, University of Liverpool.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Neill, Stephen. 1966. Colonialism and Christian Missions. New York: McGraw-Hill.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Paiva e Pona, A. P. & Gonçalo da Silveira. 1892. Dos primeiros trabalhos dos Portuguezes no Monomotapa: O Padre D. Gonçalo da Silveira, 1560: Memoria apresentada á 10.a sessão do Congresso Internacional dos Orientalistas por A. P. de Paiva e Pona. Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pigafetta, Filippo, ed. 1591. Relazione del Reame di Congo et delle circonvicine contrade tratta dalli scritti & ragionamenti di Odoardo Lopez, Portoghese, per Filippo Pigafetta, con disegni vari di geografia, di piante, d’habiti, d’animali, & altro […]. Rome: B. Grassi. [See Hutchinson 1970 [1881] for English translation.]![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pina, Rui de. 1950 [1792]. Crónica de El-Rey D. João II. Ed. by Alberto Martins de Carvalho. Coimbra: Atlântida.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Prestage, Edgar. 1963. “The Portuguese in South Africa”. South Africa, Rhodesia and the High Commission Territories ed. by Eric A. Walker (=
The Cambridge History of the British Empire, 8), 77–111. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Records of S. E. Africa. Printed for the Government of Cape Colony, vol. VII1.
Roma, Giovanni Francesco da. 1648. Breve Relatione della Missione dei Cappuccini al Congo o del successo de M. nel di C. Rome: Propaganda Fide.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide memoria rerum: 350 Anni a servizio delle Missioni, 1622–1972. Ed. by Josef Metzler. 51 vols. Rome-Freiburg-Vienna: Herder.
Santos, João dos, O.P. 1609. Ethiopia Oriental e varia historia de cousas notaveis do Oriente: Primeira Parte: Da Ethiopia Oriental, em que se da relacam dos Principaes Reynos desta larga Região, dos custumes, ritos, & abusos de seus habitadores, dos animaes, bichos, & feras. Evora: S. Domingos de Evora.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schmidlin, Joseph. 1933. Catholic Mission History. Ed. by Matthias Braun. Techny, Ill.: Mission P. S.V.D.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Theal, George McCall, ed. 1898–1903. Records of South-East Africa. 91 vols. [Cape Town]: Government of the Cape Colony.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Theal, George McCall, ed. 1907–1910. History and Ethnography of South Africa before 1795. 21 vols. London: S. Sonnenschein.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Theal, George McCall. 1927. The Portuguese in South Africa from 1505 to 1795. London: Allen.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wing, Joseph Van. 1921–1928. Études Bakongo. 21 vols. Brussels: Goemaere.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wright, Louis B. 1970. Gold, Glory, and the Gospel: The adventurous lives and times of the Renaissance explorers. New York: Atheneum.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft 111 (1921).![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (3)
Cited by three other publications
Konwest, Elizabeth, Stacie M. King & Ricardo Higelin Ponce de León
2020.
Conexiones Globales y Locales en Entierros Coloniales en Nejapa, Oaxaca.
Anales de Antropología 54:1
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 february 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.