Abstract

AMARAL, Ana Rita. Um Portuense em África: Notes for a Biography of a Luso-African Archive. e-JPH [online]. 2022, vol.20, n.2, pp.47-67.  Epub Dec 31, 2022. ISSN 1645-6432.  https://doi.org/10.26300/7d6c-jg02.

This article draws on my ongoing research into the life and archive of A.F.F. da Silva Porto (1817-1890), a trader-traveler who lived in nineteenth-century West Central Africa. Comprising a series of volumes of notes and various other manuscripts, the archive is currently in two Portuguese institutions. By historicizing this archive, I unravel Silva Porto’s messy writing process and argue that the volumes known as his diaries correspond to distinct literary projects. I then problematize the classification practices related to the traders in Viye and argue that, as a Luso-African archive, it is a privileged observatory of the dynamics of migration and creolization associated with trade in the region.

Keywords : Silva Porto; trade; Luso-Africans; archive; Viye; Angola.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in English     · English ( pdf )