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Endnotes
1. António de Oliveira de Cadornega, História Geral das Guerras Angolanas, vol. 1 (Lisbon: AGC, 1939), 21. Despite its imperfections, this huge account of the history of Angolan wars—written in 1680 by a retired captain—remains the most influential source about the first two centuries of Portuguese presence in western Africa. As reported by Cadornega himself, after the takeover of Luanda in 1641, the Dutch expeditionary force captured a Portuguese launch trying to seek refuge inland. Looking for gold and riches, the invaders found only sick and wounded settlers and the complete documentation relating to the history of the colony. Deeply disappointed, they killed all the passengers and “threw in the [Bengo] River the notary public’s registries, all the books and documents from the town hall…causing a great loss of information about the history of this Kingdom”. Cadornega, História Geral das Guerras Angolanas, 272.
2. História de Angola (Algiers: Centro Estudos Angolanos, 1965), 50.
3. Ibid., 75.
4. Kwata literally means “to catch”. The Kwata-Kwata wars, organised by the colonial authorities, were aimed at capturing native peasants and supplying slave manpower.
5. The male-female ratio among whites in Angola was around 2:1 in 1900, according to Gerald J. Bender, Angola under the Portuguese, the Myth and the Reality (London: Heineman, 1978), 52. However, in 1869 the Spiritan missionary Hippolyte Carrie was firmly convinced that the recently founded town of Moçâmedes would be the only salubrious spot on the coast and therefore the best place to start a new mission. Aiming to persuade his superiors about the harsh conditions affecting other Angolan towns, he supported his views by quoting the following extract: “White women, there are none. Nor could there be, for they would die for sure, especially if they were still of age to give birth. Until now, there is not a single case in which a white woman or child has survived after delivery”—see Lima, Ensaios sobre a Estatística das Possessões Portuguesas (Lisbon: n.p., 1846), 206, quoted by António Brásio in Spiritana Monumenta Historica Series Africana/Angola, vol. 2 (Louvain: Editions Nauwelaerts, 1968), 66.