This presentation will discuss the results of a biographical survey I am developing of the African traders and rulers mentioned by A.F.F. da Silva Porto in the accounts of his nine journeys to the Upper Zambezi from 1847 to 1884. These accounts are part of a series of manuscript volumes in which the itinerant trader provides a detailed narrative of his life and trading journeys in the region of the interior of Benguela from his arrival at the Viye trading post in 1840 until his death in 1890. This archive is a rich source for exploring the dynamics of trade and the actions of African political authorities in a region that was linked to, but not directly controlled by, the Portuguese colonial authorities on the coast, during the decades preceding the Scramble for Africa. While the trade networks operating in this region were shaped by Atlantic and global economic dynamics, the further inland they extended, the more they were controlled by African agents, including traders and rulers. The survey is a contribution to our understanding of these agents, aiming not only to produce short biographies and reconstruct the networks linking these African rulers and traders, but also to challenge Eurocentric interpretations of Silva Porto’s records. By highlighting the role of African individuals in shaping the region’s political, social, and economic landscape of the region, this research sheds light on the contingent and negotiated nature of trade and early colonial encounters.

We examine the circulatory dynamics of 19th-century Portuguese expeditions in Angola, emphasizing the movement of peoples, objects, and knowledge. By analysing the expeditions of Friedrich Welwitsch, Henrique de Carvalho, Capelo and Ivens, we underscore the collaborative and transcultural nature of fieldwork. The success of these expeditions relied on complex networks of local agents, including guides, porters, hunters, and translators, who played indispensable roles. Their expertise in navigation, negotiation, and resource acquisition enabled explorers access to remote regions, ensured safe passage, and mediated interactions with local communities. Aside from people, objects such as botanical, zoological, and geological specimens circulated from Angola to European scientific institutions, embodying local knowledge about nature and its uses. These artifacts, considered part of European heritage, are now at the heart of debates surrounding repatriation. Knowledge circulation was equally dynamic, depending on the interactions between European explorers and African communities. Local agents contributed critical knowledge about landscapes, flora, and fauna, shaping how environments were experienced and comprehended by travellers. This interconnected movement of people, objects, and knowledge reveals the deeply collaborative nature of these expeditions, in which the contributions of local agents were fundamental to colonial scientific knowledge and European cultural heritage. By focusing on the sociability of fieldwork and the role of local agents, this study aligns with recent historiographical trends that frame 19th-century expeditions as collaborative enterprises essential to colonial knowledge production, highlighting the agency of African agents in the construction of knowledge and the formation of scientific collections. KNOW.AFRICA (ref. FCT - 2022.01599.PTDC)

Dr Anderson Antunes

In the literature on the Scramble for Africa, the Berlin Conference of 1884–85 is presented as essentially initiating a scramble that would transform the political structure of Africa in the following decades. Such focus on negotiations that took place in Europe derive from top-down approaches to colonial history. In this communication I argue that these approaches provide an incomplete understanding of the Scramble by not including the ways in which scientific and diplomatic actions of imperial agents on African ground shaped colonial expansion. The takeover of the Congo region in Africa, the problem that motivated the organization of the Berlin Conference, was propelled rather due to the actions of imperial agents on African ground, who performed informal diplomatic functions by engaging with African rulers and by trying to produce written documents that would transfer control of African lands to Europeans. This task was facilitated when imperial agents had first scientifically studied the poorly known geography of the territories in question. The documents produced, as well as the foundation of colonial stations on African ground, were crucial in later negotiations in Europe. Major events such as the Berlin Conference of 1884–85 can thus be seen rather as endpoints of colonial processes that began in Africa years before. In this communication, I compare the strategies of imperial agents who travelled to Africa and worked on behalf of France, the Belgian King Leopold II, and Portugal, and show how the different results they achieved influenced the negotiations during the Berlin Conference.