Madeirans in Angola
Original title: Madeirenses em Angola
Describes the Madeiran settler colony founded on the Huíla plateau and at Lubango (later Sá da Bandeira), Angola, from 1884, quoting a 1940 speech by Dr Leandro de Mendonça. It records the arrival of 1,281 Madeiran emigrants between 1884 and 1890.
The Madeiran colony in Huíla
Despite its great importance, we have no detailed account of the colony formed by Madeirans at Lubango and on the Huíla plateau. We therefore confine ourselves to transcribing the interesting information given by Dr Leandro de Mendonça, a son of Madeira, in the speech he delivered in Sá da Bandeira at the end of 1940, when a commemorative pillar (padrão) marking the arrival of the first Madeirans in those African lands was unveiled there. After paying the highest tribute to the sons of this island for their upright habits, love of work and remarkable aptitude for colonisation, he said the following:
The first Madeirans destined for the colonisation of the Huíla plateau, 222 individuals of both sexes, left Funchal aboard the warship “India” on 13 October 1884 and arrived at Moçâmedes on 18 November of that same year. As the lack of means of transport did not allow all the colonists to travel up to the Plateau at the same time, they were divided into two groups. The first reached the village (lugar, settlement rank below a town) of Barracões on 25 December 1884 and the second on 18 January of the following year, as stated in the Reports of the Director of the Colony, Dom José da Câmara Leme. On 19 January of that same year the Colony was officially established. Six months later a further 349 colonists arrived, who had embarked at Funchal on the steam warship “Africa”. Of these 349 emigrants, 44 joined some families from Humpata and, moving to the valley of Chimpumpunhime, founded the Colony of São Pedro da Chibia there. For two years, until the settlement of these two colonies was complete, the flow of emigrants ceased, resuming in 1888, the year in which a further 10 colonists settled in Huíla. In the following years, 1889 and 1890, another 704 emigrants came, making a total of 1,281 Madeirans.','cells text text_placeholder_ignore':'
It is to this handful of emigrants, little more than a thousand men, women and children, who left Madeira of their own free will, that we owe the transformation of the virgin forest that Lubango once was into the most fertile and progressive city of Sá da Bandeira.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 05-
The first 222 Madeiran colonists left Funchal for Angola aboard the warship Índia.
-
The first Madeiran colonists arrived at Moçâmedes, Angola.
-
The first group of Madeiran settlers in Angola reached Barracões.
-
The Huíla colony of Madeiran settlers in Angola was officially established.
-
Madeiran emigration to Angola resumed, with ten more colonists settling in Huíla.
-
Madeiran emigration to Angola and Lourenço Marques continued, with 1,338 departures; a further 704 settlers reached Moçâmedes, bringing Madeirans there to 1,281.
-
At the end of 1940 a monument commemorating the first Madeiran settlers was unveiled at Sá da Bandeira, Angola.
Place
Places mentioned · 09
Abroad
- Barracões
Angola. Place on the plateau reached by the first group of settlers.
Place on the plateau reached by the first group of settlers.
- Chimpumpunhime
Angola. Valley where the colony of São Pedro da Chibia was founded.
Valley where the colony of São Pedro da Chibia was founded.
- Funchal
Port from which the emigrants sailed.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Huíla
Angola. Angolan plateau settled by Madeiran colonists from 1884.
Angolan plateau settled by Madeiran colonists from 1884.
- Humpata
Angola. Locality whose families joined 44 Madeiran emigrants.
Locality whose families joined 44 Madeiran emigrants.
- Lubango
Angola. Site of the Madeiran colony, which later became the city of Sá da Bandeira.
Site of the Madeiran colony, which later became the city of Sá da Bandeira.
- Moçâmedes
Angola. Angolan port where the first settlers landed on 18 November 1884.
Moçâmedes is an Angolan port where the first Madeiran settlers landed on 18 November 1884 and where a flourishing Madeiran colony developed. Salt was made there in concrete-lined reservoirs.
- Sá da Bandeira
Angola. City where the commemorative monument was unveiled in 1940.
City where the commemorative monument was unveiled in 1940.
- São Pedro da Chibia
Angola. Second colony, founded by Madeiran emigrants.
Second colony, founded by Madeiran emigrants.
People
People mentioned · 02- D. Jorge da Câmara Leme1807–1889
Director of the Huíla colony, whose reports record the settlers' arrival dates in 1884–85.
-
Madeiran-born doctor whose 1940 speech at Sá da Bandeira, given at the unveiling of a monument to the first Madeiran settlers, is quoted in this entry.