Abstract
This review article aims to follow and present the common Portuguese and Cape stories chronologically as far as possible. The present research shows where the separate lines of events are reflected in the course of Cape and by extension South African history.
Firstly, attention is paid to the run-up to the voyages of discovery, and what events and views formed the basis and led to the flourishing of the Portuguese maritime industry. This industry developed over centuries from successive expeditions during which experience was gained of the oceans and seas in and around Europe, and important contributions were made by astronomers, navigators, mathematicians and cartographers.
The discovery of a sea route around the southern tip of Africa to India did not happen all at once, but was preceded by a series of events that flowed together into a fascinating story that began in the Middle Ages with the founding of the Order of the Templars. This was a military group established at the end of the 11th century during the Crusades. Because this formidable and profitable organisation, which was strongly supported especially in France, posed a perceived threat to the king and church there, it was violently persecuted in 1307 and seemingly perished, but re-emerged in 1318 in Portugal as the Order of Christ.
Portugal’s royal family and nobility, who were members of the Order, were looking for Christian kingdoms in Africa and the East to serve as a counterweight to Muslim invasion and takeover. This impetus initially led to the renewed flourishing of Portuguese seafaring activities, especially in the 15th century.
Prince Henry the Navigator (1394–1460) made a crucial contribution to the development of Portuguese maritime industry. He founded, among other things, the navigation school at Sagres where future navigators were best trained for their task. His greatest desire was to make contact with the Christian land of Prester John, which was said to be located in Ethiopia. He wanted to achieve this by sailing around Africa, as the shorter route was blocked by hostile Muslim forces.
Coupled with this was the search for an unthreatened sea route to the East, since distant India was said to also contain a bastion of fellow believers, including the Saint Thomas Christians. Portugal, however, saw a breakthrough to India as an ideal opportunity not only to spread the Christian faith there, but also to establish a trading empire that could bring great material benefit to the homeland.
Three Portuguese explorers, Diogo Cão, Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama, undertook pioneering voyages along the coast of Africa in search of such a sea route under official instructions. Each was expected to erect a stone cross where he went ashore, thereby claiming Portuguese ownership of that area. Although António de Saldanha and Francisco de Almeida did not discover the sea route around the Cape, both did set foot in Cape Bay and are therefore of interest for Cape history.
Diogo Cão reached Angola on his first voyage (1482–4) and on his return sailed 170 km up the Congo River to the Yellala Falls. On his second voyage (1484–6) he sailed south along the coast to Kruiskaap (close to present-day Swakopmund, Namibia) where he died. He erected four stone crosses along the coast.
During his only voyage (1487–8) Bartolomeu Dias sailed around Cape Point without realising it, went ashore on 3 February 1488 at Aguada de São Bras (present-day Mossel Bay) and then sailed to Santa Cruz (present-day Kwaaihoek, Eastern Cape) where he had to turn around at the insistence of his crew. On the return voyage, he erected three crosses.
Although honour also goes to the other navigators along the African coast, Dias is singled out for his enormous contribution to the discovery, naming and opening of Cabo de Boa Esperanza at the southern tip of Africa, as access to North and West Africa already existed. During his voyage, Dias also studied the prevailing winds in the South Atlantic Ocean, thereby indicating the best sea routes for future explorers. This enabled European cartographers to show the coastline of Africa much more faithfully on their maps, for example the Martellus map (c. 1489) and the Cantino planisphere (1502).
Dias established the first cultural connection between South Africa and Portugal, paving the way for the later presence of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) with a shared European and Western heritage at the Cape. Exactly 264 years after his epic voyage around the southern tip of Africa and 149 years after De Saldanha entered Cape Bay, the VOC established the Dutch settlement at the southern tip of Africa in 1652.
The third navigator was Vasco da Gama who, during his voyage of discovery (1497–8), also sailed around Cape Point, stopping at Angra de São Bras (Mossel Bay) as Dias did, and when he passed the coast of Pondoland he called the place Terro do Natal. On his unsuccessful search for Prester John he stopped at Kilimani and Malindi located on the northeast coast of Africa. He then sailed to India where he reached Calicut in May, met the Saint Thomas Christians and then began the return voyage. During his voyage he erected six stone crosses. After Vasco da Gama opened the sea route to India on behalf of Europe, the Portuguese expansion in the Indian Ocean was remarkable and the Portuguese became a major role-player in the East.
The Portuguese Atlantic slave trade had already begun between 1336 and 1341 when Portuguese traders brought the first Canarian slaves to Europe. In 1526, Portuguese sailors took the first shipload of African slaves to Brazil, thus establishing the triangular Atlantic slave trade route. Probably one of the most important mentions of a Portuguese ship during the VOC era at the Cape was that of a Portuguese slave ship that was hijacked from Angola en route to Brazil by the crew of the Dutch ship Amersfoort, resulting in the first group of much-needed slaves being brought to the Cape in 1658.
Portuguese place names assigned during the various voyages around the southern African coast are of particular place-name value locally and are still considered a linguistic enrichment of/in Afrikaans. The journals and maps by Dias and Da Gama contain a wealth of Portuguese place names and correspond to the usage in later VOC journals, in which a large number of place names also appear, mostly of Dutch, Portuguese or indigenous origin. Indigenous place names are alternated with names in Portuguese, which indicates the important naming influence that this language had on the land and sea maps of the past.
Over time, people of Portuguese origin, both descendants of progenitors Ferreira and De Oliveira as well as immigrants, made this southern country their home. They thus became part of South African society and played a role in the demographics of the country. In the 20th century, many Portuguese immigrated to South Africa from Madeira, Angola and Mozambique. In many South African cities and towns there are Portuguese communities who, although traditional, have adapted well to the local way of life.
In South Africa, Portugal and elsewhere, there are tangible examples of mutual recognition and respect between the two countries (statues and other artefacts). South Africa’s beautiful evidence of the original connection between Portugal and this country is laid out at the foot of the giant Padrão dos Descobrimentos (“Monument of the Discoveries”) in Lisbon: a giant marble work of art consisting of a 32-point compass rose with a map of all the routes and dates of the Portuguese sea voyages, which spanned almost the entire globe. The traditional Portuguese wave pattern frames the map and compass rose as decoration.
The initial Templar quest for and support of Christian kingdoms in Northeast Africa and the East by the Portuguese unwittingly laid the foundation for the future establishment and development of a Christian kingdom at the southern tip of Africa. After 370 years of spiritual ministering, the 2022 census shows that approximately 85% of the South African population consider themselves Christians.
Finally, it is stated that the present research relies heavily on primary source content cited from transcriptions of 17th and 18th century VOC documents in the Western Cape Archives and Records Service (Cape Town), as well as the National Archives of the Netherlands (The Hague), as once inaccessible information is now available for research purposes. Published sources as well as map material on the various topics are supplemented by sources on electronic platforms. The illustrations serve as clarification and reinforcement of the relevant text. Because verification of data is important, care was taken to consult more than one source on the same topic where possible to confirm, question or disagree with historical data.
Keywords: Christian communities in Africa and the East; Christian Orders in Europe; demography; mutual tributes; Portuguese explorers along the African coast; Portuguese maritime history and role-players; Portuguese placenames; Portuguese shipwrecks along the Southern African coast; stone crosses on land; transcribed Cape archival content; VOC period
- This article’s featured image is in the public domain and was obtained from Wikimedia Commons.