Luanda

When we think of the big cities in Atlantic history, we generally do not consider the importance of African cities like Luanda. According to the American Atlantic Slave Trade database, it is estimated that, between 1501 and 1866, almost 5.7

million slaves left Angola, mainly from the ports of its capital, Luanda. Luanda was, therefore, one of the largest source of slaves in the Atlantic world. 27

Luanda was founded by the Portuguese explorer Paulo Dias de Novais on 25 January 1576. Initially, the city was named “São Paulo da Assumpção de Loanda” (Saint Paul of the Assumption of Loanda). With the blessing of the Portuguese

King João (John) III, Novais led the immigration of one hundred Portuguese families and four hundred soldiers. In 1618, the Portuguese built the Fortress of São Pedro da Barra, and they subsequently built two more: Fortress of São Miguel (1634) and Fortress de São Francisco do Penedo (1766). Of these, the Fortress of São Miguel is the best preserved. 28

The city served as the center of slave trade to Brazil from circa 1550 to 1836. According to historian Roquinaldo Ferreira, the number of slaves

transported to Brazil grew as economic exploitation based on slave labour increased. Most of the slaves

sold to Brazil worked on the sugarcane plantations in the northeast, where Salvador is located (16th

17th centuries), in the mines of Minas Gerais in the southeast (17th-18th centuries), and on the coffee plantations in São Paulo in the southeast (19th

century). Ferreira contends that many slaves brought from the ports of Luanda to Brazil were forced to work in the construction of the main cities such as

Salvador (founded in 1549), Rio de Janeiro (founded in 1565), and São Paulo (founded in 1589). 29

Slaves traded in the ports of Luanda were mostly prisoners of war from African wars of empire. Groups like Mbundu (from northeast of Angola) and Imbangala ( from central Angola) met the demand of the Portuguese by bringing prisoners to Luanda, where slaves were seen as a bargaining chip for European goods. In the seventeenth century, the Imbangala became the main rivals of the Mbundu in supplying slaves to the Luanda market. In the 1750s, between 5,000 and 10,000 slaves were sold annually in Luanda. 30

Like many of Portuguese colonial cities, Luanda was built following the topography of the region. Similar to Salvador, the first city of the Portuguese crown in Brazil, Luanda was divided into two parts, “Upper Luanda” and “Lower Luanda.” In Lower Luanda one finds one of the most striking places on the Slavery Route: the seventeenth-century Igreja do Carmo (Carmo Church). Joseph Miller notes that even the church participated in the sale of slaves: “After the abandonment of the zimbo, an old currency, they started using a live currency - humans, [...] The Church has not escaped this movement. Here [in Carmo church] there was a

space for the sale of slaves. ”It was common

that, before the slaves were taken on the ships heading for the Americas, they were taken to the church of Carmo to be baptized and forced to confess the Catholic faith. 31

In the nineteenth century while still under Portuguese rule, Luanda experienced a major economic revolution. The slave trade was abolished in 1836, and in 1844, Angola’s ports were opened to foreign shipping. By 1850, Luanda had become one of the greatest and most developed Portuguese cities in the vast Portuguese Empire outside continental

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Portugal. It was full of trading companies that exported palm and peanut oil, wax, copal, timber, ivory,

cotton, coffee, and cocoa, among many other products. Maize, tobacco, dried meat, and cassava flour are also produced locally. The Angolan bourgeoisie was born by this time. 32

Today, Luanda is a city of eight million inhabitants, one third of Angola’s population. Itremains the main city in Angola. Contrary to what many people think, Luanda, like many African cities, has an economic and historical wealth that must be recognized, especially when we talk about significant places in Atlantic history.

ALAN DE OLIVEIRA MAIH STUDENT