The Creole Elite and the Rise of Angolan Proto-Nationalism, 1870–1920
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The Creole Elite and the Rise of Angolan Proto-Nationalism, 1870– ...

Chapter 1:  Cherished Myths
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The weight of tradition soaked the colonial discourse in imperial mysticism, and the Angolan case is no exception: after the loss of Brazil (1822), the most immediate and appealing justification for an effective extension of Portuguese control in Africa had mainly to do with the desire to relive a past era of splendour, through the creation of a Third Empire:

When Portugal ruled in the Far East, from the Arabian Gulf to the seas of China and Japan—as Phoenicians and Carthaginians did before—that was the time of our first Empire. Then, despite the loss of such a great power, we confronted our relative decay and, to our highest honour, colonised and dignified Brazil thanks to a real exploit of our social state: that was the second Portuguese Empire. Expanding all the manifestations of our nationality in the enormous province of Angola, penetrating even the most hidden corner of that wild land, we could inaugurate the third, and maybe last, Lusitanian Empire.4

As it was clear that military and economic competition with rival European colonial powers was out of the question, this imperial mysticism stressed that Portugal accomplished such a task by spreading its cultural influence, projecting its civilisation, and, most of all, diffusing its religion.

Catholic evangelisation or, to use Camões’ words, A Dilatação da Fé, started precisely in the motherland during the Reconquista and was later extended to new continents; its place in the history of Portuguese colonization, together with the vision of Portuguese expansion as a protracted universalistic and humanitarian mission under the sign of the Holy Cross, are the pillars of another powerful multisecular myth overlapping the effective conditions of the clergy both in Portugal and in its overseas dominions.

In 1881 the bishop of Angola and Congo sent to the minister of the Navy and Overseas Affairs a detailed report on the religious situation in the province, as a response to the minister’s refusal to finance some rehabilitation works for the Luanda cathedral. The minister’s advice was to appeal to the local community and its generosity: