This book is about Angolan literature and culture. It investigates
a segment of Angolan history and literature, with which even
Portuguese-speaking readers are generally not familiar. Its main
purpose is to define the features and the literary production of
the so-called 'creole elite', as well as its contribution to the
early manifestations of dissatisfaction towards colonial rule
patent during a period of renewed Portuguese commitment to its
African colonies, but also of unrealised ambitions, economic
crisis, and socio-political upheaval in Angola and in Portugal
itself. Nineteenth-century Angolan society was characterised by the
presence of a semi-urbanised commercial and administrative elite of
Portuguese-speaking creole families--white, black, some of mixed
race, some Catholic and others Protestant, some old established and
others cosmopolitan--who were based in the main coastal towns. As
well as their wealth, derived from the functions performed in the
colonial administrative, commercial and customs apparatus, their
European-influenced culture and habits clearly distinguished them
from the broad native population of black peasants and farm
workers. In order to expand its control over the region, Portugal
desperately needed the support of this kind of non-coloniser urban
elite, which was also used as an assimilating force, or better as a
source of dissemination of a relevant model of social behaviour.
Thus, until the 1850s great creole merchants and inland chiefs
dealt in captive slaves, bound for export to Brazil via Cape Verde
and Sao Tome: the tribal aristocracy and the creole bourgeoisie
thrived on the profits of overseas trade and lived in style,
consuming imported alcoholic beverages and wearing European
clothes. After the abolition, however, their social and economic
position was eroded by an influx of petty merchants and bureaucrats
from Portugal who wished to grasp the commercial and employment
opportunities created by a new and modern colonial order, anxious
to keep up with other European colonial powers engaged in the
partition of the African continent. This book thus considers the
first intellectuals, the early printed publications in the country,
and the pioneers of Angolan literature who felt the need to raise
their roots to higher dignity. Thus, they wrote grammar,
dictionaries, poetry, fiction, and of course, incendiary articles
denouncing exploitation, racism, and the different treatment
afforded by the colonial authorities to Portuguese expatriates and
natives.
General
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