Portugal and Africa

The late-medieval Portuguese who arrived in Africa were colonizers in the roman style, gold merchants on an imperial scale, conquistadores in the Hispanic tradition. Although their empire struggled to survive centuries of Dutch and English competition, it revived in the twentieth century on a tide of white migration. Settlers, however, brought racial conflict as well as economic modernisation and the Portuguese colonies went through spasms of violence which resembled those of Algeria and South Africa. Liberation eventually came but the peoples of the old colonial cities clung tightly to their acquired traditions, eating Portuguese dishes, writing Portuguese poetry and studying in Portuguese universities.

DAVID BIRMINGHAM's career as an academic observer of Africa began in 1955 with a visit to the colonial 'Gold Coast' where he subsequently obtained a degree from the University of Ghana. In 1960 he studied Portuguese at the University of Coimbra in order to consult post-medieval, and later also modern archival records relating to the history of Africa. After teaching in several universities in western, central and eastern Africa, as well as at the School of Oriental and African Studies, the author went to Canterbury in 1980 to take up the post of Professor of Modern History at the University of Kent. Most of the dozen books he has published so far examine the interaction between the peoples of Africa and those of Europe both in the age of the great explorers and in the era of modern colonisation. His books have also explored the postcolonial legacy of empire in Africa, a theme which recurs in the present volume. He is the author of the Concise History of Portugal.